Today Professional Planner and Zenith Investment Partners reveal the second tranche of nominees in the 2016 Professional Planner|Zenith Fund Awards.
The release of this group of nominees follows the release on Tuesday of the first group, with nominees in all 17 separate categories now revealed.
Nominees for Distributor of the Year will be released next week; and nominees for the headline Fund Manager of the Year award will be announced on October 7 at the 2016 fund awards luncheon at Ivy Ballroom in Sydney.
More than 300 representatives of the funds management and related industries attended last year’s event, and saw Magellan Asset Management named Fund Manager of the Year, with Fidante Partners named Distributor of the Year.
The fund awards are based on Zenith Investment Partners’ renowned process for researching and rating fund managers’ capabilities across a range of asset classes. To be nominated for the fund awards, a manager must be assessed, and excel, on nine criteria.
1. Organisational strength
A fund manager’s business must be stable, with strong and experienced management and an organisational structure that allows the investment professionals to concentrate on investment management responsibilities without other business distractions.
2. Investment philosophy
The investment philosophy must be clear and well articulated, with the manager able to readily identify their competitive advantage and how they generate alpha.
3. Investment process
The investment process must be consistent with the manager’s investment philosophy and be consistently applied, true to label throughout all investment market conditions.
4. Investment team
The capability must be managed by a highly experienced investment team that is well resourced to effectively manage the investment strategy. The team must also have a strong track record of returns that outperform their respective performance benchmark over longer periods of time.
5. Security selection
The manager’s universe of securities must be clearly defined, along with the security identification process used to highlight which securities the manager will focus research time and resources conducting further research on.
6. Security valuation
Zenith favours managers that use a consistent security valuation approach and metrics that facilitate comparability on valuation between different securities.
7. Portfolio construction
Zenith believes it is essential that the portfolio construction process leverages off the security selection and valuation process and that the securities and their weightings are transparent and a direct function of the securities’ value and risk management constraints of the portfolio.
8. Risk management
Zenith believes risk management should be a core component of the manager’s investment process. As such, risk management constraints should be logical and consistent with the manager’s investment process and ensure the capability is managed in a “true to label” manner such that “what you see is what you get” from an investor’s perspective.
9. Performance
Ultimately, performance and the investment experience of investors are critical to the assessment of a manager’s capability. From this perspective, managers have been nominated for their superior longer-term returns, but with recognition of their more recent returns as well, given the annual frequency of the fund awards. Zenith seeks managers that ideally produce an attractive absolute return, outperform their respective benchmarks and do so in a risk-controlled, low-volatility, highly consistent manner.
And the nominees are …
Secure your place at the 2016 Professional Planner|Zenith Fund Awards
| Category | Nominees (listed alphabetically) |
| 10. Multi-asset – diversified | BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) |
| Russell Investments | |
| UBS Global Asset Management | |
| 11. Multi-asset – real return | MLC |
| Schroder Investment Management Australia | |
| State Street Global Advisors | |
| 12. International equities – emerging markets and regional | Aberdeen Asset Management |
| Macquarie Professional Series/Walter Scott & Partners | |
| PM Capital | |
| 13. International equities – alternative strategies (long/short global, long/short regional, income overlay (options)) | Ironbark Asset Management (LHP) |
| Antipodes Global Investment Partners | |
| Platinum Asset Management | |
| 14. International equities – global | Grant Samuel Funds Management/Epoch Investment Partners |
| Macquarie Professional Series/Independent Franchise Partners | |
| MFS Investment Management | |
| 15. Australian equities -alternative strategies (incl long/short, income overlay (options)) | Auscap Asset Management |
| Kardinia Capital | |
| Perpetual Investment Management | |
| 16. Australian equities – small cap | Ausbil Investment Management |
| Bennelong Australian Equity Partners | |
| Fairview Equity Partners | |
| 17. Australian equities – large cap | Bennelong Australian Equity Partners |
| Fidante Partners/Greencape Capital | |
| Fidelity Worldwide Investment | |
| 18. Distributor of the Year | |
| Nominees TBC | |
| 19. Fund Manager of the Year | Nominees announced on the day |
Source: Zenith Investment Partners
