Fund manager of the year – Insurance bonds

1st: Suncorp

2nd: Tower Life

3rd: NRMA

Continued improvement in its revamped fixed-interest division has helped lift Suncorp to first place in the 1999 insurance bonds sector award.

The Queensland-based allfinanz group finished runners-up in this category last year, which head of investment Paul Jenkins attributed at the time to a strong emphasis on fixed interest, which included a restructuring of its fixed-interest team.

That effort looks to have paid further dividends this year, as Suncorp sneaked ahead of Tower Life and NRMA, neither of whom featured in the awards for insurance bonds in 1997. Last year's winner, Tyndall, did not make this year's top three.

Last year's strongest performer for Suncorp in this product category, the $106 million capital-guaranteed Lifesaver Bond, again showed strong returns in 1998.

But it was outdone by the group's $16 million Premier Bond over both one and three-year timeframes. In a traditionally low-returning sector, both products achieved returns well above cash, the latter significantly so.

This year's runner-up, Tower Life, did well with its $36 million Tower Bond (Series 1 & 3) and its $18 million Tower Bond (Series 2), both of which are multi-sector funds. Third-placed NRMA's $138 million Life Insurance Savings Bond - Managed was that group's best performer.

Suncorp restructured its fixed-interest team two years ago to work more closely with the group's economists and tactical asset allocators.