Chris Briant
Australian Catholic Superannuation & Retirement Fund (ACSRF) has appointed the U.S. investment manager Parametric to implement a tax-managed indexing (TMI) strategy for a portion of its international equities portfolio. It is Parametric’s first Australian client to adopt the TMI strategy.
ACSRF, which has around $7 billion in assets and about 93,000 members, awarded Parametric an international equity after-tax passive mandate following a formal due diligence and rating process by Towers Watson and ACSRF’s internal investment team.
Parametric’s Australasian CEO, Mr Chris Briant, said “We are delighted to be recognised by ACSRF for our after-tax and implementation skills and be chosen to deliver a valuable solution for fund members.”
“We applaud ACSRF for their commitment to their members and willingness to embrace leading global thinking and solutions that can deliver real value.”
ACSRF’s CEO, Mr Greg Cantor, confirmed the motivation behind the fund’s decision to award Parametric the after-tax passive mandate, saying, “We expect that working with Parametric will improve our member’s net returns. It is becoming increasingly important for superannuation funds to seek out new solutions to bolster the net, not just the gross, investment returns that members will benefit from in retirement.”
Mr Briant added “Parametric has been managing passive portfolios with an after-tax focus in the U.S. since 1992, and saw the need for Australian super funds to balance both their appetite for more passive investment styles with the need for a genuine after-tax investment focus.
TMI broadens the after-tax suite of offerings we have for super funds. Those with an active investment vision can get custom tax-managed Centralised Portfolio Management (TM CPM) and those with a more passive objective can get our TMI approach.
Parametric also offers combined active-passive solutions and implements screens and factor biases to give a truly customised solution – all with our trademark focus on after-tax returns and implementation efficiency,” he said.
Parametric launched the TMI strategy in Australia in April 2015.
It is designed as a substitute for a superannuation fund’s existing passive strategy, providing exposure to the fund’s chosen benchmark index, but using a genuine after-tax investing focus with the aim of generating better after-tax returns than traditional pre-tax strategies.
Super funds can also incorporate factor exposures into their equity strategy and implement screens, using Parametric’s capacity to implement customised portfolios to meet each client’s individual specifications.
The TMI strategy also provides clients with after-tax benchmarking and performance reporting to provide full transparency into portfolio outcomes on a before and after-tax basis.