We caught up with Andrew after Expert Forum in this short “vox pop” video. Here he reviews the key economic factors of 2019 and outlines the investment strategies which worked well (and not so well) during the year.

Andrew also provides his views on what might influence markets in 2020 and gives an overview explaining Aberdeen Standard Investments’s portfolio positioning.

About Andrew Milligan

Andrew Milligan

Andrew Milligan OBE joined Standard Life Investments (now Aberdeen Standard Investments) in 2000 as Global Investment Strategist before being appointed Head of Global Strategy in January 2001. Prior to that, he was employed by HM Treasury, followed by Lloyds Bank where he was an Economic Adviser, and Smith New Court as an International Economist. In 1994, he was appointed Chief Economist with New Japan Securities Europe. He then moved to Morley Fund Management (now Aviva Investors) in 1996 to take up the position of Director of Economic Research & Business Risk.

On July 3, 2019, Refinitiv hosted the inaugural Refintiv ETF Academy at Canary Wharf.

In this video, Nik Bienkowski, co-CEO and co-founder of HANetf, took to the stage to present on “ETFs in Europe – Launching, Competing and Winning – What Traditional Managers Need to Know.”

Bienkowski highlighted that creating an ETF offering is high priority for most asset managers, but he also made clear that it is easier said than done.

He also examined why asset managers can’t afford to miss the opportunity that ETFs offer, showed the impediments to success, and the strategies needed to win.

Bienkowski summarized that it is still not too late for fund providers to formulate their own ETF facts and strategies if they don’t already have one. Even if the strategy is “do nothing now,” it is better than nothing, he said.

Refinitiv is grateful to the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment for sharing its footage of this event.

About Nik Bienkowski 

Nik Bienkowski, HanETF

Nik is a veteran of the ETF industry, joining Gold Bullion Securities, a provider of the world’s first gold ETF, as Head of Institutional Investment in 2002.

In 2005, Nik helped found ETF Securities. In 2011, Nik founded Boost ETP with Hector which, in 2014, became WisdomTree Europe with Nik as co-CEO.

Following the buyout of Boost ETP by WisdomTree Europe in 2016, Nik stepped down as co-CEO to establish HANetf, with business partner Hector McNeil.

The funds management industry has often been indicted as suffering from a lack of diversity in its workforce. This panel looked at the issues behind this charge and what is being done to address this issue.

The panel discussed the various initiatives that the asset management industry is undertaking to improve diversity and outlined how improved levels of workplace diversity benefit shareholders and result in a more effective workplace – the diversity dividend.

The panelists were:

• Bev Shah – Founder and CEO, CityHive
• Selina Tyler – Head of UK Wholesale, Mirabaud Asset Management
• Abbie Llewellyn-Waters – Fund Manager, Jupiter Asset Management

In this video of the session, Jake Moeller, head of Lipper UK & Ireland Research at Refinitiv moderates the panel

Running order

Refinitiv is grateful to the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment for sharing its footage of this event.

About Bev Shah 

Bev Shah, City Hive.

Bhavini ‘Bev’ Shah is Founder and CEO of City Hive – A Network for Change.

Prior to founding City Hive in 2016, Bev gained more than 15 years’ investment experience in the City at some of the world’s largest financial institutions.

Bev is passionate about empowering the investment and asset management sector to forge a more equitable and inclusive culture. She passionately believes in the value of diverse thought and experience in rebuilding trust in financial services and enhancing investment performance.

Bev is a media commentator on topics of gender equality and all aspects of diversity in the investment sector.”

About Selina Tyler

Selina Tyler, Mirabaud.

Selina joined Mirabaud Asset Management in November 2018 as Head of UK Wholesale. She leads the firm’s coverage of wealth managers, fund of funds and financial institutions in the UK and Ireland.

Prior to joining Mirabaud, she was Director – UK Wholesale for Hermes Investment Management, for six years, and also worked at Man GLG for five years through 2012, covering Global Banking relationships.

Selina has over 15 years of experience within financial services, fulfilling client service, relationship management and sales roles.

She is a holder of the Investment Management Certificate and is a winner of the WeAreTheCity Rising Star Award in Sales in 2017.

About Abbie Llewellyn-Waters

Abbie Llewellyn-Waters, Jupiter AM.

Abbie Llewellyn-Waters joined Jupiter in 2006 and is a global equities fund manager in the Environment and Sustainability team. She has been a lead manager of institutional funds since 2012.

Abbie was previously co-manager of the multi-asset Jupiter Global Ecology Diversified Fund and was an integral member of the fund management team for the Jupiter Ecology Fund, the Jupiter Global Ecology Growth Fund and the Jupiter Green Investment Trust PLC for over 10 years.

In 2017, Abbie was awarded both Fund Manager of the Year and Investment Woman of the Year at Investment Week’s inaugural Women in Investment Awards.

Abbie is also a contributing member of several industry initiatives: for example, she is an Ambassador for the Diversity Project and a member of the 30% Club UK Investor Group.

She has a degree in Classics from University College, London.

We caught up with Chris after event in this short “vox pop” video where he outlined some of his key considerations in assessing and selecting funds and building portfolios on an ESG basis. He also outlined his views on the evolution of ESG investing.

The full video of the panel can be watched here.

About Chris Welsford

Chris Welsford, Ayres Punchard

Chris joined the UK’s first execution-only share-dealing service, Sharelink, as a Client Account Manager in 1987 . He then worked in IT accountancy sales before joining one of the last Canadian mutual life insurance companies, Confederation Life in 1992 as a life Underwriter. In 1993 he joined Laurentian Mildon as a financial adviser and Mentor for their fees based financial planning service.

He established Ayres Punchard in 1995 specialising in fees based advice and ethical investing, which remains a core value and a strong part of the investment process employed today. Chris believes that there is firm evidence to show that by taking Environmental, Social and Governance factors into account, when analysing investment funds and constructing portfolios, more sustainable investment outcomes can be achieved.

Chris is a graduate of the University of Southampton (1986) with a B.Sc Hons in Social Sciences Politics., holds the IMC (Investment Management Certificate) and is an IMC member of the Chartered Financial Analysts Society of the UK.

He is also a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment.

The panel considered the influence of ESG throughout the mutual fund value chain from product manufacturer, gatekeeper, and fund distributor. It outlined how ESG criteria are able to add value for end investors without compromising potential returns.

The panelists were:

• Mona Shah, Director – Investment Strategy & Research, Stonehage Fleming
• Chris Welsford – Managing Director, Ayres Punchard Investment Management
• Craig Bonthron – Equities Investment Manager, Kames Capital

In this video of the session, Jake Moeller, head of Lipper UK & Ireland Research at Refinitiv moderates the panel

Running order

Refinitiv is grateful to the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment for sharing its footage of this event.

About Mona Shah 

Mona Shah, Stonehage Fleming.

Mona is a Director at Stonehage Fleming and responsible for building sustainable multi-asset portfolios for clients as well as equity manager selection.

Prior to Stonehage Fleming she was at Rathbones for eleven years where she was Head of Collectives Research.

Mona holds a first class degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Bristol and is a CFA charter holder.

About Chris Welsford

Chris Welsford, Ayres Punchard.

Chris Welsford is an Independent Financial Adviser and Investment Adviser is a graduate of the University of Southampton (1986) with a B.Sc Hons in Social Sciences Politics.

He joined the UK’s first execution-only share-dealing service, Sharelink, as a Client Account Manager in 1987 and established Ayres Punchard in 1995 which specializes in fees-based advice and ethical investing.

In 2018 Ayres Punchard became a Worthstone SIA Impact Champion in recognition of the firm’s innovative approach to ESG, sustainable and impact  investing.

Chris is an IMC member of the Chartered Financial Analysts Society of the UK. He is also a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment.

About Craig Bonthron

Craig Bonthron, Kames Capital.

Craig Bonthron is an investment manager in the equities team at Kames Capital, responsible for actively co-managing high conviction global equity portfolios. He focuses on analysing disruptive and sustainable investment trends within the technology, healthcare, industrial and consumer sectors.

Craig is also the co-creator of the Kames Sustainability Soapbox, a weekly forum for discussing the alpha potential of sustainable investments.

