Gatekeepers need to be better resourced

A forum of leading players in the investment management arena have called on gatekeepers in the industry, such as research houses, platforms, and asset consultants, to increase the depth of their operations in order to provide a more efficient service for investors in light of the proliferation of new fund managers, in particular boutiques, in the market.

Speaking at the most recent Match Point for thought leaders, Pinnacle Investment Management managing director Ian Macoun said: “I think it’s a very desirable thing to create this extra capacity and get it to the market as soon as possible. I think it’s a win, win for everyone and I think our investors want it. But the process of doing it is a tough one.

“It’s a big challenge because we can’t just put our investors into new things without doing a lot of due diligence, so we have to rely on gatekeepers to do a fair amount of that. I do agree there is a worry about resourcing … In my world, I’d like to see asset consultants and research houses paid more, [be] better resourced and able to get on to accessing new boutiques and new capabilities quicker,” he added.

Head of funds management at Becton Investment Management Matthew Chun believes the property sector provides a good example of this lack of gatekeeping resources at work.

“To take to an asset consultant a new concept like the machinations of a retirement fund is very complicated … we couldn’t get enough time with them to be able to take them through the concept because they were too busy,” he said.

However, Chris Cuffe, Social Venture of Australia executive director, felt the boutiques themselves had to make their products more practicable in the platform space to help alleviate any frustrations regarding the processes involved with gatekeeping.

According to Cuffe, too many products from boutique managers are close ended with limited capacity, meaning by the time the gatekeeper’s assessment has been made few if any additional funds can be allocated to the offering.