[The Wrap] Feel good week; Celebrating success in financial services

Looking back over the past week there's a lot of good things to celebrate. Here's my wrap on the week that was.

Saturday, September 1st 2018, 12:00PM

One thing I liked this week was attending the FundSource Fund Manager of the Year awards, not just to catch up with people but also to celebrate success in our industry.

Sometimes it feels as though the industry gets more flak than it deserves. The awards are also a good showcase of how the funds management industry has changed over the years. There are far more boutique, or specialist firms offering funds into the adviser market, and the Australians certainly made their presence felt with names like Resolution Capital, Spheria Asset Management, APN Property and Bennelong Funds Management.

Another player to up its presence in New Zealand is Antipodes Partners. This week posted a video with the firm's deputy portfolio manager, Andrew Baud, where he talks markets, how they have made value investing work and some information on its new PIE funds.

If there was one concern about the awards it was how few women where at the event. I counted only three out of 50-60 people. What's happening here?

Talking PIE it's also interesting to see that PIE Funds Management has decided to set up an office in London. That's a reflection of its ambition to managing international equities and an acknowledgement that it's damn difficult to managing international equities from New Zealand.

Another success story worth highlighting this week is Booster's commitment to put at least $10 million into Victoria University's commercial development arm. The original story has been updated with new information as well as clarification about how this funding will work with its investment strategy.

Keeping with this upbeat theme Kiwibank's new chief executive Steve Jurkovich acknowledged that its wealth business was a highlight in its recently released annual results. While they don't do much with advisers it is well worth keeping an eye on the business as they are leaders in the roboadvice space in New Zealand.

While Kiwi Wealth was the first firm to get a robo licence from the FMA they were joined this week by Nikko Asset Management.

And to wrap up the week we have the first of one of the stories referred to last week. The old TOWER Financial Advisory Services business is making a comeback under the DNA Advice name...and Fred Dodds has returned to help the business. [READ ON]

Tags: Booster Fred Dodds FSCL FundSource Lifetime Nikko AM pie funds