Funds build brands while facing a new world of consumer choices

Investment Magazine

Funds are being forced to consider not only their performance but also their consumer brands, social image and ESG credentials as new regulations encourage members to make more active choices about their super. KPMG’s national section leader for asset and wealth management, Linda Elkins, says the Your Future Your Super legislation does puts funds in a “choice world” where they can no longer rely on “seeking funds passively through the default system”. Elkins says they are going to need to be capable of both acquiring and retaining members outside of that system and part of that strategy will be how they build their brands.

“Now with the stapling method of assigning funds, that will significantly change the way funds attract and retain,” she tells Investment Magazine. “That’s exactly why we think we’re seeing this trend of large quality funds still thinking that merging is a good idea so they can have the capacity to build brand [and] operating model improvements and product enhancements, particularly in the retirement space. The funds need to build all of that capability and it’s not just the brand, it’s also the customer-centric business model which will sit around that.”

The rest of this article can be found at investmentmagazine.com.au.