Bennelong Funds Management and Fidante Partners are in the running to be named Distributor of the Year in the Professional Planner|Zenith Fund Awards 2015, and if either of them gets up it will bring to an end the reign of Macquarie, which has held the title since 2009.
The Distributor of the Year Award is different from other fund categories, which seek to identify fund management businesses with superior finds management capabilities. The distributor award seeks to recognise excellence in the sales, marketing and distribution of externally managed investment products.
While new inflow represents a key consideration in the assessment of the best fund distributor, the award also reflects an assessment of fund retention – which Zenith says is an often-overlooked sales metric – along with quality of information flow, documentation, sales support and ongoing service, to both Zenith itself and to Zenith’s financial adviser clients.
Announcing the finalists in the Distributor of the Year Award rounds out the list of finalists across all categories in the Fund Awards 2015 (see table), with the exception of Fund Manager of the Year. This award will be announced, along with the winners of all other categories, at an awards function in Sydney on October 9.
Tickets for the event went on sale last week and are already selling strongly. Finalists in the awards, and others who wish to attend the ceremony, are urged to secure their places quickly.
The Fund Manager of the Year award recognises excellence in the management of multiple asset classes and strategies. In order to be eligible for the Fund Manager of the Year award, managers must have been nominated as a finalist in two or more categories.
The winner is then determined by the total score the manager generates under Zenith’s proprietary scoring system for the number of category nominations and category wins.
Zenith director David Wright (pictured) says the Fund Awards recognise excellence in the application of a fund manager’s investment philosophy and process in the management of their respective capability.
He says Zenith follows a robust and comprehensive process for selecting the nominees and assigning the winners of each fund category, and this process builds on Zenith’s established fund manager review and rating process.
| Fund category | 2015 Finalists (listed alphabetically) |
| A-REIT | Cromwell Property Securities |
| Legg Mason/Martin Currie Australia | |
| Zurich Investments | |
| Global REIT | Colonial First State Investments |
| Principal Global Investors | |
| Resolution Capital | |
| Direct property | AMP Capital |
| Spire Capital (Bridge IGP) | |
| Cromwell Property Securities | |
| Infrastructure | Colonial First State Investments |
| Lazard Asset Management Pacific Co | |
| Magellan Asset Management | |
| Global and diversified fixed interest | Bentham Asset Management |
| Legg Mason/Brandywine Global Asset Management | |
| PIMCO | |
| Australian fixed interest | AMP Capital |
| Perpetual Investment Management | |
| PIMCO | |
| Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) | BetaShares Capital |
| Magellan Asset Management | |
| State Street Global Advisors | |
| Listed investment companies (LICs) | Blue Sky Capital Management |
| Platinum Asset Management | |
| Wilson Asset Management | |
| Alternative strategies(CTA/macro, multi-strategy, fund-of-hedge-fund (FOHF), agribusiness, commodities, private equity, other) | AQR Capital Management |
| Bennelong Long Short Equity Management | |
| Henderson Global Investors | |
| Multi-asset – diversified | BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) |
| Russell Investments | |
| UBS Global Asset Management | |
| Multi-asset – real return | MLC |
| Schroder Investment Management Australia | |
| State Street Global Advisors | |
| International equities – emerging markets and regional | Macquarie Asset Management |
| Nikko Asset Management | |
| Robeco | |
| International equities – alternative strategies(long/short global, long/short regional, income overlay (options)) | Ironbark Asset Management (LHP) |
| Platinum Asset Management | |
| PM Capital | |
| International equities – global | Arrowstreet/Macquarie Asset Management |
| Magellan Asset Management | |
| MFS Investment Management Limited (Aus) | |
| Australian equities – alternative strategies(including long/short, income overlay (options)) | Kardinia Capital |
| Grant Samuel Funds Management/Tribeca Investment Partners | |
| Perpetual Investment Management | |
| Australian equities – small cap | Fairview Equity Partners/NabInvest |
| Ironbark Asset Management/Karara Capital | |
| NovaPort Capital | |
| Australian equities – large cap | Bennelong Australian Equity Partners |
| Fidelity Investments | |
| Lazard Asset Management | |
| Distributor of the Year | Bennelong Funds Management |
| Fidante Partners | |
| Macquarie Professional Series | |
| Source: Zenith Investment Partners | |