He joined Kames in 2014 from SWIP, where he was an investment director in global equities. He co-managed both the Halifax Global Ethical Equity fund and the SWIP Global Islamic Equity fund for more than three years.

Prior to SWIP, he was a portfolio manager at Kleinwort Benson Investors, where he co-managed the Global Water Equity fund.

We caught up with Richard after event in this short “vox pop” video where he outlined some of his consideration in choosing funds for his clients. He also outlined his sell discipline and explains how he goes about building portfolios for his clients.

About Richard Philbin

Richard Philbin, Wellian Investment Solutions.

Richard is one of the UKs best known Multi-Manager investors and has previously been AA rated by OBSR, Citywire and S&P.

Before joining Wellian, Richard was formerly the Chief Investment Officer at AXA Architas Multi-Manager where he helped them to grow with assets of over £7bn, and before that he was Head of Multi-Manager at F&C Investments where he launched the LifeStyle range of funds and grew assets to over £1bn during his tenure.

We caught up with Bev after the event in this short “vox pop” video where she outlined her motivation in forming City Hive, how her network is increasing awareness about diversity in the asset management industry and the opportunities she sees in creating more diversity in the industry.

About Bev Shah

Bev Shah – City Hive

Bhavini ‘Bev’ Shah is Founder and CEO of City Hive. Prior to founding her network in 2016, Bev gained more than 15 years’ investment experience in the City at some of the world’s largest financial institutions.

As a British/Indian dyslexic woman (and married mother of two), Bev is passionate about empowering the investment and asset management sector to forge a more equitable and inclusive culture.

She passionately believes in the value of diverse thought and experience in rebuilding trust in financial services and enhancing investment performance.  Bev is a media commentator on topics of gender equality and all aspects of diversity in the investment sector.

In this video of the session, Jake Moeller, head of Lipper UK & Ireland Research at Refinitiv moderates a panel of fund selectors who outline their views on the changing nature and increasing prominence of fund research in light of the recent high-profile travails faced by Woodford Investment Management, increasing regulation and higher levels of scrutiny in the market.

Panelists discussed their selection process, what makes a good fund investment, and how they are go about building robust fund approved lists and portfolios for their clients.

The panelists were:

• Victoria Hasler – Head of Research, Square Mile Investment Consulting
• Richard Philbin – Chief Investment Officer, Wellian Investment Solutions
• Bish Limbu – Senior Fund Manager, Octopus Investments

Running order

About Victoria Hasler

Victoria Hasler, Square Mile.

Victoria became Head of Research in December 2014 after joining Square Mile as Senior Investment Research Analyst. She is a member of its Executive Management Team which provides input into the strategic direction of the business.

Victoria heads up the research team, in addition to focusing on fixed income fund research. Before joining Square Mile Victoria worked for Brewin Dolphin as a fund analyst specialising in fixed income investments.

Prior to this Victoria was a Fixed Income Investment Manager at Rothschild Private Bank and a Fixed Income Analyst at Merrill Lynch. Victoria holds a BA (Hons) in Economics with French from the University of Durham, the Investment Management Certificate and in addition is a CFA and CAIA charterholder.

About Richard Philbin

Richard Philbin, Wellian Investment Solutions.

With over a 20 year career including CIO of Architas and Head of Multi Manager at F&C, Richard is now Chief Investment Officer of Wellian Investment Solutions and Harwood Wealth Group plc which successfully listed on AIM in 2016.

The company manages advisory and discretionary models as well as unitised fund of fund portfolios under the Discovery brand.

He has developed many unique screening tools to assist with fund selection, asset allocation and portfolio construction and the adopted approach to portfolio construction is both innovative and successful.

Richard has a degree in Financial Services.

About Bish Limbu

Bish Limbu, Octopus Investments.

Bish Limbu is a founding member of the multi-asset, multi-structure, multi-manager team at Octopus Investments, which manages around £1.25bn for private clients and charities.

Bish began his investment career in 1994 and was previously with Bestinvest Brokers and Barclays Wealth.

He graduated from Trinity College, Oxford (Engineering & Computing Science) and is a CFA charterholder.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The merit of the winners is based on entirely objective, quantitative criteria. This coupled with the unmatched depth of fund data, results in a unique level of prestige and ensures the award has lasting value. Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

For a full list of USA Lipper Fund Award 2019 winners, click here.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The merit of the winners is based on entirely objective, quantitative criteria. This coupled with the unmatched depth of fund data, results in a unique level of prestige and ensures the award has lasting value.

For a full list of USA Lipper Fund Award 2019 winners, click here.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The merit of the winners is based on entirely objective, quantitative criteria. This coupled with the unmatched depth of fund data, results in a unique level of prestige and ensures the award has lasting value.

For a full list of USA Lipper Fund Award 2019 winners, click here.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The merit of the winners is based on entirely objective, quantitative criteria. This coupled with the unmatched depth of fund data, results in a unique level of prestige and ensures the award has lasting value.

For a full list of USA Lipper Fund Award 2019 winners, click here.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The merit of the winners is based on entirely objective, quantitative criteria. This coupled with the unmatched depth of fund data, results in a unique level of prestige and ensures the award has lasting value.

For a full list of USA Lipper Fund Award 2019 winners, click here.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The merit of the winners is based on entirely objective, quantitative criteria. This coupled with the unmatched depth of fund data, results in a unique level of prestige and ensures the award has lasting value.

For a full list of USA Lipper Fund Award 2019 winners, click here.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The merit of the winners is based on entirely objective, quantitative criteria. This coupled with the unmatched depth of fund data, results in a unique level of prestige and ensures the award has lasting value.

For a full list of USA Lipper Fund Award 2019 winners, click here.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The merit of the winners is based on entirely objective, quantitative criteria. This coupled with the unmatched depth of fund data, results in a unique level of prestige and ensures the award has lasting value.

For a full list of USA Lipper Fund Award 2019 winners, click here.

These highly-respected awards honor funds and fund management firms that have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers.

Lipper is working to redefine what data can do with analytics, insights and technology. Today we are building the world’s most advanced technology stack that will power the solutions of tomorrow with endless possibilities. Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

View all 2019 Hong Kong winners and photos of the event here.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub.

He highlighted the developments, major fluctuations and recorded net inflows and outflows globally, as well as the top leading sectors and the performance of active and passive management for 2018.

The Lipper Leaders’ rating system is explained in relation to the Lipper Fund Awards methodology, and how it is applied to winning funds and the Hong Kong universe. The process for selecting the winners is rigorous and based on Lipper’s proprietary methodology and data.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

View all 2019 Hong Kong winners and photos of the event here.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub.

She explains the major reforms that have been implemented, the benefits of the Centralized Platform unique to Hong Kong and the launch of the “Investment Solutions Lab”.

The MPF has called on the support of service and product providers to develop suitable long-term investment fund products and not simply focus on short-term gains.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

View all 2019 Hong Kong winners and photos of the event here.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub. 

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub.

Lipper Fund Award winners have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub.

The 15th Lipper Fund Awards, Hong Kong were held at the JW Marriott Hotel on April 25, 2019.

The 2019 Lipper Fund Awards paid tribute to outstanding fund performance at an exclusive event held to celebrate winning funds and fund management firms for their consistently strong risk-adjusted performance, relative to their peers.

The Lipper Fund Awards provides a unique opportunity for fund managers, fund distribution professionals, wealth managers and advisors to network with clients and peers. Winners celebrate their success with their teams and the investment community

The process for selecting the winners is rigorous and based on Lipper’s proprietary methodology and data. View all 2019 Hong Kong winners and photos of the event here.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub – http://refinitiv.com/perspectives.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. Refinitiv cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice. 

In this video, the award winning manager (collecting the award in the Bond Global category for 3-years) with the UBS Global Dynamic Fund, provides insight on the challenges of fund management in 2018.

Kevin also considers the importance of doing your homework on central banks and their policies, how Lipper Fund Awards drive excellence and the drivers for success behind his funds.

For a full list of UK Lipper Fund Award winners for 2019, click here.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub – http://refinitiv.com/perspectives.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. Refinitiv cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice. 

Winning in the Mixed Asset GBP Flexible (3-years) category with the LF Miton Worldwide Opportunities Fund, Nick discusses his strategy, how he overcame the challenge of a sterling denominated fund in the era of Brexit and areas of opportunity to explore during this time.

