Manny Pohl

EC Pohl & Co Pty Ltd has acquired UK investment management firm, Sanford DeLand Asset Management (SDL), effective 1 November 2025. SDL will operate as a wholly owned autonomous business with longstanding SDL co-managers, Eric Burns, David Beggs and Chloe Smith, remaining responsible for managing the SDL UK Buffettology and Free Spirit Funds. EC Pohl & Co’s executive chair and CIO, Dr Manny Pohl AM, will become chairman of SDL and Scott Barrett will become CFO of SDL.

Commenting on the acquisition, Dr Pohl said: “This acquisition of a licensed firm in the UK strengthens EC Pohl & Co’s global presence. In addition, we saw a strong alignment in investment approach and cultural values in SDL and the current team supported by Eric, David and Chloe has a solid and proven track record of delivering exceptional returns for investors since inception”.

EC Pohl & Co is a family office with investments in a number of companies providing financial services. Individually managed, share portfolio services are provided to sophisticated investors by its wholly owned subsidiary EC Pohl & Co Private Wealth and its other associate, ECP Asset Management, offers investment management services to large institutional investors in Australia and to those globally via its ECP Global Growth Fund.  ECP Asset Management and SDL will continue to operate as independent stand-alone entities.

Global Masters Fund Limited is one of three listed investment companies in which EC Pohl & Co has an interest and it has 55 per cent of its portfolio in Berkshire Hathaway.

Sanford DeLand was founded in 2010 by Keith Ashworth-Lord with a focus on UK equities. It currently has $700 million in AUM, across two funds. The SDL UK Buffettology Fund is directly inspired by the investment principles of Warren Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. These principles are often referred to as “Buffettology^® “, a term popularised by Mary Buffett (Warren Buffett’s former daughter-in-law) and David Clark in their book “Buffettology”.

Buffettology^® is synonymous with the Business Perspective Investing approach that Buffett has championed and includes:

• Understanding the business thoroughly before investing (“circle of competence”)
• Investing in high-quality businesses with strong competitive advantages (economic moats)
• Focusing on long-term value, not short-term market movements
• Buying at a sensible price, often using discounted cash flow and other intrinsic valuation models

The acquisition has the support of Mary Buffett and David Clark who said: “Besides being a true gentleman, Manny Pohl is one of the great quality investors of the Anglosphere. Manny has been a follower of Warren Buffett and a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder for a very long time. We are both absolutely thrilled he is now connected with the UK Buffettology Fund as a permanent member of our Buffettology family.”

EC Pohl & Co will support SDL in its next growth stage by providing it with operational resources and a broader reach without disruption to the team or the funds. SDL’s founder and CIO, Keith Ashworth-Lord, will remain with the business until next year to ensure a seamless transition before his planned retirement.

“Having known Manny Pohl for some time I’m very confident EC Pohl & Co is the right long-term steward of Sanford DeLand. The most important aspect for me is alignment on investment philosophy and ensuring the SDL investment team maintains decision making autonomy while gaining the backing of a larger, supportive parent company.

“Investment continuity is key for us as we start the transition to ensure no disruption for investors in the Buffettology and Free Spirit Funds,” said Keith Ashworth-Lord, CIO of Sanford DeLand Asset Management.

“We are looking forward to working with the Sanford DeLand team and extend our sincere thanks to Keith and our warmest wishes as he prepares for retirement next year,” said Dr Pohl.

This acquisition follows EC Pohl & Co’s acquisition of an equity stake in the UK listed investment trust, Athelney Trust Plc, in 2022.

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Members’ best financial interests were at the centre of AMP’s move to appoint TAL, with the decision following an extensive tender process.

TAL was selected from a group of Australia’s leading life insurers and will deliver members with greater retirement benefit protection, security and insurance cover of the highest quality and value for their retirement.

Members will receive more personalised insurance services, including access to TAL’s health and wellbeing program promoting preventative education, rewards, return to work rehab services, early intervention, and mental health support.

