Presentations and full transcripts from the PortfolioConstruction Conference 2004 are now available...

At a recent financial planning conference in Toronto, Burton Malkiel - author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street – answered the question "Will indexing work as well in the next 30 years as it has for the last decade?" and previewed his research into hedge funds…

With inflation gathering steam, US Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) and TIPS funds – essentially inflation-linked bonds – are becoming more popular due to their inflation hedging properties, according to S&P...

Bob reviews an article from Fortune which argues that the world's population will never double from its current six billion people, as the world's fertility rate falls in every corner of the globe. The economic consequences are dire...

According to a new study by Cerulli Associates, while mutual funds remain a central part of US financial advisers' businesses, they are losing ground to hedge funds, private equity funds, ETFs, and, in particular, SMAs. And 60% of younger advisers plan on increasing their usage of non-traditional products...

Financial advisers should be doing more to be actively involved in placement of investments into property, according to specialist property investment research house Property Investment Research. In a recently released Market Review, PIR argues the case for property allocations to be as high as 40% in a portfolio...

As advisers strive for lower management fess and better performing investments for their clients, LICs have emerged as a potentially inexpensive and attractive alternative. But what are they, what are the advantages, and more importantly, what should you look for - and look out for...

Hedge funds do not provide the benefits advisers are led to believe, according to an article in the January 2004 issue of the US Journal of Financial Planning...

Active management is proportionately more important now than it ever has been, and new and viable types of active return are emerging, argued David Brown, QIC's senior fund manager strategy at December's Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable. Here are images of David's presentation slides, with full notes...

Active Australian equity fund managers can and do outperform, but international managers struggle to do so, contended John Elfverson, ASX manager quantitative analysis market information at at December's Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable. Here are images of John's presentation slides, with full notes...

A key focus of each Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable program is the question & answer time where our Inquisitors grill the presenters - in this case, QIC's David Brown and ASX's John Elfverson - on the topic - in this case, active vs passive management of international equities...

I'm not sure we got an answer to the question "Should international equities be actively or passively managed?" - at the last Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable meeting of 2003...

2004 will be a battle between rising interest rates and a highly leveraged US economy, predicted Tim Ridley, manager diversified funds for Alliance Capital at December's Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable. On balance, Ridley supported an underweight allocation to international equities for 2004. Here are full notes plus images of his slides (the actual Powerpoint file is also available)... 

Presenters at a Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable program aren't able to "hit and run"! A key focus of each program is question & answer time for each topic addressed. Firstly, our Inquisitors grill the presenters of the topic - in this case BT's Callum Burns and Alliance Capital's Tim Ridley - then, after some discussion amongst themselves, the researcher attendees take over the questioning...

US company profits are growing and in a way that is relatively sustainable, contended Callum Burns, head of global asset allocation at BT Funds Management, at December's Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable. For this and other reasons, Burns supported an overweight allocation to international equities for 2004. Here are images of Callum's presentation slides, with full notes...

When all was said and done, five key points came through clearly from the first topic - how much to international equities in 2004? - at the last Researchers' Roundtable meeting of 2003...

While traditionally agribusiness is a topic that clients tend to think about only as tax time approaches, agribusiness investments can play a greater part in portfolio construction than merely being a tax consideration. We asked two agribusiness research houses for their opinion about individual projects...

Contrary to popular wisdom, Australia's agricultural sector is not a burnt out, sunset industry, said Dr Bruce Kefford, executive director agriculture with the Victoria Department of Primary Industries, speaking at the recent Lonsec Agribusiness Conference...

While the "noise" about farming is that it's hard, risky and drought ridden, Research House AAG says the perception that our farmers are struggling is wrong. The top performers in Agribusiness are quietly getting on with the job and so don't provide "good copy" for the press. Australia lags the world in realising the opportunities in this sector, agribusiness research house AAG contends...

When will the Australian Taxation office issue product rulings, and under what circumstances does it withdraw them? These were two of the issues canvassed by Gary Hammersley, national business manager with the ATO when speaking at the recent Lonsec Agribusiness Conference. Hammersley contends the ATO tries to look at issues from the taxpayers perspective...