For a full list of UK Lipper Fund Award winners for 2019, click here.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub – http://refinitiv.com/perspectives.

The 2019 Lipper Fund Awards United Kingdom were held at Banking Hall, London on 14 March 2019.

The Lipper Fund Awards paid tribute to outstanding fund performance at an exclusive event that celebrated winning funds and fund management firms for their consistently strong risk-adjusted performance, relative to their peers.  Eight fund families also received Asset Class Group Awards for their superior firm-wide performance.

The Lipper Fund Awards provides a unique opportunity for fund managers, fund distribution professionals, wealth managers and advisors to network with clients and peers. Winners celebrate their success with their teams and the investment community.

During the event, Jake Moeller, Head of Lipper UK and Ireland Research at Refinitiv caught up with Chris Bowie, manager of the TwentyFour Absolute Return Credit Fund. 

In this short video interview, Chris outlines the factors contributing to his success. He considers some of the challenges faced by bond markets in 2018 and reveals some of the key factors contributing to his current portfolio positioning as a result.

About Chris Bowie

Chris Bowie, TwentyFour AM.

Chris is one of the partners at TwentyFour, joining in September 2014 to create and manage the Outcome and Index Driven business line.

This business line sits between the ABS and Unconstrained strategies and tends to have greater exposure to interest rate sensitive bonds, where the active management of duration risk is a key determinant of absolute and relative performance.

Day to day, Chris is the lead manager for the Corporate Bond Fund and Absolute Return Credit Fund.  He also is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee and a member of the firms ESG steering group.

Chris has 25 years of experience across fixed income markets, having been Head of Credit at Ignis for 10 years, and Head of Rates at AEGON (now Kames). Before AEGON, Chris was a senior portfolio manager at Murray Johnstone Ltd (which was acquired by Aberdeen Asset management).

In this short interview Jake Moeller, Head of Lipper UK and Ireland Research, sat down on stage with Paul Glover, Chief Investment Manager at NFU Mutual who outlined some of the key factors he believes have contributed to its success.

Where Lipper Awards represent excellence in performance outcomes, there is inevitably a talented team and organisation behind it. We congratulate NFU Mutual and appreciate Paul sharing some of his views on what it takes to win a Lipper Fund Award.

All the fund winners of the evening can be found here.

For new insights on artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, big data, risk management, compliance, fighting financial crime and the future of trading and investing, visit our insights hub – http://refinitiv.com/perspectives.

Refinitiv, formerly the Financial & Risk business of Thomson Reuters, is one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure. Serving more than 40,000 institutions in approximately 190 countries, we provide information, insights, and technology that drive innovation and performance in global markets.

To this end, Lipper is pleased to announce a significant upgrade of its proprietary Global classifications in response to these trends and client feedback.

Please see the attached video for an outline of the changes.

Lipper and Refinitiv customers can also find more information via this link.

The key points include:

• The outlook for inflation and global growth
• The effects of quantitative tightening and interest rate policy
• Regional opportunities in equities and bonds
• Potential macroeconomic risks and headwinds
• Summary of geopolitical risks

The panellists are Shamik Dhar, Chief Economist at BNY Mellon Investment Management; Andrew Milligan, Head of Global Strategy at Standard Life Investments; and Patrick Armstrong, CIO at Plurimi Investment Managers.

The panel moderator is  Jake Moeller, Head of Lipper UK and Ireland Research.

About Shamik Dhar  

Shamik Dhar.

Shamik Dhar is the Chief Economist of BNY Mellon Investment Management.

Shamik most recently served as Chief Economist and Director for Economics for the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2014. He has 30 years of experience as an economist, advising investors and governments on market activity, trends and economic indicators.

Shamik started in the UK Treasury in the late 1980s, moving on in the 1990s to Oxford Economic Forecasting and the Bank of England. In 2000, he moved to Morley Fund Management, then in 2004 co-founded Fathom Consulting, a leading economics consultancy, before moving back into asset management with Aviva Investors in 2009.

About Andrew Milligan

Andrew Milligan.

Andrew Milligan OBE joined Standard Life Investments (now Aberdeen Standard Investments) in 2000 as Global Investment Strategist before being appointed Head of Global Strategy in January 2001.

Prior to that, he was employed by HM Treasury, followed by Lloyds Bank where he was an Economic Adviser, and Smith New Court as an International Economist.

In 1994, he was appointed Chief Economist with New Japan Securities Europe. He then moved to Morley Fund Management (now Aviva Investors) in 1996 to take up the position of Director of Economic Research & Business Risk.

About Patrick Armstrong

Patrick Armstrong.

Patrick is CIO and co-heads Plurimi Investment Managers. Previously Patrick spent 5 years as CIO at Armstrong Investment Managers, focusing on risk-controlled global macro multi-asset solutions and 6 years as co-head of Insight Investment’s $2 billion Multi-Asset Group.

Prior to joining Insight Patrick worked at UBS as Head of Manager Selection for the $6 billion Managed Accounts Program. Patrick also worked at Deutsche Bank as an equity analyst, TD Securities as a derivatives analyst and began his career at Templeton management in Toronto.

Patrick has an MBA from the Rotman School of Management – University of Toronto, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He is the manager of two funds:  Diversified Dynamic Solution, winner of the HFM European Performance Award 2016 – Best Multi-Strategy, and Prosper Global Macro.

Rosalie Vendette, ESG Practice Leader for Desjardins and Judy Cotte, Head of Corporate Governance & Responsible Investment for RBC Global Asset Management were interviewed by Tim Kiladze of the Globe & Mail.

The Lipper Fund Awards bring together top performers, asset and wealth management visionaries, experts and influencers. As part of the Awards program, we hold a brief ‘fireside chat’ to discuss market trends, critical investment issues and new opportunities impacting the industry today. Speakers share their expertise and perspectives amongst fellow industry leaders on issues vital to defining its future.

You can view the full list of winners here and the event photos here

In this paper, we’ll examine if this behavior actually occurred during several market sell-offs. We use the StarMine® Earnings Quality (EQ)¹ stock ranking model throughout this Research Note as the measure of “quality.”

In this study, we performed a test examining the performance of a quality factor from the “official” beginning to end of recent bear markets and prolonged corrections – those times when the downturn didn’t descend to a level that is called a bear market (-20% or more).
StarMine EQ is designed to measure the sustainability of a company’s sources of earnings. It is an enhanced version of the Accrual Anomaly².

We examine the performance of the StarMine Earnings Quality (EQ) model, starting at the time of the correction, rebalancing the portfolio monthly, excluding transaction costs. Results were calculated with the backtest capabilities of the Thomson Reuters QA Point product, developed in partnership with platform developer Elsen Inc.³

To capture those dates, we turn to economist and strategist Edward Yardeni4. He includes a table of S&P 500 Bear Markets and Corrections since 1928 in Appendix 15.⁴ of his new book⁵. With permission, those since 1998 are shown as Exhibit 1.

For our test, we chose the four longest downturns:
Mar-00 – Oct-02: Tech Bubble bursts
Oct-07 – Mar-09: Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Great Recession
Apr-11 – Oct-11: Global market sell-off post downgrade of U.S. sovereign credit rating
Nov-15 – Feb-16: China stock market crash

Exhibit 2: Annualized Earnings Quality Returns vs. S&P 500

Source:  QA Point, StarMine, S&P

The results of this test support the hypothesis. Cumulative top decile returns significantly beat the equal-weighted universe in all sample periods and an absolute-return strategy using top/bottom decile spreads is alpha generative. Bottom decile, or poor-quality stocks had especially negative returns versus the overall universe. Filtering out low-quality securities during market downturns appears to be especially beneficial as a method of risk mitigation reducing portfolio volatility and improving risk-adjusted returns. (Note that spreads are rebalanced and compounded monthly and not just calculated as top decile minus bottom decile.)

The performance of EQ over the entire history sample of January 1998 to March 2018 showed an annualized decile spread of 7.51% and a Sharpe Ratio of 0.55. During each of these four major corrections, both the annualized decline spreads and Sharpe Ratios were significantly above those performance measures over the entire 1998-2018 history. The EQ model performed better than average during downturns. This appears to validate that a flight to quality behavior does occur during market corrections and that investors benefit from a quality tilt in their portfolios during those times.

