Greater client engagement and adapting services to meet the needs of investors are among the key priorities for new Morningstar Australasia chief executive Anthony Serhan.
Serhan was appointed to the top job at Morningstar Australia and New Zealand yesterday.
He takes on the role after leaving his managing director post at Morningstar subsidiary Ibbotson Australia.
“There are a number of priorities that are there, but first and foremost I need to spend some time in the rest of the business again,” Serhan said.
“I want to reacquaint myself with the business. I particularly want to go out and meet the clients again.”
Serhan said another priority is further adapting the company’s services to the needs of its clients, as it did with the introduction of separately managed account (SMA) ratings and its exchange-traded funds (ETF) research.
“We recognise that both separate accounts and ETFs have a role to play in people’s portfolios and that’s probably the thing that drives us,” he said.
“We need to adapt with our client base, and we’re getting clear signals that these are the things that they do want to use as part of their portfolios.”
Another area of interest for the company is that of superannuation.
“Superannuation is clearly a very big part of the industry. We track a number of superannuation funds in our database, we’ve got a lot of self-managed super fund trustees as clients of our premium website, and a lot of our financial planning clients are servicing that sector,” Serhan said.
“We provide asset allocation and other consulting advice to the corporate part of that sector. So I think superannuation is clearly a space we do a lot in, but is one that we need to continue to push in.”
In terms of internal change, Serhan said there are no plans at this stage for a company restructure or further acquisitions.
Despite stepping away from his role with Ibbotson, Serhan will continue as a director and sit on the subsidiary’s investment committee.
Serhan replaces former Morningstar Australasia chief Andrew Bird, who stepped down from his post midway through the year.
Ibbotson chief investment officer Daniel Needham will assume the role of Ibbotson managing director.
