Fisher Funds stand out

Monday, November 10th 2003, 12:38PM

It’s not often we go out and sing the praises of one particular fund manager over another, but….

A few things have happened over the past couple of weeks which have made Fisher Funds stand out. The company has just celebrated its fifth birthday, managing director Carmel Fisher gave an interesting presentation to the Conferenz funds management conference in Auckland on boutique fund managers, Fisher’s NZ equity fund once again took the top prize in the local shares category of the Fundsource fund manager of the year awards, and last week Money Managers was on the end of a major telling off from the Advertising Standards Complaints Board after Alan Anderson made some pretty ill-informed and misleading comments about Fisher and the fund on Radio Pacific. These comments just helped reinforce how well Fisher has done.

And they say things go in threes.

Fisher’s conference paper was interesting as it highlighted that while boutique fund managers are popping up all over the place in Australia there aren’t many here where the people who manage the money are also the ones who own and run the business – or have “skin in the game”.

A key point in her presentation, which comes through in overseas research, is that boutiques are in some ways the new kids on the block and in some instances “almost a return to the grass roots of funds management.”

One has to give credit to a firm like Fisher’s which started off very small and had just a trickle of funds flow for its first two years, but has now built up a successful business which has performed well and stuck to its philosophy through thick and thin.

Just to cap it off it’s great to see Fisher Funds can have a laugh. I can’t think of many other fund managers who would celebrate their fifth birthday party with a comedian called Len the Loser!

See stories:
Money Managers comments damage industry: ASCB
What makes a winner

In other news
The MFL and SIL property funds are going to be merged into the listed ING Property Trust (formerly Paramount Property Trust) To find out more about this move go to http://www.sharechat.co.nz/news/scnews/article.php/43fbf381

SuperTalk
For full coverage of the Government’s plans to reintroduce a workplace savings scheme for civil servants go to www.supertalk.co.nz

Insurance news
Harvest Partners paints a grim picture of the insurance industry
www.goodreturns.co.nz/article.php?ArticleID=976488873

Markets
Anthony Quirk at Guardian Trust Funds Management provides his take on where the markets are at, and where they may be going. His commentary this month focuses on China.
www.goodreturns.co.nz/article.php?ArticleID=976488856

Financial planning’s big night out
The annual Financial Planner of the Year Awards dinner will be held in Auckland on November 19.
This year there are two awards, the CFP of the Year and the inaugural Young Financial Planner of the Year.
To find out who are the finalists in each award and to book your seat at the dinner go to http://awards.goodreturns.co.nz/
The awards are sponsored by AMP, ING, Sovereign and Tower.

Quote of the week
“It’s for us to know and for everybody else to try and speculate on.”
NZ Superannuation Fund ceo Paul Costello gives little away on when the Cullen Fund will start investing.

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