Evidence of earnings quality based outperformance in global markets

To this point, the focus has been on U.S. market data and indices. This was to both align U.S. data and correction dates with a U.S. index and also because beating the S&P 500 is one of the toughest challenges and competitors for active managers.

However, market downturns in the U.S. are frequently correlated with global sell-offs. You can see that occurred in each of our four downturn periods by the negative benchmark and equal-weighted universe returns in Exhibit 3. Correlations of cross-market returns during major market downturns often increase. This is often referred to as market contagion. For that reason, and for the benefit of our global asset management community, this study next examines returns using the constituents of the MSCI World index as the benchmark.

Source: QA Point, StarMine, MSCI

Results are consistent with those run against the S&P 500, with cumulative top decile returns beating the equal-weighted universe in each period and generating consistently strongly positive annualized decile spreads.

These results were achieved with especially good risk-adjusted returns. Sharpe ratios are quite good in each period. Again, we note the significant degree of underperformance among bottom decile constituents.

We discovered convincing evidence of a “flight to quality” during market downturns and that by tilting a portfolio to a quality factor or adding it as a filter to new-idea generation screens we can greatly improve performance during those times.

1 The StarMine EQ model, Introduction and Global Results; StarMine white paper, 9 March 2009; Gaumer, Malinak, Bonne, Bae and Sargent.

2 The Accrual Anomaly was first documented by Richard Sloan in the paper, Do Stock Prices Fully Reflect Information in Accruals and Cash Flows about Future Earnings? Richard G. Sloan, The Accounting Review, Vol. 71, No. 3, July 1996.

3 QA Point, Powered by Elsen.

4 Yardeni Research.

5 Predicting the Markets: A Professional Autobiography, Edward Yardeni, 2018.

______________________________________________________________________________________

StarMine models and components are available via Eikon, our Quantitative Database, QA Direct; and via FTP feed. The aggregated StarMine content grouped by business classification, geography, index and portfolio can be found in the Eikon Aggregates App. ETPs and indices are also available in Eikon.

Lipper Fund Awards 2018 – Hong Kong Highlights Video

In the words of Guest Speaker, Mr. Joseph Chan, the Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury for the HKSAR Government, “Congratulations go to all the winners who are no doubt the cream of the crop of Hong Kong’s fund management industry.”

Like every year, at this event we recognize funds and fund management firms for their consistently strong risk-adjusted three-, five-, and ten-year performance, relative to their peers, based on Lipper’s proprietary performance-based methodology.

The Lipper Fund Awards provide a unique opportunity for fund managers, fund distribution professionals, wealth managers and advisors to network with clients and peers, discuss current issues with industry experts, and celebrate the achievements of the award winners.

To find out more about the Lipper Fund Awards, click here.

This panel covers the key due-diligence considerations that fund selectors address in their assessment of mutual funds. It is essential viewing for anybody who needs to understand how fund selectors operate and the current issues facing the mutual funds industry today.

Running order

Lipper is grateful to the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment for sharing this footage.

About Lucy Walker

Lucy Walker

Lucy is Head of Third Party Funds at Sarasin & Partners. She joined the firm as a fund analyst in 2011, became a fund manager in 2012 and was promoted to head of the team in 2016. Lucy manages £300m in a range of multi-asset portfolios and advises on £1.8 billion of assets in third party funds. Prior to joining Sarasin, she worked in the multimanager team at HSBC Global Asset Management. Lucy has a BSc Economics and is a CFA Charterholder.

About Victoria Hasler

Victoria became Head of Research in December 2014 after joining Square Mile as Senior Investment Research Analyst. She is a member of the Executive Management Team, which provides input into the strategic direction of the business.

Victoria Hasler

Victoria is responsible for managing and developing the research team, in addition to focusing on fixed income fund research and looking after clients. Before joining Square Mile Victoria worked for Brewin Dolphin as a fund analyst.

Prior to this Victoria was a Fixed Income Investment Manager at Rothschild Private Bank and a Fixed Income Analyst at Merrill Lynch. Victoria holds a BA (Hons) in Economics with French from the University of Durham, the Investment Management Certificate and in addition is a CFA and CAIA charterholder.

About Tony Yousefian

Tony Yousefian began his career in financial services in 1982. He has been involved in discretionary investment management for both private client portfolios and funds, as an analyst and fund manager, since 1987.

Tony Yousefian

In 2003, as the CIO of OPM Fund Management Ltd, Tony founded and managed the OPM range of multi-manager, multi-asset funds, before the company was acquired in April 2013.

Tony is a consultant at FundCalibre. He is also a discretionary investment manager at Avellemy Ltd. He holds the Investment Management Certificate of the Institute of Investment Management and Research and is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

In this presentation, Detlef explains what fund categories are proving popular with investors, which are not, and which fund groups are selling well. Detlef also examines the split of investments between active and passive vehicles in Europe and provides an overview of current fund sector preferences.

The full Lipper European Fund Market Report for 1H 2018 can be accessed via this link.

Running order

Lipper is grateful to the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment for sharing this footage.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

Jake was joined by Bev Shah, founder and CEO of CityHive; Maike Currie, Investment Director at Fidelity; and Natalie Kenway, Deputy Editor at Investment Week. The panel outlined the importance and benefits of improving gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, and age diversity.

Running order

Key points included:

• “Group think” is a huge risk to companies; improved diversity reduces this.
• Cognitive diversity should be a broad objective of all working environments.
• Female role models in the financial industry are too few.
• Quotas and legislation are not always ideal but are important early in the formation of the diversity narrative.
• Diversity formulated as a box-ticking exercise can be counter-productive.
• Fund groups are now much more aware of diversity issues, and the narrative is becoming more popular with the readers of mainstream and trade press.
• Flexibility in the workplace is a strong foundation for improving broad diversity.
• Firms should be a reflection of the diversity of their clients.
• Managers should consider their workplaces as a “community” and encourage networking among its different constituents.
• The fund selector has a key role to play in lobbying fund houses to improving diversity through the request-for-proposal (RFP) process.

Lipper is grateful to the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment for providing this footage.

About Bev Shah

Bev Shah

Bhavini ‘Bev’ Shah is Founder and CEO of City Hive – A Network for Change. Prior to founding City Hive in 2016, Bev gained more than 15 years’ experience in the City at some of the world’s largest financial institutions – Aviva, Aviva Investors, Merchant Securities (now part of SanLam UK), HSBC, Bear Stearns & Lehman Brothers.

As a British/Indian dyslexic woman (and married mother of two), Bev is passionate about empowering the investment and asset management sector to forge a more equitable and inclusive culture. She passionately believes in the value of diverse thought and experience in rebuilding trust in financial services and enhancing investment performance.

Bev is a media commentator on topics of gender equality and all aspects of diversity in the investment sector. She has been a judge at the Women in Investment Awards 2017 and 2018, is keynote speaker at industry events and a panel moderator, most recently at the London School of Economics’ Phenomenal Women Conference.

Bev is also active across work streams at the Diversity Project (including gender and neurodiversity).

About Maike Currie

Maike Currie

Maike Currie is a writer, broadcaster and published author. As an investment director for Fidelity International she provides insight, guidance and commentary to the company’s end investors on topics ranging from macroeconomics to investment, pensions and financial wellness. She is the author of The Search for Income: An Investor’s Guide to Income-Paying Investments.

Maike also acts as a media spokesperson for the broader business, often appearing on BBC business, Sky news and ITV. Prior to joining Fidelity, Maike worked as a financial journalist across a number of titles in the Financial Times Group. She is regularly quoted in the national press and continues to write a monthly column for the FT.

About Natalie Kenway

Natalie Kenway

Natalie Kenway is deputy editor of Investment Week. She first joined the publication in 2005 as junior reporter before working her way up to an editing role. She has a particular passion for covering diversity-related topics.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

How Successful Is the StarMine SmartEstimate?

