Mike Wright

Lonsec Holdings (Lonsec) is an independent partner to the Wealth Management industry, providing preeminent products and services that are critical to key industry participants to enable them to serve their respective clients efficiently and effectively.

Lonsec’s mission is to “help clients make better investment decisions.” To achieve this, Lonsec continues to lead and evolve with the Wealth Management industry, consistently offering market leading, innovative products and services.

Lonsec is pleased to announce the acquisition of Implemented Portfolios Limited (IPL), a specialist Managed Discretionary Account (MDA) provider to High Net Wealth Individuals and affluent retail clients.

Advisers are increasingly recognising and valuing the substantial time savings and operational risk mitigation benefits of Managed Accounts, with the growing appeal of Managed Accounts predicated on their unique ability to holistically deliver on clients’ investment and service objectives.

Lonsec CEO, Mike Wright, said ‘Lonsec has a deep history and commitment to helping Advisers meet the needs of their clients via our market leading qualitative investment research and Managed Account solutions. I am excited to have IPL joining the Lonsec Group to further enable us to meet the changing needs of Advisers.’

The Australian Managed Account market, currently with Funds Under Management (FUM) of $131.2bn^[1], is fast growing, with a five year Compounding Annualised Growth Rate (CAGR) of close to 30% pa^[1]. The acquisition of IPL will boost Lonsec’s FUM to over $5bn.

The acquisition of IPL expands our offer with complementary Managed Account solutions now available to Advisers, whether it be Separately Managed Accounts (SMA) or the adoption and deepening of MDA services. From a commercial perspective the acquisition of IPL further diversifies our business and will, positively impact Lonsec’s earnings and margins, before synergies are realised.

Mr Wright said ‘The acquisition will not distract from Lonsec’s core business activity of research and ratings via the key business units of Lonsec Research and SuperRatings. Lonsec is used for research and ratings by hundreds of Fund Managers, Super Funds, and thousands of Advisers every day’. Importantly, to maintain its independence, Lonsec reaffirms its commitment not to issue Retail Managed Funds.

Lonsec’s Investment Solutions business harnesses the depth and breadth of Lonsec’s extensive research when constructing portfolios. We look forward to sharing our intellectual capital with the IPL team to potentially leverage when constructing and managing client portfolios.

‘Similarly, we are excited to welcome, and learn from the experienced, professional IPL team, who I know will make a fantastic contribution to our overall business whilst they stay focussed on helping their highly valued IPL clients.’ concluded Mr Wright

Greg Kirk, Executive Chair of IPL, said ‘Since 2010, IPL has been changing the conversation about portfolio construction taking place within advice practices. We only see this expanding as part of the Lonsec Group.’

The businesses will be managed separately for the foreseeable future, with IPL becoming a fully owned subsidiary of Lonsec.  To ensure continuity for clients and partners, all of IPL’s staff will remain within the Group. Greg Kirk will remain a Non-Executive Director of IPL, whilst Michael Wright becomes IPL’s new CEO.

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[1] Source: IMAP FUM Census December 2021
[2] Ibid.

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Laura McInerney

Managed Discretionary Account operator, Implemented Portfolios Limited (IPL) has announced several strategic hires as it prepares for further accelerated growth.

Adding to its Distribution and Portfolio Management teams, the Australian based company which specializes in providing financial advisers with an Individually Managed Account (IMA) service, continues to expand in line with its increase in Funds Under Management (currently at approximately $1.65Billion) and adviser partnerships.

IPL has welcomed both Laura McInerney and Kieran O’Halloran into newly created roles – Executives – Partnerships and Distribution, under the leadership of Phil Pilgrim – General Manager of Partnerships and Distribution.

Laura brings with her to IPL an extensive career in sales and relationship management spanning almost 10 years within the investment management sector, including roles at Macquarie Bank, Xplore Wealth and Private Portfolio Managers (PPM). Kieran joins IPL after 6 years working across several roles at MLC within insurance, investments and licensee services.

IPL has also added to its Portfolio Management team, appointing Anton Hermanto to the position of Custody and Administration Manager, reporting into Head of Investment Services – Chris Smith.

Anton joins the IPL team, having previously worked in similar roles within fund and investment operations across Colonial First State, Nikko Asset Management and JP Morgan.

Executive Chairman of IPL – Greg Kirk is pleased about the company’s continued expansion, saying “As our momentum continues to intensify during 2021, we are delighted to further strengthen our teams as interest in our Individually Managed Account (IMA) service continues to grow also.