Importantly, members will also have access to TAL’s digital solutions and claims support services, which are designed to simplify and speed up the claims experience.

The member-first and digitally-enabled experience through TAL will ensure leading claims decision times and a holistic protection proposition that is designed to give members more confidence with their claims.

In TAL’s last financial year, a total of $3.5 billion in claims was paid out to more than 45,000 customers and their families.

TAL’s appointment further enhances AMP’s superannuation offer, with members already benefiting from significant fee reductions and competitive investment returns as the business has simplified and strengthened investment management capability.

These improvements were recognised in November, with AMP’s superannuation fund winning the Momentum Award at the 10th annual Super Fund of the Year Awards, chosen by independent research house SuperRatings.

AMP’s superannuation members will be transitioned to TAL in Q2 2024.

AMP General Manager, Master Trust, David Clark, said: “Insurance is vitally important to our members and working with our Trustee we’ve conducted a comprehensive tender process to find the best insurance offer in the market.

“We’re now delighted to announce this new partnership with TAL, which we believe for our members is the leading insurance offer available.

“Our members will benefit by way of insurance pricing reductions along with the introduction of digital capability that will empower them with access to online quote calculators, underwriting, and claims lodgement and tracking.

“We also expect to improve member engagement through TAL’s health and wellbeing program promoting preventative education, rewards, return to work rehab services, early intervention, and mental health support.

“We’ll continue to update you on this exciting change as we work through the transition.”

TAL Chief Executive, Group Life & Retirement, Jenny Oliver, said: “TAL is delighted to extend our partnership with AMP to now provide group life insurance for AMP Superannuation Fund members.”

“Life insurance plays a special role in our community, providing financial security for super fund members and their families – protecting them when they need it most.”

“At TAL we are committed to enhancing the experience of super fund members and helping them understand the value insurance provides at every stage of life.”

“Our focus continues to place members’ needs at the centre of our thinking so we can deliver leading products and experiences – from simple and seamless digital end-to-end experiences that make it easier and faster for members to engage with their life insurance or make a claim, to providing comprehensive health, rehabilitation and wellbeing services.”

“Together with AMP, we are excited by the opportunity to uplift the life insurance experience for more than 270,000 Australians.”

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AMP has launched the Advantage Funds range.

AMP has launched the Advantage Funds range across its market leading wrap platforms, including MyNorth, North, Summit, iAccess, PortfolioCare and WealthView.

The new funds provide advisers and their clients with access to a greater breadth of high quality wholesale managed funds at lower ongoing management fees than equivalent wholesale funds.

The Advantage Funds range:

• is available to new and existing super, pension and investment clients
• includes 31 funds across Australian and global equities, fixed interest, property and infrastructure, and alternative investments
• includes popular wholesale funds from a range of respected fund managers
• offers discounted ongoing management fees compared with the underlying wholesale funds.

David Clark, AMP’s Head of Product Management commented, “AMP’s Advantage Funds offer advisers and their customers great value and ease of access to highly-rated investment products”.

“We’ve been able to take advantage of AMP’s scale and partnerships with leading fund managers to provide the funds at comparatively lower ongoing management fees, thereby supporting investment returns.

“The range is part of AMP’s broader commitment to offer high-quality platform and investment solutions to help customers achieve their investment and retirement goals,” said Mr Clark.

Investment options in the Advantage Funds range are available for use in AMP’s licensee models and will also be available in MyNorth Managed Portfolios being launched later in 2018.

AMP’s North platforms received net cashflows of A$5.7 billion in 2017, with assets under management growing to A$35 billion.

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Richard Dunkerley

Financial advisers have an opportunity to elevate their services into that of ‘financial coach,’ making themselves as relevant to their clients as other lifestyle professionals, according to a new whitepaper by Zurich Life & Investments.