SmartEstimates are our proprietary estimates designed to provide more accurate forecasts of financial measures than analyst consensus. They are constructed by placing more weight on the more recent forecasts from the most accurate analysts – based on each analyst’s historical track record and the age of the estimate.
The StarMine SmartEstimate algorithm was finalized in 1999 and is a heavily utilized data point within the desktop, Eikon, in a data feed for quants and as an input into various StarMine factor models, including Analyst Revisions Model (ARM), Intrinsic Valuation (IV) and Relative Valuation (RV). The Predicted Surprise® is a StarMine-branded analytic that measures the percentage difference between the I/B/E/S® Mean, or consensus estimate, and the StarMine SmartEstimate. The Predicted Surprise percent is predictive of the direction of both future analyst revisions and earnings surprises. Our 2009 SmartEstimate and Predicted Surprise white paper found that when the magnitude of the Predicted Surprise percent was greater than +2% or -2%, it correctly predicted the direction of earnings surprises with about a 70% accuracy rate, and even better in the presence of corroborating revisions.1

1 Stauth J., & Bonne G. SmartEstimates and the Predicted Surprise: Construction and Accuracy, StarMine White Paper, 2009.

Market Environment May Make Focusing on Risk More Important

While many market pundits agree that global equity markets are expensive (and, as the CAPE P/E ratio shown in Exhibit 1 illustrates, especially so in the United States), we acknowledge that most portfolio managers are not paid to make market timing decisions; they’re paid to provide alpha generative performance for a given mandate. As such, they need to navigate the challenges of all market conditions. Given that institutional asset managers need to maintain their market exposure, a more productive and possibly profitable approach during what may be the late stage of a prolonged bull market is to shift some research time from trying to pick the next winner to avoiding losers. You can generate alpha by picking winning stocks. Avoiding big losers is another, and often overlooked, source of alpha and avoiding an earnings miss in a high-expectation security is likely to provide both improved portfolio performance alongside a reduction in portfolio volatility.

Applying the Predicted Surprise % as a Risk Mitigation Factor

The StarMine Predicted Surprise can play a valuable role in both idea generation and risk mitigation, as it provides institutional investors with a systematic forecast of likely beats and misses on a global universe of approximately 16,000 equities, updated daily. A market environment that appears to be one of both elevated market expectations and rising volatility leaves no room for earnings disappointments. For that reason, this study will focus on the performance of the Predicted Surprise in predicting negative earnings surprises.

Performance Analysis

We reexamined a large global universe of equities against those with a Predicted Surprise of -2% or greater. This universe of 9,000 securities consists of the top 3,000 by market cap in the U.S., 500 in Canada, 2,000 in Developed Europe, 1,000 each in Developed Asia ex-Japan and Japan, and 1,500 in Emerging Markets. We utilized I/B/E/S data of analyst estimates and reported actuals at monthly frequency over a 19-year period from January 1998 to November 2017. Because the availability of historical quarterly estimates is poor in many countries outside the U.S., we conducted our analysis utilizing only fiscal year estimates for the then-current fiscal period (FY1). We examine the Predicted Surprise at every month-end throughout the entire fiscal year in our analysis. In this study, we found that the Predicted Surprise accurately forecasted negative earnings surprises nearly 73% of the time. We then broke the sample into two subsets: early years (Jan-98 – Nov-08) and later years (Dec-08 – Nov-17). The predictive performance was essentially equal between the two periods (73.05% and 71.97%, respectively). This study thus confirms the persistence in the efficacy of the SmartEstimate and Predicted Surprise, despite being commercially available for many years.

Beating the Odds

Against those results, we examined negative earnings surprises of the constituents of our global universe. That result is shown in Exhibit 2, together with its U.S. and ex-U.S. subsets. Over the time frame of our study, 48.0% of all companies missed their earlier consensus estimate. Put another way, if you were to try and predict if one of the companies in our global universe was going to report an earnings miss, mere guesswork would give you a hit rate of 48.0%. In contrast, if you were to base your prediction on those companies with a StarMine Predicted Surprise of -2% or worse, you’d be right 72.6% of the time. The Predicted Surprise improves the prediction accuracy by 24.6 percentage points compared to random chance.

Summary

The StarMine Predicted Surprise is a unique, valuable input for effective portfolio risk management, allowing the investment team to be aware of firms with a heightened risk of disappointing results during earnings season.

This approach can assist with:

• Identifying stocks with a heightened likelihood of an earnings miss (or beat) as either a quant input or in order to trigger further fundamental analysis
• Idea generation/As an input into a short-selling strategy
• As an input into predicting future estimate revisions

With the explosive growth in passive exchange-traded products (ETPs), constructing appropriate investing strategies in this area is more important now than ever. In recent years, investors’ interest in index mutual funds and ETPs has dramatically increased. The Investment Company Institute reports that between 2007 and 2016, index domestic equity mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) received $1.4 trillion in net new cash and reinvested dividends. In contrast, actively managed domestic equity mutual funds experienced a net outflow of $1.1 trillion.[1]

StarMine quantitative models have a long and proven track record of being strong predictive tools to rank individual securities and generate alpha. Khela and Renick found in 2011 that aggregating StarMine Value-Momentum model scores within countries is a profitable methodology to determine future outperformance at a country level.[2]

Do StarMine models add value to country selection?

In earlier work, we showed that a monthly rebalancing long-short strategy using StarMine signals and Thomson Reuters Global Equity Indices successfully predicts which country indices will out- and under-perform.[3] With the success of that proof-of-concept we subsequently demonstrate how this strategy is profitable when applied to tradable liquid country ETFs. The research highlights that most aggregated StarMine signals show consistent ability to sort investable country proxies over the 9 year period from 2008 to 2016. The StarMine Earnings Quality (EQ) model dominates the performance and generates an average annualized quintile spread of 11.6% and a Sharpe ratio of 1.3. StarMine Price Momentum (Price Mo) model and Combined Alpha (CAM) model perform consistently solid and strongly outperform the benchmark – a buy-and-hold strategy that invests in iShares MSCI ACWI ETF.

Figure 1: Cumulative quintile spread for the top performing StarMine signals over March 2008 – December 2016 assuming a monthly rebalancing long-short strategy. The dashed line represents the benchmark – iShares MSCI ACWI ETF.

A more convenient version of the strategy, which only requires examining the top holdings of each ETF rather than the full constituent list, also generates significant outperformance.

Do StarMine models add value to region selection?

A region ETF rotation strategy using StarMine signals obtains robust and persistent performance. The long-short strategy that employs StarMine EQ model and rebalances monthly achieves an annualized return of 7.4%, significantly in excess of the global market benchmark’s return of 2.4%.

Figure 2: Cumulative return for the top performing StarMine monthly rebalancing long-short region portfolios over March 2008 – December 2016. The dashed line represents the benchmark – iShares MSCI ACWI ETF. The table below lists the region ETFs considered in the StarMine portfolios.

Table 1: The ten region ETFs considered in the research.

______________________________________________________________________________________

StarMine models and components are available via Eikon, our Quantitative Database, QA Direct; and via FTP feed. The aggregated StarMine content grouped by business classification, geography, index and portfolio can be found in the Eikon Aggregates App. ETPs and indices are also available in Eikon.

[1] Investment Company Institute, 2017 Investment company Fact Book, P46.

[2] Khela, J., & Renick, D. 2011, StarMine Country Scores, StarMine Research Note.

[3] Zhang, B., & Genin, H. 2018, Using StarMine Signals for Country Selection, StarMine Research Note.

This awards dinner brought together asset and wealth management visionaries, experts and influencers, fund managers, advisors, and fund distribution professionals to network and discuss market trends, critical investment issues, and new opportunities that affect the industry.

