Consumer trust isn’t something to be taken for granted, but reports from the UK, US and here at home are all pointing towards an uplift in trust levels around financial advice, which can only be a welcome development.
There are significant tailwinds behind the financial advice industry at the moment, but some major obstacles are still preventing advice practices from taking advantage of surging demand according to a new study from CFS.
Sage Capital and Martin Currie take gongs at alternatives awards night
Sydney fund manager Sage Capital and Melbourne’s Martin Currie were among the major winners at the Australian Alternative Hedge Fund Awards in Sydney on Thursday night, with the event known for its support of the Hedge Fund Rocks charity celebrating its 18th year in marking the best alternative managers in the country.
The Martin Currie Sustainable Equity Fund (Class A) was named Best Specialist ESG Fund at the awards ceremony, beating out OnePath’s Wholesale Sustainable Investment Australian Share Trust and the Alphinity Sustainable Share Fund.
The sustainable equity fund from Martin Currie is unique in that it has limited sustainability-based exclusions and instead focuses on identifying and investing in companies that “provide more benefit than harm to society”, place emphasis on their sustainability risk and have a clear and articulated path to a “sustainable environmental, social and economic future”.
The win comes off the back of Martin Currie maintaining an A+ rating across strategy, governance, incorporation and investment with the PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) in London.
In the Best Emerging Managing category Sage Capital took out the major award, fending off competition from finalists Opal Capital Management and Fortlake Asset Management.
Sage recently celebrated the 3-year anniversary of both its leading funds, the CC Sage Capital Absolute Return Fund and the CC Sage Capital Equity Plus Fund, both of which employ long-short strategies.
Other major award winners on the night included Franklin Templeton, which beat out Janus Henderson to win Best Global Manager Operating in Australia, and Lucerne, which won Best Multi Strategy Fund for the Lucerne Alternative Investment Fund.
The Hedge Fund Rocks event was established in 2005 to identify and honour the industry’s top domestic alternative investment managers, with finalists decided on a combination of quantitative and qualitative factors judged across ten categories.
The genisis of the event, however, is a 2002 band night that saw a group of part time musicians from the financial sector get together to play music, identify top managers for the year and raise money for charity. To date, over $3,500,000 has been donated to various charitable groups.
