Putting portfolio construction to the test at the INZ Investment Leaders Forum in Queenstown

Twelve sessions across two days in Queenstown, all circling the same question: what still belongs in a client portfolio now that the old defensive settings no longer hold?

Advisers spent two days on the mechanics of portfolio construction this week, as The Inside Network’s INZ: Investment Leaders Forum wrapped up in Queenstown, New Zealand.

Held on 10 and 11 August, the forum brought senior advisers, principals and investment specialists from both sides of the Tasman together to test what still works in a client portfolio, and what only looks like it does.

The programme opened on the hardest question in manager selection. After a decade of disappointing active returns, does the fault sit with the market or with the managers?

Fixed income, private credit and private equity followed. Then a cross-Tasman panel, two sets of investment committees, and a frank comparison of what each one will not own.

The afternoon weighed the depth of the US market against the concentration at the top of its leading index, then turned to infrastructure, real assets and the asset-backed lending the banks have walked away from.

Day two moved further out the risk curve, across venture capital, secondaries and a rapid-fire press conference where delegates set the questions for the education partners. The forum closed away from markets altogether, with a keynote on leading a practice and a team under pressure.

See it all in our gallery from the Investment Leaders Forum:

To all delegates, speakers and partners who brought two markets’ worth of experience to Queenstown, and shared it generously across the two days, a big thank you from us at IN.

Next up, the Income & Defensive Symposium runs in Sydney on 25 August and Melbourne on 27 August. We’ll see you there.