Chris Briant
Australian Catholic Superannuation and Retirement Fund (ACSRF) has awarded the specialist implementation manager Parametric another $60 million of its international equities portfolio to manage under Parametric’s tax-managed indexing (TMI) strategy.
ACSRF, which has $8.5 billion in assets and over 90,000 members, first awarded Parametric an international equity after-tax passive mandate in early 2016, and the decision to increase the mandate reflects a re-commitment to that strategy.
ACSRF’s CEO, Mr Greg Cantor, says the initial decision to award Parametric a TMI mandate for part of its international equities portfolio was to devise fresh solutions to boost members’ net returns.
“We wanted a stronger focus on net returns, as opposed to gross returns, as we know this is what improves members’ retirement incomes.
“We pride ourselves on being an innovative fund that is always looking to find fresh ways to improve member returns, and the TMI strategy reflects this approach.”
Parametric’s Australasian CEO, Mr Chris Briant, says ACSRF, as a pioneer in Australia in adopting the TMI strategy that is prevalent in the US, was prepared to think outside the box to improve the outcome for members.
“To be recognised by ACSRF for our after-tax and implementation skills was important to us, so we are enormously pleased that two years on, ACSRF has decided to re-commit to the strategy.
“Parametric has been managing passive portfolios with an after-tax focus in the U.S. since 1992, and we firmly believe that Australian super funds need to balance their appetite for more passive investment styles with a genuine after-tax investment focus.”
TMI broadens the after-tax suite of offerings for super funds. Those with an active investment style can get custom tax-managed Centralised Portfolio Management (TM CPM) and those with a more passive objective can get its TMI approach.
Parametric also offers combined active-passive solutions and implements screens and factor exposures to give a truly customised solution – all with its trademark focus on after-tax returns and implementation efficiency.
The TMI strategy, which was launched in Australia in April 2015, is designed to use a genuine after-tax investing focus with the aim of generating better after-tax returns than traditional pre-tax strategies.