In addition to individual fund classification awards, Fund Family Awards were presented to the qualified firms from each asset class and group with the lowest average decile rank of the three-year Consistent Return measures of the eligible funds. Fund Family Award winners in attendance on February 27 were honored for the following awards:

• Nuveen’s TIAA Investments won both the Best Overall Funds and the Best Mixed-Asset Funds Awards for a Large Fund Company. TIAA beat 33 other fund companies to take home the Best Overall trophy for the sixth straight year. It also finished first among 35 fund companies for its third consecutive victory in the Best Mixed-Asset Funds category. TIAA captured eight individual awards this year, including two trophies, all for mixed-asset fund classifications.
• The Best Overall Funds Award for a Small Fund Company this year went to Thrivent Mutual Funds. This was the third consecutive year Thrivent has won the top prize in this category. It did so by outperforming 29 other fund companies that qualified for the award. Thrivent also took home two individual awards this year, including one trophy.
• PRIMECAP Management Company won the Best Equity Funds Award for a Small Fund Company this year for the third consecutive year. PRIMECAP, which has approximately $27.3 billion in assets under management, outdistanced just over 200 other small fund companies for this year’s award.
• Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Inc. captured the Best Fixed Income Funds Award for a Large Fund Company for the second straight year. Morgan Stanley finished first among 39 fund companies in the category this year on the strength of seven individual awards, including three trophies, in fixed income fund classifications.
• Ashmore Funds won its first-ever fund family award this year—in the Best Fixed Income Funds for a Small Fund Company category. Ashmore, with just shy of $2.0 billion in assets under management, ranked Number One among 79 fund companies that qualified in this category. Ashmore also captured an individual award this year in the Emerging Markets Hard Currency Debt Funds classification.
• Allianz Global Investors won the Best Mixed-Asset Funds Award for a Small Fund Company category this year. Allianz, which has roughly $25.6 billion in assets under management, bested 47 other small fund companies to take home the prize.

You can view the full list of the 2018 U.S. Lipper Fund Awards winners here, and you can view photos from the celebration here.

The Lipper Fund Awards, granted annually, highlight funds and fund companies that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The Lipper Fund Awards are based on the Lipper Leaders for Consistent Return rating, which is a risk-adjusted performance measure calculated over 36, 60, and 120 months. The fund with the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value in each eligible classification wins the Lipper Fund Award. For more information see www.lipperfundawards.com. Although Lipper makes reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained herein, the accuracy is not guaranteed by Lipper.

This Keynote interview took place at the USA 2018 Lipper Fund Awards. You can view the full list of 2018 US Lipper Fund Award winners here, and you can view photos from the celebration here.

The Lipper Fund Awards, granted annually, highlight funds and fund companies that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The Lipper Fund Awards are based on the Lipper Leader for Consistent Return rating, which is a risk-adjusted performance measure calculated over 36, 60 and 120 months. The fund with the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value in each eligible classification wins the Lipper Fund Award. For more information, see www.lipperfundawards.com. Although Lipper makes reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained herein, the accuracy is not guaranteed by Lipper.

The Lipper Fund Awards recognize funds that have managed returns and volatility favourably compared with their peers over time.  Join Jake and celebrate excellence with funds managers and firms who have added exceptional value for their investors.

Register to attend here.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice. 

 The Lipper Fund Awards, granted annually, highlight funds and fund companies that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers.

The Lipper Fund Awards are based on the Lipper Leader for Consistent Return rating, which is a risk-adjusted performance measure calculated over 36, 60 and 120 months. The fund with the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value in each eligible classification wins the Lipper Fund Award. For more information, see www.lipperfundawards.com. Although Lipper makes reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained herein, the accuracy is not guaranteed by Lipper.

Charlemagne investment analyst Alexander Short (r) receives the “Equities Frontier” Award from Jake Moeller, head of Lipper UK & Ireland Research (l).

For three years, Lipper is proud to have been associated with the InvestmentEurope Fund Manager of the Year Awards. In 2017, they were held in London on November 30.

The event was attended by over thirty global and pan-European fund manager groups as well as a number of high-profile fund selectors, analysts, wealth managers and mutual fund commentators.

Fund awards with qualitative and quantitative criteria

The InvestmentEurope Awards differ from the Lipper Awards (which are based solely on quantitative criteria) by having a qualitative component which is incorporated by including the aggregated views of the European fund selector community.

The quantitative screen, powered by Lipper for Investment Management, examines a number of quantitative and conditional metrics for all funds within the categories and universes defined with InvestmentEurope. These are then ranked to provide InvestmentEurope and the judges, a short list of funds for subsequent qualitative review. The full methodology can be found here.

Views from Investment Europe

Jonathan Boyd, Editorial Director of InvestmentEurope said:

“InvestmentEurope worked closely with Lipper to realise the preferred quantitative filtering of funds for sale across Europe, in support of the InvestmentEurope Fund Manager of the Year Awards 2017/18. In particular, we value the support we had via Jake Moeller, Head of UK & Ireland Research at Refinitiv Lipper for his engagement in driving forward the project his end.

Jake Moeller reviews Lipper methodology in December 2017’s Investment Europe magazine.

“The filtering preferences applied to achieve the quantitative element of the Awards are the result of discussions with readers and event delegates that make up the fund selector community served across the region by InvestmentEurope, and so  represent the consensus view of professional fund investors and their real-life challenges in identifying funds worthy of additional analysis.

“We welcome the input and assistance that Lipper have provided to the Awards this year, helping to create shortlists of funds that can then undergo further qualitative analysis by fund selectors across Europe to identify the Awards category winners.”

See you again next year…

Lipper is proud to be involved with the highly esteemed InvestmentEurope Fund Manager of the Year Awards and congratulates all the winners and runners up.

The full list of 2017/18 award winners can be found here.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice. 

Subsequently, Adrian Hull and Stephen Snowden have been appointed as the new Co-Heads of Fixed Income at Kames.

In this probing interview Mr. Hull and Mr. Snowden examine the impact of these staff departures on Kames Capital’s business and product range. They outline the changes initiated by their firm in response to the departures and how the wider team will endeavour to manage its funds with minimal disruption.

Running Order

Adrian Hull and Stephen Snowden are talking to Jake Moeller, Head of Lipper UK & Ireland Research at Refinitiv in London on August 23, 2017.

About Stephen Snowden

Stephen Snowden, Kames Capital. Photo courtesy, Kames.

Stephen Snowden is co-head of fixed income at Kames Capital. He specialises in investment grade credit and co-manages two investment grade bond funds and an absolute return bond fund. He rejoined Kames Capital in July 2011 from Old Mutual Asset Management where he managed the Corporate Bond Fund.

Stephen started his career with us in 1994, initially focusing on equities before moving to the fixed income team to manage corporate bond funds.He has a first class honours degree BSc Finance and an MSc Finance from Queens University Belfast. He has 23 years’ industry experience as at 30 June 2017.

About Adrian Hull

Adrian Hull, Kames Capital. Photo courtesy, Kames.

Adrian Hull is co-head of fixed income at Kames Capital. Previously, he was a senior investment specialist in the Fixed Income team where his role involved supporting the team in explaining how the company products and investment process add value for clients.

Prior to joining Kames Capital, he worked as head of sterling trading and sales at Mizuho International, where he set up the sterling corporate bond trading and sales desk.

Adrian studied Modern History at Oxford University and has 27 years’ industry experience as at 30 June 2017.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

In this short Asset TV interview, Jake Moeller, Head of Lipper UK and Ireland Research at Refinitiv reflects on the event through the lens of historical fund flows and considers what, if any, conclusions we can reach in today’s investment environment.

Exhibit 1. Historical Estimated Net Sales of Pan European Mutual Funds by Asset Type (in €bn)

Source: Lipper.

Jake is speaking with Asset TV‘s Jenny Hammond in London on August 16, 2017.

Sign up for weekly updates on fund markets and investment opportunities here.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

In this short Asset TV interview, Jake Moeller, Head of Lipper UK and Ireland Research at Refinitiv compares the fund flow data for the two periods. He examines the issue of daily pricing for this illiquid asset, how fund managers address liquidity, and considers investor perceptions for this popular asset class.

Exhibit 1. Estimated Net Flows of UK Commercial Property Funds 2007/2008

Source: Top – Investment Association. Bottom – Lipper.

Jake is speaking with Asset TV‘s Jenny Hammond in London on August 16, 2017.

Sign up for weekly updates on fund markets and investment opportunities here.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

In this short interview, Albert reveals how his companies are changing the way fund selectors work, his views on how standardisation and efficiency are key elements for fund selectors and how he is changing the way fund selectors and fund managers interact with each other.

About Albert Reiter

Albert Reiter, CFA, is the founder and CEO of e-fundresearch.com Data GmbH and investRFP.com. The company was founded in 2000 as an independent fund information provider with a strong focus on qualitative fund research and ranks among the leading providers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. e-fundresearch.com also developed investRFP.com, an innovative fund and manager search, due diligence and reporting platform for professional investors and asset managers globally.

Albert Reiter. Picture with permission.