“In regard to the appointments of Laura and Kieran, it is exciting to witness what was not long ago a one-man distribution team evolve into a team of five, which we believe is a demonstrated reflection of our company’s continued progress.”

“In collaboration with over 121 advice practices, we now manage over 4000 model portfolios and that number has continued to grow steadily as more and more advisers recognize the benefits of the IMA structure for investors, and the efficiencies our service brings to their businesses.

“What we are seeing in the industry right now, particularly within managed accounts, is an increasing shift towards delivering a more personalised investment experience to investors based on individual preferences and values, and our service enables advisers to provide this individualisation to their clients at scale.

“The new additions to our teams will assist in servicing this growing clientele and supporting the financial advisers utilising our service.” Greg Kirk concluded.

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The company’s Funds Under Management has continued to steadily increase this year despite the global impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a significant milestone of $1.5Bil in FUM this week. Executive Chairman of IPL, Greg Kirk has observed the increase in momentum, saying “It’s pleasing to see our momentum continue over a sustained period and we see that as confirmation of more and more advisers seeing the value in providing their clients with a personalised investment service and using our IMA solution to do so.” IPL welcomed new Non-Executive Director, Dr Steve Garth – Principal of Principia Investment Consultants – to its Board last week.

Dr Garth brings to the Board two decades of experience in key Financial Services roles, including a broad career managing Australian and Global portfolios. He founded Principia in February this year after 19- years at Dimensional Fund Advisers, where as Vice President and Portfolio Manager he played a key role in helping to communicate Dimensional’s investment processes to institutional and adviser clients and prospects.

Prior to Dimensional, he was on the faculty of the University of New South Wales. His teaching and research interests were in optical fiber technology and quantitative finance.

Dr Garth said of the appointment, “I am delighted to be joining the Board of Implemented Portfolios as non-executive Director. I look forward to working closely with the rest of the Board and the entire Implemented Portfolios team over the next few years, helping the firm to accelerate its growth and deliver outstanding investment outcomes for financial advisers and their clients.”

Executive Chairman of the Board, Greg Kirk commented on the appointment, saying “This is a significant new addition to our Board and Steve will provide additional strength to our expertise across several strategic disciplines.”

IPL also bolstered its Corporate Development team to leverage further FUM growth, appointing Tahlia Rozis, to the position of Corporate Development Associate. Tahlia brings sound knowledge of the investment management space to the role, from her time at Perpetual working within the wholesale distribution team. She will be working closely with Phil Pilgrim – Head of Distribution, who joined IPL toward the end of 2019 having previously held senior roles within BT.

IPL plans to add further Corporate Development roles in the coming months, and is expected to make more announcements regarding this soon.

In IPL’s Investment Services division, Samantha Feeley has been appointed to the role of Portfolio Operations Assistant. Ms. Feeley was previously employed in the Market Operations Division of Macquarie Bank, as well as holding similar positions at both NAB and RBS. She will support the Portfolio Management team, following growth in the number of Individually Managed Accounts being managed by IPL.

Greg Kirk is pleased about increasing the headcount of the company, saying “As the number of advice businesses utilising our IMA service continues to increase, we made a decision to expand some of the teams to accommodate further growth and widen both our servicing and distribution reach.”

“The new members of our team all possess unique and highly desired skill sets that will further enrich our adviser and client-centric culture and in turn, enhance the innovative service we deliver to financial advisers and their clients.

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Greg has formerly worked right across the financial services industry in an executive career encompassing banking, trustee company, funds management and financial planning segments. Greg stepped down as Chief Executive of Genesys Wealth Advisers and the platform business Synergy Capital Management in December 2009, having executed the sale of these businesses from Challenger to AXA Australia earlier in June 2008.

Managing Director, Santi Burridge, said, “We welcome Greg’s wealth of industry experience as Implemented Portfolios faces a strong surge in growth. Our business has seen significant development and major expansion over the last year. Having a Board member of Greg’s calibre will provide depth and structure to our next phase.”

Commenting on his appointment, Greg said, “Implemented Portfolios’ unique investment philosophy, incorporating Dynamic Asset Allocation along with individual implementation via their IMA, has impressed me. A global trend has commenced whereby businesses are outsourcing investment management in order to build and run scalable, efficient and profitable businesses whilst obtaining the best outcome for clients. Implemented Portfolios has built a proposition that I believe can change the investment management landscape in Australia. I see that it has an offer that resounds particularly strongly with advisers and clients in today’s environment and am looking forward to contributing to its evolution”.

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