BusinessFIT: Navigating toward the advice practice of tomorrow, launched yesterday, is based on findings of a workshop which included some of the industry’s most progressive and successful thought-leaders. It considers the fundamental characteristics of prosperous advice practices over the medium-long term, to 2020 and 2025. This is in the face of changing consumer demographics and demands, increasing industry regulation and advancing technologies.

The four main recommendations are:

1. Advisers need to consider how to shift their service from one of ‘technical specialist’ to one of financial lifestyle coach, relating money and wealth goals to their clients’ lifestyle aspirations, objectives and passions. This becomes particularly important as the values of target audiences change, appreciating experiences as well as things, for example. This trend is becoming more common in Millennials who are being forced to rethink home-ownership as the great Australian dream, and Baby-Boomers who are looking to enjoy their retirement with greater health, hobbies and travel.
2. Advisers need powerful back office technologies to support increasing regulatory demands. Ever-increasing regulatory requirements and greater demands for transparency means that successful advice practices will have no choice but to invest in technologies that can automate reporting. Those practices can install the right technologies – within their businesses and through their dealer groups – to efficiently support these administrative requirements, will also be able to dedicate more focus to client consultations and outcomes.
3. Clients will still demand the ‘human touch,’ but emerging automated technologies can play an important technical role. Artificial intelligence and robo-advice, amongst other emerging technologies, may be able to model portfolios much more quickly than an individual financial adviser, and so they have the potential to play an important role. This will not, however, supersede the human relationship between financial coach and client – the building of trust and relationship, emotional intelligence and the translation of lifestyle aspirations into monetary and wealth goals.
4. Consider scalable digital solutions to keep in touch with ‘roaming’ clients, facilitating ongoing communication from wherever they are located. Beyond the ‘human touch’ of a face-to-face appointment, this involves having tools that clients can engage with whilst they are on the go. This might include an app that provides real-time updates on their portfolios, but also let’s them scenario plan, seeing the potential impact should they save or invest more money each month, or change their investment ratios or strategy. By private-labelling basic financial apps, advisers can give clients the opportunity to be as hands-on or hands-off with their money as they please, while still having the trust and personal guidance of a professional financial lifestyle coach to build a wealth strategy in line with their life aspirations.

Zurich’s BusinessFIT whitepaper was developed with the input of workshop participants including Jessica Brady from BT Financial Group, David Clark from Koda Capital, Tim Deamer from Crosbie Wealth, Peita Diamantidis from Caboodle Financial Services, Matt Heine from NetWealth, and Adrian Patty from AP Financial Services, along with futurist Anders Sörman-Nilsson.

In summing up one of the main recommendations, Peita Diamantidis, said, “Our industry can be under a misnomer that money is the point for clients, when it’s not; lifestyle is. There is a great opportunity to change the way we’re approaching financial planning to relate it in terms of dreams, hopes, motivation, inspiration.”

Tim Deamer, Director, Crosbie Wealth Management said, “Clients want to be excited about their financial futures. The sale of a product is irrelevant to them. Having tools that they can engage with are important, so when they interact with their adviser, they feel as though they are being supported on their journey.”

This research is the latest in a series sponsored by Zurich which is dedicated to supporting the continued success of the financial advice industry in Australia.

Richard Dunkerley, Head of Marketing and Communications at Zurich Life & Investments, said, “In the face of increasing regulation and ongoing pressure on the advice industry, we wanted to bring together some of the industry’s best minds to consider what opportunities there were for advisers servicing some clients through their retirement, but also engaging the next generation – the lucrative but relatively un-tapped Millennial market.

“What became clear – in considering changing lifestyles and demographics – was that people still value money and wealth, but as an enabler to reaching other goals, and this provides an opportunity for advisers. The role of technology is also crucial – both for reducing the administrative burden of reporting and regulation, but also to service clients in between appointments, and from wherever they may be based.

“Harnessing evolving technology, and speaking to clients in values-based terms, offer exciting opportunity, according to our think tank of thought-leaders,” he said.

Download a full copy of the research – BusinessFIT: Navigating toward the advice practice of tomorrow

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