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29 March 2026
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It's important to demand the highest standards from firms that are entrusted with managing other people’s savings. Key attributes to look for are strong stewardship and the ability to deliver long-term returns.
Investors face a difficult decision when choosing their fund managers. Here's a guide for how they can find active managers with sustainable long-term advantages who can help make a difference to their portfolios.
Investors can invest in the funds of our leading fund managers, or they can invest in the business itself. The success of the fund manager is 'twinned' to the performance of the fund, but what type of twins are they?
We often assign quality in investment choice by historical returns, backed up when we see fund flows directed towards such historically well-performing funds. This is a mistake made by investors and regulators.
Investing in a traditional index can be compared with taking the main road to a destination, but if you know the backroads and traffic conditions, you coud reach your goal quicker.
Notwithstanding the wide variety of fund managers and fund structures vying for the investor dollar, some questions need to be asked of all of them. They help us determine the quality of the fund and the manager.
Financial advisers spend an inordinate amount of time selecting fund managers for their clients, but is the impact/effort matrix worth it. It's hard enough for good managers to even beat the index.
Family offices and institutional asset allocators select their fund managers based on different factors, and it influences the quality and outcomes of their decisions.
The funds management industry is undergoing consolidation and evolving rapidly, under pressure to provide better service and high returns while cutting costs. Chris Cuffe discusses the present and the future.
Paying a high performance fee must be a good problem to have, as it must mean the fund manager has delivered outstanding performance, right? It's not always the case, and it pays to know how the fee is calculated.
Last week’s article on index versus active portfolio management drew many comments, including on the website, by email and by forwarding other articles to us. Here is a sample.
If you think you can identify the few managers who can outperform the index over time, either by research or based on advice, go for it. But the odds are stacked against you.
A more rational taxation system that supports home ownership but discourages asset speculation could provide greater financial support to first home buyers.
One in five Australians die before retirement and most have not set up their super properly so their loved ones can benefit from all their hard work and savings.
An ageing Australia is shifting the superannuation system’s focus from accumulation to the lifecycle of retirement. While these pressures have been anticipated for decades, they are now converging at scale and driving widespread industry change.
The 20 years after Peter Costello left Treasury have been deemed wasted...by Peter Costello. The missed opportunities for Australia began long before.
The best way to deal with the incoming Division 296 tax on superannuation is likely doing nothing. Earnings will be taxed regardless of where the money sits, so here are some important considerations.
An ‘affordability’ scheme making the county more vulnerable to economic shocks and contributing to the deteriorating financial situation of everyday Australians.