The ASX-listed financial planning and funds management group, SFG Australia (SFG), has appointed the former head of investments for Zurich, Matt Drennan, as chief investment officer at Mosaic Portfolio Advisers.
Mosaic is the portfolio construction and management arm of the SFG business, and produces investment products for SFG’s financial planning network, which includes Shadforth, Outlook Financial Solutions and Western Pacific Financial Advisers, and the Actuate Advice Solutions business-to-business services division.
Drennan’s appointment is the latest in a series of senior movements at SFG.
In November Dan Powell was appointed head of Actuate. Powell is a former director of corporate and independent financial adviser distribution for AMP, and prior to that held senior roles at ING and Sealcorp.
Earlier this week SFG announced that managing director, Tony Fenning, will return to full duties on February 11, following a period of sick leave. John Cowan, who has been acting managing director in Fenning’s absence, will return to his full-time role of chief operating officer.
Priorities at Mosaic
Drennan (right), who left Zurich almost 12 months ago, says Mosaic has “two main functions: portfolio construction for the products that we offer to our advisers; and manager selection and everything that goes along with that”.
His role will be to lead the team that decides “what the positions we want to have in each asset class are, and what asset classes we want to be in”. He will also lead the team that chooses investment managers to manage funds in each asset class. In this respect, the role at Mosaic is similar to the role he held at Zurich.
“At Zurich… it was a best-of-breed, manage-the-managers approach as well,” Drennan says. “As CIO, effectively, there, I spent a lot of my time selecting managers, along with the senior guys in my team and then built them into product offerings.”
The growth of the SFG business through acqusition has created some legacy issues in the product line-up that will need to be addressed, says Drennan, who started his new role on January 29.
“My priorities are to get a good handle on the business and then get around and meet some of our fund managers and advisers, and get a feel for the sorts of products and opportunities that are out there,” he says.
“The big attraction of this role is that it’s a totally focused wealth management and protection business. It’s Australian-based and it’s got a lot of growth [potential]. You have seen the kind of growth this business has gone through in the past couple of years with merger and acquisition activity.
“It’s a very client-focused business, and in this role you can make a difference, rather than being part of a huge global corporation.”
This post has been edited to correct the name of the listed entity SFG Australia.
