Episode 53: Sunsuper’s Andrew Fisher

Asset Allocation, Pandemic and Retirement Products

Andrew Fisher is Head of Asset Allocation at Australian pension fund Sunsuper. We discussed the impact of how the markets have changed since the 2008 financial crisis on asset allocation and whether these changes are structural or part of a very long cycle.
We also discuss the fund’s partnership program, whether value is truly a risk premium and retirement products. Enjoy!

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Overview of podcast with Andrew Fisher:

1:00 On ultra marathon running
2:00 Getting started in investing
4:50 Everybody is good at the pure maths side of things, where people differ is how they apply that knowledge
6:00 Markets are more driven by emotion today
7:30 Changing how we think about foreign currency
9:15 Talking distressed opportunities
10:00 NZ Super’s strategic tilting program
12:00 I’m not convinced that strategic asset allocation has stopped working
13:00 As the markets were falling, we definitely increased equity allocations
14:30 You shouldn’t base your defensive assets on the most recent crisis
18:00 Value versus growth: structural or cyclical
18:45 I have a healthy scepticism about whether there is a risk premium in Value
19:40 There is definitely a cyclical dislocation in certain sectors of the market
20:30 Technology is overvalued against almost every other sector.
24:00 On machine learning
25:30 Partnership program and strategic review
28:20 We are going to wait and see; we don’t really want to sell anything, but we also don’t really want to buy anything
30:30 Retirement, I’m not sure that anyone has been able to deliver anything better than the allocated pension

About the [i3] Podcast

The [i3] Podcast is a conversation with some of the leading institutional investors around the world, discussing their philosophy towards investing, in particular towards portfolio construction and investment strategy. The [i3] podcast is available on iTunesGoogle PodcastSpotifyStitcher or your favourite podcast platform.