Managed funds a good option for advisers
Fisher Funds has built a diverse and powerful investment company with almost $7 billion in funds under asset management.
Fisher Funds senior portfolio manager David McLeish (pictured) said the firm operated its own brokerage and also had relationships with an external adviser network.
“We provide a number of wealth advisers and client service managers with our suite of services and we manage around 275,000 clients,” McLeish said.
“We connect directly with clients by providing multiple asset portfolios and pure equity investment opportunities.”
Fisher Funds offered the same suite to external advisers and welcomed new relationships through its third-party distribution channel.
“It is a very easy process for advisers to become accredited with us,” McLeish said. “We are present on all well-known platforms advisers use to not only access our funds but funds for all our asset management across the country.”
Fisher Funds invested globally with fixed income and featured a diverse staff network who had spent lots of time overseas in other major markets, bringing their knowledge home to help Kiwis make wise investment decisions.
“When it comes to lending investment products, e.g. residential mortgages, we have close relationships with originators of those types of loans,” he said.
“Usually the non-bank providers who will fund those through term transactions, term loans or through participation in the network.”
The fixed-income sector of Fisher Funds covered assets including high yield, investment grade, asset back securities, government bond and high-grade markets, providing a full suite of financial products to clients.
The investment company focused its services on private or direct lending to companies or through advisers and banks who typically lend at a corporate level.
McLeish said a defining feature of Fisher Funds was its analytical and research sector that spent lots of time with non-banks and medium-to-large company borrowers. This assisted the firm with sourcing investment products to grow corporate New Zealand.
“This provides a point of different from our asset manager competitors,” he said. “We have the largest broad fixed-income team within New Zealand, so we have the size and research to provide good investment products to our clients.
“It provides a niche offering to differentiate ourselves from peers.”
