Now here's an idea to set the cat amongst the pigeons.
Sunday, July 13th 2003, 10:56PM
Now here's an idea to set the cat amongst the pigeons. What if, in times of difficulty, all the funds management industry banded together to grow the overall pie, and provide investors with some additional confidence in their products.
A couple of recent events have engendered this thought.
One is an article by the FPIA in the Chartered Accountants Journal giving readers some comfort in the overall security and positive aspects of managed fund products.
The other was a proposition floated to me by a senior figure in the industry.
He suggested that maybe the funds management community should have got together and supported companies like Tower and AMP during their times of corporate difficulty, as undoubtedly they have suffered “brand damage” with clients, and that has a flow on effect to all managed funds and life companies.
The message the industry would put out would go something like this. These companies are having problems because of decisions made in the boardroom about expansion and corporate issues. The underlying businesses in New Zealand are still fine, and investors in managed funds products are safe as the money is held and controlled by trustees, not the company.
That message would be nice in retrospect as the markets have had a good quarter and investors should be feeling (slightly) better.
On the other hand, if no-one else will help them, it’s pleasing to see that Tower Asset Management can put on soirees and celebrate with its clients some recent achievements - such as being named Infinz Fund Manager of the Year, and winning some awards for the Bayfair property development in Tauranga.
On this same theme of help and reward, it’s interesting to see that AMP are prepared to shell out money to help their advisers through times of difficulty (even if NZ advisers have been somewhat underwhelmed by what's on offer).
Good Returns has established a new service to help you find the best deposit rates in the market.
Instead of laying all the rates out in a difficult to read table we have created a calculator where you can enter the term and the amount and come up with a list of options. For instance you could say: “What rates can I get for $100,000 invested for 12 months”
Remember to bookmark the page for future use and to tell a friend about it. (To get there from the home page of Good Returns, click on the Deposit rates button in the main left hand navigation bar).
