Perpetual welcomes level playing field

Perpetual’s non-tied distribution model will become more relevant as the industry evolves, according to group executive of business services and chief operating officer of Australian equities, Cathy Doyle.

Doyle said Perpetual Investments has maintained its independence from Perpetual Private Wealth through the philosophy that all clients should be treated equally. It does not offer commissions and does not afford Perpetual advisers discounted products.

“We’ve always had to position ourselves in what you could call an ‘unfair market’, because of our independence,” said Doyle.

“It’s anchored in the philosophy that we like to treat all clients the same, so in that sense it shouldn’t be what we pay you, but what our value proposition is to the end investor. Perpetual Private Wealth is treated just like any other external client.”

She said Perpetual Private Wealth reviewed Perpetual Investments as it would any other fund manager and therefore maintained a ‘best of breed’ policy.

“We see our job as a manufacturing house. They are another non-tied distribution channel to us,” said Doyle.

Doyle said Perpetual Investments was fortunate in that it was already well-positioned for regulatory change, adding that the only difference would be that it might find itself more in demand as the larger groups (whose advisers may have written a lot of their own product) shifted towards a ‘best of breed’ policy.

Doyle said part of the challenge in an environment of regulatory change was identifying what were the ‘best of breed’ products of the future.

“It’s not about the products we have now, but is about what would be the ‘best of breed’ products of the future to support this regime,” said Doyle.

She said from an independence point of view, Perpetual Investments was the only listed fund manager that incubated shareholders money, which gave them time to test ideas in the market and gauge whether they had the skills and capability.

“There’s no pressure to have things in incubation launched, so we have time to see these things come to fruition,” she said.

Doyle said this differed from tied distribution fund managers that send products straight out to market because they had a guaranteed sales force to sell it.

She said Perpetual’s Global Resources Fund was an incubation fund that enabled Perpetual to demonstrate the return history on being introduced to market.