Prior to his current role, Albert Reiter was responsible for the institutional asset management business of Invesco (previously LGT) in Austria. He also worked at Commerz Financial Products (Commerzbank), focusing on corporate issues and derivatives, and at Southern Life Asset Management in Cape Town / South Africa as a Derivatives Strategist.

Albert Reiter started his career at GiroCredit Bank as an Options Market Maker for equity and index derivatives. He graduated with a Business Administration and Finance degree from the University of Innsbruck and earned his MBA at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town. He is a CFA charterholder since 2001.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

In this short interview, Andrew reveals how FUNDHOUSE is doing its business differently in the fund selection industry. He outlines the unique fee structure that FUNDHOUSE uses to ensure objectivity in its fund recommendations and explains how the industry suffers from being too “diplomatic” with its sell decisions.

About Andrew MacFarlane

Andrew MacFarlane, FUNDHOUSE

Andrew joined FUNDHOUSE in 2013 and is an Investment Director of the firm. He previously spent a number of years at a premier asset manager, most recently covering a multitude of portfolios across asset classes and regions. Andrew started in the investment industry in 2007 and is based in the UK.

Andrew holds a Bachelor of Business Science (Finance), Masters in Commerce – Financial Management

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

In this short interview, James shares his views on what he looks for in a “good” mutual fund, how he goes about using funds as a portfolio construction tool and how his portfolios are currently positioned in the current market environment.

About James Klempster

James joined Momentum in 2007, following previous roles at NW Brown and Avebury Asset Management. Whilst at Momentum, James has been the pioneer of the company’s inflation-beating UK Factor Fund Series, and this year celebrates 10 years with the business.

James Klempster. Photo courtesy – Momentum

As Head of Investment Management, he now leads the strategy for Momentum’s global multi-asset solutions. James sits on the Investment Strategy Group and is responsible for the manager selection process across a number of asset classes.

He has a passion for Outcome-based investing and is driven to ensure the business remains client-centric, heavily focussed on achieving client’s real-life goals.

James is a CFA Charterholder.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

In this short interview, Peter shares his views on how Seneca construct portfolios with funds, how their portfolios are currently positioned in today’s market and how they attain durable yield in a “lower for longer” interest rate environment.

About Peter Elston

Peter’s research responsibility for Seneca IM is asset allocation.

Peter Elston. Photo courtesy Seneca.

Having  joined the team as global investment strategist in November 2014, Peter was appointed chief investment officer in April 2015 and to the board of the company in January 2016. Peter was appointed as a fund manager on the Seneca Global Income & Growth Trust plc in March 2016. He has previously worked in investment roles at Mercury and Aberdeen, largely based in Asia.

Peter graduated in Oriental Studies from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1988. He enjoys running, photography and science.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

In this Asset TV panel, Lipper data reveals that in 2015, 32% of net flows into mutual funds were into passive vehicles. For 2016 this was 24% and for 2014 only 7%. In the first quarter of 2017, passive flows represented 20% of net flows.

Exhibit 1. Estimated Net Flows of Pan European Mutual Funds by Product Type

Source: Lipper

In this video, hosted by Asset TV‘s Jenny Hammond, and featuring influential industry panellists,  Jake Moeller, Head of Lipper UK & Ireland Research at Refinitiv, discusses the various impacts and issues the growth of passive investing is having on the active fund industry.

Sign up for weekly updates on fund markets and investment opportunities here.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

This insightful panel session covers a wide range of subjects related to the field of mutual fund selection and research.

Running Order

About Dr. Nisha Long

Photo courtesy: Citywire

As Head of Cross-Border Investment Research at Citywire, Dr Nisha Long is involved in the analysis and screening of over 15,500 managers tracked globally by Citywire.

Having joined Citywire a year after completing her Doctorate at Imperial College, London, she has eleven years’ experience in fund and manager analysis. Her investment commentary features regularly in Citywire’s media and the national press.

About Mona Shah

Photo courtesy: Rathbones

Mona is Head of Collectives and a senior research analyst on the Rathbone Multi-Asset Portfolios team, generating fund ideas and undertaking due diligence.

She also sits on Rathbones’ Strategic Asset Allocation Committee, and the Collectives Research Committee, the latter of which selects ‘best of breed’ collective funds for use within portfolios. She specialises in emerging markets from a top down perspective.

Mona joined Rathbones in September 2007 after graduating from the University of Bristol with a first class degree in Economics and Politics. She is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charter-holder.

About Victoria Hasler

Photo courtesy: Square Mile

Victoria became Head of Research in December 2014 after joining Square Mile as Senior Investment Research Analyst. She is a member of the Executive Management Team which provides input into the strategic direction of the business.

She heads up the research team, in addition to focusing on fixed income fund research. Before joining Square Mile Victoria worked for Brewin Dolphin as a fund analyst specialising in fixed income investments.

Prior to this Victoria was a Fixed Income Investment Manager at Rothschild Private Bank and a Fixed Income Analyst at Merrill Lynch. Victoria holds a BA (Hons) in Economics with French from the University of Durham, the Investment Management Certificate and in addition is a CFA and CAIA charterholder.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

Here he shares his views on what makes on future trends in fund selection, the regulatory challenges the industry faces and the issue of fund concentration in the UK.

About Lawrence Gosling

Lawrence Gosling moderates a panel at the Lipper European Fund Selector Forum 2017

Lawrence Gosling is the editorial director of Incisive Media, publishers of a range of investment, pensions and risk management titles. He is the founding editor of Investment Week magazine in January 1995, and still writes a weekly column for the magazine entitled Gosling’s Grouse, he has been a financial journalist for over 30 years. He is married with 3 children, and supports Chelsea FC.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

Here, she shares her views on what makes a good mutual fund, how she considers passive and exchange traded funds and how the fund selection industry is likely to change in the future.

About Victoria Hasler

Victoria became Head of Research in December 2014 after joining Square Mile as Senior Investment Research Analyst. She is a member of the Executive Management Team which provides input into the strategic direction of the business. She heads up the research team, in addition to focusing on fixed income fund research. Before joining Square Mile Victoria worked for Brewin Dolphin as a fund analyst specialising in fixed income investments.

Victoria Hasler speaks at the recent Lipper Fund Selector Forum 2017

Prior to this Victoria was a Fixed Income Investment Manager at Rothschild Private Bank and a Fixed Income Analyst at Merrill Lynch.

Victoria holds a BA (Hons) in Economics with French from the University of Durham, the Investment Management Certificate and in addition is a CFA and CAIA charterholder.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

The panel included:

• Stephen Jones, Chief Investment Officer, Fixed equity, Multi-Asset and Property
• Philip Haworth, Deputy Head of Equities,
• Phil Milburn, Head of Investment strategy, Fixed Income
• David Wise, Property Investment Director

Jake and the panel discussed:

• Challenges in the current macro environment and how geopolitical events are effecting investments
• Where value can be found in equities and what investors should avoid
• The outlook for UK commercial property post Brexit
• How Fixed Income investing has developed and how to cherry pick good investments
• What is reasonable for an investor to expect in terms of yield
• The growth in passive investments and how active investors are reacting to this
  

  ---

  Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

  Disclaimer: 
  This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice. The author does not own shares in this investment.

Thomson Reuters Director of Consumer Research, Jharonne Martis, joins to break down the driving trends in retail.

This intimate, interactive forum brought together the Lipper Fund Awards winning executives, industry leaders, wealth managers, distribution professionals and investment advisors who are shaping the Canadian investment management industry, to discuss the global macro issues that will drive the economy and investments in 2017.

Don’t miss the Keynote Interview with Eric Lascelles, Chief Economist, RBC Global Asset Management as he spoke with Robert Jenkins, Global Head of Research, Thomson Reuters Lipper.

Gain insight and catch up on the rest of the highlights of the afternoon by watching the three panel videos below:

Panel 1: Is Uncertainty the New Black?

Big geopolitical events, changes in investor sentiment, and other factors – many unexpected – are transforming the investing landscape. Strategists from Lipper award-winning firms explore the global macro issues that will drive the economy and investments in 2017.

