October is the month when Professional Planner traditionally pays its respects to the best and the brightest in the managed funds industry. In association with research firm Zenith Investment Partners, we stage the Professional Planner | Zenith Fund Awards, and host a luncheon at Ivy Ballroom in the Sydney CBD.
In front of more than 300 people this year, top honours were won by Perpetual Investments as Fund Manager of the Year, and by Macquarie Professional Series as Distributor of the Year.
You can read edited coverage of all 17 category winners in this edition of Professional Planner, starting on page 20, and full coverage online at
www.professionalplanner.com.au
The awards took place around about the same time that Professional Planner ran a story online based on an interview with Financial Planning Association chair Matthew Rowe. Rowe called for due respect to be paid to financial planners by other participants in the financial services “ecosystem”.
Rowe’s point was that financial planners have a role to play that should be separate to, independent of and not influenced by the interests of institutions that manufacture investment products. Rowe says this can become a particular issue when a single financial institution both owns a financial planning business and manufactures investment products or operates a platform – a planner’s professional duties can come into conflict with the commercial interests
of the institution.
Separating financial planning from product manufacturing and platforms is a thorny issue, but is fundamental to the development of a true profession. All parties need to respect the objectives and obligations of the other, and allow them to play that role free from conflicts and undue influence.
The aim of the Fund Awards each year is to help spotlight the fund managers who create investment products that best do the job they set out to do. Whether financial planners use these products to implement solutions for clients depends on a range of factors, but ultimately their use should be dictated by whether or not using the product in question is in both the client’s best interests and in the public interest.
Efficient and innovative products play a vital role in helping financial planners do their job – and in helping Australians achieve financial independence – and that’s why the Fund Awards are an important part of what we do. But we also recognise that unquestioned professional integrity is the holy grail of financial planning.
In coming years and months, it will be fascinating to see how both parties find a way of working that affords the appropriate respect to the other.
