Matt Wacher

JANA Investment Advisers (JANA) has appointed Matt Wacher as Chief Investment Officer (CIO), strengthening investment leadership and alignment across its investment capabilities.

The appointment reflects JANA’s continued evolution as client demand, portfolio complexity and regulatory expectations continue to grow across segments and mandates.

Reporting to JANA’s Chief Executive Officer, Georgina Dudley, and joining the Executive Leadership Team, Mr Wacher will lead JANA’s overarching investment strategy and oversee investment outcomes across all client segments and mandates.

In this role, Mr Wacher will provide leadership across JANA’s investment research, investment strategy and sustainability functions.

Ms Dudley said the CIO appointment reflects the increasing breadth and complexity of client needs.

“JANA has a team with real depth across research, strategy and sustainability, and I’m incredibly proud of what they’ve built,” Ms Dudley said.

“As demand continues to broaden across our clients, the work is becoming more multi-dimensional as we support a wider range of client objectives and portfolio needs.”

“A Chief Investment Officer role strengthens investment leadership across our business and ensures we continue to deliver disciplined, long-term outcomes for our clients.”

Mr Wacher said, “I’m excited to join JANA at a time when clients are placing an even greater emphasis on disciplined decision-making and consistent oversight.”

“JANA has built strong investment capability grounded in rigorous research and thoughtful portfolio construction,” Mr Wacher said.

“My focus will be to provide leadership across the investment function, build on the depth already in place, and ensure we continue delivering disciplined, long-term outcomes for clients.”

Mr Wacher joins JANA from Morningstar Investment Management, where he was Chief Investment Officer, Asia Pacific, leading multi-asset investment strategy and portfolio management across the region. He also served as Chair of Morningstar’s Global Investment Committee, overseeing investment methodologies and governance across its global investment operations. In these roles, he oversaw approximately US$15 billion across diversified multi-asset strategies.

Earlier in his career, Mr Wacher held senior investment roles at Qantas Superannuation, Russell Investments and CMC Markets, spanning multi-asset portfolio construction, institutional investment solutions, and investment markets across Australia and Japan.

Matt Wacher will commence his role at JANA on Tue 19 May.

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The addition of the Morningstar Growth and High Growth Model Portfolios to the Generation Life investment bond range enables advisers to access professionally managed, multi-asset model portfolios with Morningstar’s high conviction views, coupled with the benefit of the tax-effectiveness of an investment bond structure.

Generation Life is the only investment bond provider to offer Morningstar Model Portfolios through a tax-effective investment bond tax structure. The combination of direct equities, ETFs and managed funds in the one model portfolio provides a streamlined and tax-effective mix of investments to help advisers and clients reach their financial planning objectives.

John Laver, Head of Investment at Generation Life, said: “We understand the importance of providing advisers a consistent portfolio allocation experience for their clients’ across various product structures including superannuation and Investor Directed Portfolio Services (IDPS) structures, with a focus on providing inflation linked investment outcomes. We believe that Morningstar’s portfolio approach, which focuses on outpacing the rising cost of living, is particularly relevant in the current economic and market environment.”

While this is the first time Morningstar and Generation Life have offered model portfolios through an investment bond structure, it’s important to note that it has been constructed with financial advisers in mind. By consolidating financial advisers’ investment product suites across their clients’ investment strategies, these new model portfolios will cut out many of the needless administrative processes that advisers currently face while also enhancing after-tax returns for their clients.

Matt Wacher, Chief Investment Officer at Morningstar, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Generation Life to bring our Growth and High Growth Model Portfolios to their network.

Morningstar’s valuation-driven approach has been tried and tested over several years, reducing day-to-day administration and friction for advisers while providing holistic, long-term solutions for clients. Our portfolios are built on rigorous analysis and constructed to be robust throughout the spectrum of market conditions.

With Generation Life, we’re pleased to bring these solutions via an investment bond structure, resulting in an investment process that centres both advisers and their clients.”

Generation Life is well-placed to join with Morningstar as an innovative financial solutions provider. Generation Life was also recently recognised top 10 in the AFR Boss Most Innovative Companies list for its unique investment-linked lifetime annuities offering and innovation, the only Life Insurance/Asset Management Company to be listed within the superannuation and banking category: LifeIncome.

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