Wealth Managers

Private banks are navigating challenges in discerning customers’ sustainability preferences, hindered by a lack of common definitions and necessary data. The struggle persists as new legislation under Mifid 2, effective since August 2022, mandates including sustainability factors in suitability tests. Oxford Risk’s survey among wealth managers reveals industry-wide difficulties in implementation.

Protracted discussions over the EU’s new regime for European Long Term Investment Funds, known as Eltifs, are delaying the launch of new funds for these private asset investments.

Berlin-based Moonfare said it plans to create a dedicated secondary liquidity mechanism that enables retail investors in Eltif 2.0 funds to unwind their holdings before the fund matures.

More than two thirds of fund selectors see active fund management as key to outperforming in the current year, a reflection of its growing importance in uncertain markets, the latest Natixis 2024 Fund Selector Outlook Survey shows.

The survey uncovered a strategic pivot among wealth managers, who over the past decade have largely favoured passively managed index funds. However, 45% of fund selectors attribute the outperformance of passive investments to a decade of artificially low interest rates and minimal inflation, conditions that are changing. 

Investment specialists are singing from a common hymn book in predicting the world is on a path to lower inflation and treasury yields, though they carefully call attention to possible transitional effects, Investment Officer heard while covering two recent investment events in Luxembourg hosted by J. Safra Sarasin and Capital Group.

This week’s overview of transfers, appointments, promotions and other people news includes updates from Fidelity, Alma LED Luxembourg, Fundcraft and Better Finance.

Christine Baalham and Tom Record

Christine Baalham and Tom Record have been appointed as co-portfolio managers in the global equity team at Fidelity International. Veteran portfolio manager Jeremy Podger will transition to a senior advisory role in March 2024. 

Edinburgh-based asset manager Abrdn on Wednesday said it plans to slash 500 jobs this year, or about 10% of its workforce, in a push to bring down costs and restore profitability as the industry continues to be plagued by a growing uptake of low-cost competitors and a broad switch among clients to passive investment strategies.

The global wealth gap has alarmingly widened since 2020, with the top five richest men globally having more than doubled their fortunes. In stark contrast, nearly five billion people worldwide experienced a decline in their financial wellbeing, a study by anti-poverty group Oxfam revealed on Monday.

Released to coincide with the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the report painted a grim picture of economic disparity.

The report also said that the world could see its first trillionaire within the next decade. 

Roderick van Zuylen is prepared for the challenge. On the 1st of January, the ex-Van Lanschot Kempen portfolio manager inaugurated his own investment fund in the US: Night Watch Investment Management. “I desired a name that alluded to my Dutch heritage, yet Dike Capital and Tulip Invest were disregarded for obvious reasons.”

While many asset managers continue to explore private investments amidst growing market uncertainties, Optimix Asset Management has consistently avoided them. “Investors don’t need private markets,”  said Jelte de Boer, managing director of Amsterdam-based Optimix, a Dutch subsidiary of Swedish bank Handelsbanken.