Anne Fuchs

The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has appointed Anne Fuchs to the new role of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).

Ms Fuchs will be charged with the responsibilities of income generation and servicing of AFA’s commercial stakeholders being members, licensees and corporate partners. The role also carries responsibility for AFA’s Consumer Brand campaign, Your Best Interests (YBI).

Ms Fuchs, who took up the position today, has for the past four-and-a-half years consulted to the AFA on their strategic partnerships.  She has a 17-year career in financial services, including 11 years in business and practice development roles with ING Australia, Colonial First State, and BT Financial Group and, more recently, five years heading up her own venture, Pinnacle Practice. Two years ago, Pinnacle Practice launched the highly successful, MyDealerGroup, a matchmaking service for advisers and licensees offering advisory services to financial planners and licensees around their AFSL strategy, client value proposition and fees/terms.

AFA CEO Brad Fox said he is delighted to have someone with Ms Fuchs’ wealth of industry experience and in-depth knowledge of the AFA join the team. “Anne has a unique understanding of financial advisers, licensees and the industry as a whole,” he said. “She has already demonstrated her energy, commitment and passion for the AFA and the advice profession and in her role as CCO will be able to further grow and develop the AFA’s widening spheres of influence and reputation as the association of choice for advisers.”

Ms Fuchs said she feels privileged to have been a part of the AFA’s journey so far and welcomes the opportunity to pursue a career which allows her to impact the bigger picture. “I have a high conviction for public policy and am looking forward to working in a position of influence with a professional association whose core purpose is to influence the fabric of the financial advice profession and the broader financial services sector to achieve great advice for more Australians. Anyone who knows me knows that is where my heart lies.

MyDealerGroup has been sold to Forte Asset Solutions, headed up by Steve Prendeville. “I am delighted to hand over MyDealerGroup to Steve,” Ms Fuchs said. “We have a strong alignment in our business model in working with advice firms and licensees to achieve their growth objectives. With a relationship extending back to when I worked at ING, I know that he also values professional reputation, has expertise in understanding what business owners want and a strong track record of performance.”

Ms Fuchs said she will be working with Forte Asset Solutions through the transition period to ensure the continuity of quality service for MyDealerGroup clients.

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Peter Dymond

Colonial First State (CFS) has announced that FirstChoice Lifestage has reached $1 billion in funds under management, achieved in less than 300 days since its inception in June 2013.

FirstChoice Lifestage is CFS’s flagship MySuper product, after CFS was the first retail fund in Australia to receive APRA product authorisation for MySuper last year.

The $1 billion milestone comes as another success for the FirstChoice Investments team after the FirstChoice Multi Managerfunds (FirstChoice Moderate, Growth and High Growth) were all ranked number one in performance over five years in the recent Chant West survey, released in February 2014.

Peter Dymond, Senior Investment Manager of FirstChoice Investments at CFS, said the growth in FirstChoice Lifestage was indicative of the direction of Australian superannuation and evidence MySuper had enabled new and innovative investment approaches to be adopted by funds.

“The lifecycle investment approach is based on tailoring a member’s asset allocation based on their age, de-risking their portfolio as they get closer to retirement.  There has been much debate in the industry over whether a lifecycle approach or a ‘one size fits all’ approach is best for default funds.  In deciding on the best approach for our members, we felt that ‘one size fits all’ was inappropriate for those of our members who had not selected their superannuation investment strategy.”

“We concluded the best approach was to structure our MySuper option so younger members have higher exposure to risk assets given they have a longer period to retirement and typically lower balances.  When a member gets close to retirement, we believe their risk exposure should be reduced, particularly if they have not considered their financial circumstances. Members at this age are more susceptible to sequencing risk (i.e. the risk of a large down turn in markets just prior to retirement) and a negative market could be disastrous to their standard of living in retirement,” Mr Dymond said.

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Scott Tully

Colonial First State’s FirstChoice Multi-Index funds have been awarded a ‘Recommended’ rating from Zenith Investment Partners.

Zenith described CFS’ FirstChoice Multi-Index funds as ‘a compelling offering for investors seeking a low cost exposure to the diversified sector’.

Zenith also cited their high regard for the FirstChoice Investments team responsible for managing the FirstChoice Multi-Index funds; in particular Scott Tully and Peter Dymond who Zenith believes are ‘key to the continued success of the Multi-Index funds’.

Head of FirstChoice Investments for Colonial First State, Scott Tully, said “We are very pleased to receive a ‘Recommended’ rating from Zenith for the FirstChoice Multi-Index funds.  We introduced FirstChoice Multi-Index to the market to provide investors with access to good value, diversified portfolios using innovative investment strategies.”

“The combination of Colonial First State and Realindex Investments has generated great returns for our investors since FirstChoice Multi-Index was launched in 2009,” said Mr Tully.

The interactive relationship with investment consultant Mercer enables the FirstChoice Investments team to identify value-add opportunities and ensures the portfolios are comprised of the most compelling strategies to meet their investment objectives was noted by Zenith in their review.

The CFS FirstChoice Multi-Index funds currently have over $3 billion in funds under management.  The annualised, since inception performance (as at 30 September 2013)* of the headline FirstChoice Multi-Index funds recommended by Zenith are as follows:

• FirstChoice Wholesale Multi-Index Balanced:  11.58%pa
• FirstChoice Wholesale Multi-Index Conservative:  7.85%pa
• FirstChoice Wholesale Multi-Index Diversified:  14.44%pa

The Colonial First State FirstChoice Investments team manages portfolios that in total exceed $25 billion of funds under management on behalf of 600,000 investors.  The team has developed a range of innovative investment strategies over the last decade including the CFS FirstChoice Multi-Index funds.

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Tyndall Australian Share Concentrated Fund added to Asgard eWrap.

Following its inclusion on Colonial First State’s FirstWrap platform, the Tyndall Australian Share Concentrated Fund has also been added to Asgard eWrap.

The fund was launched to the retail market in May this year, and has already been rated ‘recommended’ by Zenith. The fund’s aim is to provide long-term capital growth and income by investing in a concentrated selection of shares included in the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index.

Matt Russell, head of sales and marketing at Tyndall AM, said that there has been a very high level of interest in the fund by advisers.

“A number of advisers have told us that their clients are increasingly seeking specific outcomes and opportunities from the Australian equities fund component of their portfolio, not simply a generalist or index-hugging approach.

“The Tyndall Australian Share Concentrated Fund fits this criteria through its concentrated nature and more mid-cap bias, as well as its total return approach,” he said.

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