Roundtables

Bringing unit registry into the 21st Century

| 08 February 2010 |12:34 PM

Australian investors in managed funds must put up with record keeping that is stuck in the Dark Ages. While a couple of unit registrars are genuinely interested in being the ‘scale player’, much of the market stagnates on the internal systems of funds managers, which struggle to reinvest in the latest technology, or on the registries of custodians which in some cases are unwilling providers of the service. Studies have suggested that the real cost of unit registry for every investor in every Australian managed fund is as much as $90 a year, stratospherically high compared to our peers. Turnaround times of three weeks on statement requests are industry standard. In December 2009, Conexus Financial (publisher of this magazine) and Computershare convened a roundtable to discuss how the unit registry process could be made more efficient. Overseas, transfer agency is typically a discrete, outsourced process, while in Australia it tends to live alongside the fund accounting and unit pricing functions. Is there a sound operational reason why this should be the case? Is the fragmentation and under-investment that’s rife in unit registry best solved by the emergence of true ‘scale players’, or by key stakeholders – perhaps a group of custodians – co-operating to build an industry utility which performs the most commoditised registry tasks? What role can initiatives such as SwiftNet and the ASX’s AQUA Rules for the quotation of ETFs and structured products play in enhancing efficiency? This roundtable discussed all of these questions, with a forum of pivotal players from the custodian, funds management and admin consulting worlds. The discussion aimed to produce a list of actionable steps towards giving Australian investors a better deal on their unit registry.

Toward an end-to-end process for handling mental health insurance claims

| 03 September 2009 |15:47 PM

Insurance claims for mental health- related illnesses are more complicated than those for physical injuries. Many of the problems relate to social attitudes toward those with psychiatric disorders. In this gathering of Industry Fund Forum members, legal and mental health experts, and group insurer CommInsure, an attempt is made to identify the extent of mental health-related claims – no easy feat – while steps being taken to improve the process between funds, administrators and insurers are outlined.

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Attachments:
CommInsure_Mental_Health_09.9.pdf	[ ]	253 Kb

Super funds man frontline in war on mental illness

| 03 July 2009 |12:55 PM

As Australia’s unemployment rate continues to climb, depression and, tragically, suicide, threaten to become larger social problems.

Our superannuation funds stand uniquely poised to help – they are in direct contact with most of Australia’s working population, and as providers of life, TPD and income protection insurance, they benefit on many levels from combating mental illness.

Last month, Investment & Technology brought together a roundtable of super fund executives to both share their experiences in this effort, and learn more about the tools available to them – in particular, the Industry Funds Forum initiative, SuperFriend.

The executives also had the chance to learn from two generals in the war on mental illness, from the National Advisory Council on Mental Health and Lifeline. Comminsure, whose pioneering work with SuperFriend you can also read about below, kindly sponsored the event.

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Attachments:
Comminsure_Roundtable_Superfunds_mental_health.pdf	[ ]	886 Kb

Group insurance technology: where it is and where it needs to be

| 05 May 2009 |15:17 PM

The economic downturn might have spurred a recent surge in new policies, but underinsurance remains a chronic problem in Australia.

It isn’t helped by the clunky application process still provided by many group insurance vendors. Too many super fund members are getting part of the way into purchasing cover before being deterred by lengthy forms and onerous medical evidence requirements.

So how can funds maximise their members’ opportunity to take out cover? Does every fund require online STP technology to deal with the problem? Will all members want to, and be able to, access this technology?

Or would it be better to enable tele-underwriting and case management, through member administrators, to simplify applications and claims?

Last month, CommInsure and Investment & Technology Magazine hosted a roundtable to find out how funds, insurers and administrators can overcome the roadblocks to better group cover.

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Out of the box: the future of quantitative funds management

| 01 May 2009 |00:00 AM

In 1978, so the story goes, the world’s first investment product reflecting a quantitative model was launched in the US by the former Wells Fargo investment division.

It was a simple strategy which tilted the portfolio towards stocks that paid higher dividends. Since then quantitative investment strategies have come a long way, with both the number of quantitative managers and other institutions mushrooming along with the number and variety of strategies employed.

In fact, recent criticism of the likely future effectiveness of quantitative strategies tends to centre on their popularity. Some commentators believe that the weight of money making similar bets when the world first felt the tremor of financial crisis in August 2007 contributed to the underperformance of quantitative managers.

Recovered ground by those managers since has dampened the debate and the search for new and better strategies has intensified, as has the development of better risk management techniques.

This is an edited transcript from a roundtable in Melbourne, sponsored by BNY Mellon Asset Management and its affiliate Ankura Capital, which looked at quantitative investments from the point of view of institutional investors and their advisers.

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The Superannuation Guarantee: should it be used as a tool of economic policy?

| 01 April 2009 |00:00 AM

On March 5, Investment & Technologyand investment administration softwareprovider, SimCorp, held a roundtablediscussion on last November’s “economists’open letter” to the Rudd Government.

Signed by eight of Australia’s leading economicminds, the letter advocated a shorttermreduction in the superannuationguarantee to 6 per cent, and a relaxing ofsuper access rules, as an economic stimulusduring this financial crisis.

The letter went on to advocate a gradual increase in theSG as Australia’s economy recovered, to aproposed 12 per cent by 2015.

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Managing counterparty risk and transitions in a time of uncertainty

| 01 April 2009 |00:00 AM

March seems to be the month where super funds are expected to resume hiring and firing their funds managers and other service providers in earnest. What are the warning signals that should lead to those decisions being made?

And how to best proceed with any transition when market volatility is around record highs?

Last month, Investment & Technology and J.P Morgan brought together a group of operations specialists from the superannuation and multi-manager worlds, as well as consultants and an exchange-traded fund expert, to discuss the best advice they would give to their trustee colleagues.

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Roundtables

Bringing unit registry into the 21st Century

Toward an end-to-end process for handling mental health insurance claims

Super funds man frontline in war on mental illness

Group insurance technology: where it is and where it needs to be

Out of the box: the future of quantitative funds management

The Superannuation Guarantee: should it be used as a tool of economic policy?

Managing counterparty risk and transitions in a time of uncertainty

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