Topics:

• EU and UK post-Brexit
• New US presidency
• Energy and Commodities
• Regulation/Policy
• China and Emerging Markets
• Central Bank Policy

Moderator: Kevin Allison, Columnist, Reuters Breakingviews
Advisor: Tom Roseen, Head of Research Services, Thomson Reuters Lipper

Panelists:
Paul Taylor, CFA, MBA, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Asset Allocation, BMO
Ruo Tan, CFA, President, Segal Rogerscasey Canada
Gaelen Morphet, Chief Investment Officer, Sentry Investments

Panel 2: Who’s Winning the Active, Passive, Smart Beta Debate?

Active management is being forced to evolve largely in response to the growth in passive investing. Smart beta has been considered a threat to both active and passive management. Surveys indicate that 1/3 of all institutional asset managers are planning to implement a smart beta or factor investment strategy in the coming year. Strategists from Lipper award-winning firms explore all sides of the active-passive debate and the evolving role of the active manager.

Topics:

• Active vs. passive – Which, when and how?
• The role of smart beta and how it’s evolving
• Implementing factor investing: choosing, blending and timing
• What can be indexed? What should be managed?
• What’s next in the evolution?

Moderator: Jeffrey Hodgson, Reuters Canada Editor

Panelists:
Tim Gaumer, Global Director of Fundamental Research, Thomson Reuters
Pat Chiefalo, MD, Head of iShares Product, Canada
Tim Huver, Head of Product, Vanguard Investments Canada Inc.

Panel 3: The New Playing Field for Fund Distribution

Fund companies are experiencing a period of change like no other. Client preferences, fee arrangements, regulation and data management are some of the most critical areas where fund companies are having to adjust to rapid and sometimes unpredictable change as they work to meet the needs of both wealth management clients and platforms. Leading distributors and industry veterans offer their perspective on what they want from fund companies in this new era.

Topics:

• Robo advisors: How automation is changing the money management field
• Revolution in portfolio management: Adjusting to the passive-active approach
• The transparency revolution: CRM2 and the need to develop a firm-wide data management strategy
• Fee-based solutions: The birth of a new business model
• The best-interest standard: Doing business in an era of tighter investor protections

Moderator: Dan Richards, CEO, Client Insights

Panelists:
Bill Packham, Executive Managing Director, Wealth Management at Desjardins Group
Co-Chair & CEO of Qtrade Financial Group
Charyl Galpin, EVP & Managing Director, Head, BMO Nesbitt Burns Private Client Division
Steven J. Donald, FCPA, FCA, President, Assante Wealth Management, Canada

In this video, Jake Moeller, head of Lipper UK and Ireland Research at Refinitiv speaks with  fund manager Craig Bonthron and Head of ESG, Ryan Smith who outline where “sustainability” fits within the ESG framework and its importance to investors.

About Craig Bonthron and Ryan Smith

Craig Bonthron is an investment manager in the Kames equities team, responsible for co-managing global equities portfolios. He joined Kames in 2014 from SWIP, where he was investment director in global equities and was the joint fund manager of the SWIP Global Sustainable Equity fund and the SWIP Global Islamic Equity Fund. In addition Craig also had analysis responsibilities for the tech, energy and utility sectors.

Craig Bonthron. Photo courtesy Kames Capital.

Prior to SWIP, he was a portfolio manager at Kleinwort Benson Investors, a member of the global environmental equity team, and co-manager of the KBI Global Water Fund. Craig has a 1st Class honours degree in Building Surveying, an MSc with Distinction in Business Information Technology Systems from Strathclyde Business School, and has completed level one of the CFA programme. He has 15 years’ industry experience.

Ryan Smith is Head of ESG Research. He joined Kames Capital in October 2000 as an SRI analyst and was appointed to his current position in September 2002. He has 16 years’ industry experience. His role involves managing the team that conducts the ESG screening process for Kames’ Responsible Investing funds.

Ryan Smith. Photo courtesy Kames Capital.

Ryan’s team also provides corporate governance screening and research for all equity investments, and conducts research into environmental and social issues.

Before joining Kames, he worked as an environmental chemist for Severn Trent Water. Ryan has an MSc in Environmental Chemistry from Nottingham Trent University, and is a CFA charter holder.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice. 

Moderator Dr. Bernhard Jünemann (Der Aktionär TV) diskutiert mit Thomas Meyer zu Drewer (ComStage) und Detlef Glow (Lipper) die aktuellen Trends hinsichtlich der Mittelbewegungen, Produktneuheiten und Wachstumsaussichten im europäischen ETF Segment.

In this interview, Mr Snowden discusses:

• Why he disagrees with recent commentator views on a corporate debt “bubble”
• Reaction of the market post “Brexit” vote
• Duration positioning within a “lower for longer” rate environment
• Concentration risk and central bank activity
• Outlook for credit heading into 2017

He also discusses his current portfolio positioning within the Kames Investment Grade Bond Fund.

About Stephen Snowden

Stephen Snowden is Head of Credit in the Kames  fixed income team. He specialises in investment grade credit and co-manages two investment grade bond funds and an absolute return bond fund. He rejoined Kames Capital in July 2011 from Old Mutual Asset Management where he managed the Corporate Bond Fund. Stephen started his career with Kames in 1994, initially focusing on equities before moving to the fixed income team to manage corporate bond funds. He has a first class honours degree BSc Finance and an MSc Finance from Queens University Belfast, and is also an associate member of the CFA Society of the UK. He has 22 years industry experience as at 31 July 2016.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice. The author does not own shares in this investment.

In this interview, Phil Milburn discusses his return to Kames Capital after an extended illness and introduces David Ennett, a new hire to the Kames fixed income team from Standard Life Investments.

The duo also outline the challenges and opportunities for the high yield bond market moving into 2017 and discuss positioning and performance of the Kames High Yield Bond Fund and Kames High Yield Global Bond Fund.

Subscribe to the Lipper Alpha Insight Newsletters:

• Investment Weekly

• Funds Weekly

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.

Watch the video to find out Fathom Consulting’s view.

This short video outlines Fathom Consulting’s forecast for UK GDP:

• Fathom predicts a dip in growth due to Brexit but no outright contraction.
• Fathom predicts headline inflation will rise.

Watch the video to dive into the details.

Watch the short video featuring Erik Britton, Director of Fathom Consulting, to see the Consultancy firm forecast how sterling will perform post Brexit.

The “Brexit” outcome in the recent EU membership referendum resulted in considerable disruption for U.K. commercial property funds. Many suspended trading following heavy redemptions. In this Vlog, Steven discusses how investors can improve liquidity within their property exposure.

Look out for the full Fund Manager Briefing on LipperAlpha.com.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice. The author does not own shares in this investment.

The “Brexit” outcome in the recent EU membership referendum isn’t keeping Ken Nicholson awake. In this Vlog, he briefly puts forward the case for European small and mid-sized companies irrespective of prevailing macro and geopolitical breezes.

The full Fund Manager Briefing on Ken’s fund can be found here.

Lipper delivers data on more than 265,000 collective investments in 61 countries. Find out more.

Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. We cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice. The author does not own shares in this investment.

Panelists:

• Robert Jenkins, Global Head of Research, Thomson Reuters Lipper (Moderator; pictured far left)
• Lisa Black, CIO and Head of Global Public Markets, TIAA Global Asset Management (far right)
• David Francis, Head of Equities, Thrivent Asset Management (center right)
• Barry Mandinach, Head of Distribution, Virtus Investment Partners (center left)

Panelists:

• Jeff Goldfarb, U.S. Editor Breaking Views/Thomson Reuters (Moderator; pictured far left)
• Candice Tse, Senior Market Strategist, Goldman Sachs Asset Management (far right)
• Duncan Balsbaugh, Senior Market Strategist, IFR Markets (left center)
• Brian Jacobsen, Chief Portfolio Strategist, Wells Fargo (right center)

Watch again here.

Funds (including both mutual funds and ETFs) experienced overall net inflows of approximately $36.6 billion during the fourth quarter of 2015.  Money market funds (+$76.9 billion) and municipal bond funds (+$9.0 billion) both took in net new money while taxable bond funds (-$38.0 billion) and equity funds (-$11.3 billion) saw money leave their coffers.

Despite a disappointing finish for the year, with most of the major indices posting negative returns for December, equity markets posted plus-side returns for Q4 2015. Markets remained quite volatile for the quarter as investors kept a wary eye on the Chinese and European economies, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and freefalling oil prices. Tom Roseen highlights investment trends for equity funds during Q4 and provides his outlook for next quarter.