In the final instalment of this four part series on performance fees John Berry highlights positive examples of performance fee calculations and disclosure.  He also considers how performance fees could develop in the future.

In the third part of its series on performance fees Pathfinder Asset Management reviews practical examples of how performance fees are calculated and disclosed by fund managers.  This involves a look at aspects of five performance fees for products currently available in the market.

There is no market standard for how a performance fee is constructed.  The end result is that not all performance fees are equal – some are strongly in favour of the manager.  In this commentary John Berry looks at reasons justifying why managed funds have performance fees and also speculates on future developments for such fees.

Performance fees are intended to reward fund managers for outperforming the market and generating above average investor returns.  Each performance fee has several moving parts for which there is currently no market standard in New Zealand.  In this two part commentary John Berry looks at fair and unfair performance fee features, and thinks about how a fund manager might construct the perfect performance fee.

This month John Berry from Pathfinder asks what exactly is the point of independent financial advisers?  Should small independent firms still exist or are they a relic from the past? Should all advisers be tied to a single provider? If independents have an important part to play in NZ financial services, what exactly is that role?

There’s currently a lot of commentary around the valuation (or more accurately, the overvaluation) of world equity markets.  Some argue markets have run too far and are in irrational bubble territory.  Another view is that despite the S&P500 having soared 193% since the grim days of early 2009, we still have to look at market fundamentals.  And these are far from stretched.

In this month’s Pathfinder Commentary John Berry looks at regulatory changes to managed funds and what this means for investors and advisers.  In particular how will fee disclosures, offer documents and governance structures change?

In this month’s Pathfinder Commentary John Berry looks at what volatility means as a measure of risk.  While volatility is widely used to identify investment risk for managed funds, it has a number of “real world” limitations.   What are these limitations and what do these mean for investors?

From an investor perspective the $20 billion KiwiSaver scheme is a great opportunity.  A long term savings tool with tax benefits (government contributions and PIE tax rates) and structural efficiency around reporting and fee disclosure.  This month’s Pathfinder commentary looks at KiwiSaver from an entirely different angle – not from the investor perspective but from the perspective of financial advisers and fund managers.

Pathfinder commentary: John Berry looks a three epic investment failures and outlines the lessons investors can learn from them.

Disclosure in offer documents has improved immensely in recent years, but room for enhancement remains.  Some disclosure practices fail the “fair play” test and need to change.  We set out three examples of questionable disclosure in this commentary - thankfully these are found in the offer documents of only a small number of managers.

Pathfinder is kicking off 2014 with a light hearted “competition” for AFAs – join in by sharing your picks for the best ETF performers over the year ahead.  The six advisers choosing the best performing country or sector equity ETFs will be rewarded with a fine bottle of Pinot Noir!

Thomas Huxley (19th century English biologist and key supporter of Charles Darwin) once famously said “try to learn something about everything and everything about something.”  His insight about the need to learn is a great introduction for this months’ Pathfinder commentary on gems of wisdom for investors and advisers.

Pathfinder executive director John Berry goes on a mission to find out about managed fund disclosure and finds it is very difficult to get the full picture on many things, especially fees and securities held. Here is his checklist.

Which is the best investment style? Active or passive? Pathfinder's John Berry crunches the numbers and comes up with some interesting conclusions and observations suggesting picking styles is a little like picking lanes in rush hour traffic on the Auckland Motorway.