When speaking about his future plans, it becomes obvious his passion for the investment industry has not diminished one iota.
But among his long-held ambitions is a role that probably comes as a surprise to many people: Cuffe is particularly enamoured by the idea of working as a financial planner.
“The occupation of financial planner is one where you will become better and better as you get older. It’s a bit like a good wine,” he says.
“Financial planning often gets trodden on, but good financial planners help a lot of people.”
It would be a remarkable career change for the star manager, who built Colonial First State (CFS) up from the ground into a business that had almost $70 billion in funds under management when he left in 2003.
Unsurprisingly, he still sees this period as the highlight of his career.
“That’s a no-brainer. From a standing start in 1988, 12 years later we were the largest fund manager in Australia. We were fortunate in a few things,” he says.
“Although we had fantastic stars like [fund manager] Greg Perry in Australian equities, we very quickly built a diversified business. We ran with the momentum.”
This highlight was immediately followed by what he regards as the darkest period in his career.
When he left CFS, he was due a large amount of money that he had accrued in bonuses, but it was reported at the time as if he was given a golden handshake and he was branded the $33 million man.
“I was caught up in a time when the focus was on high payouts. But if I was an equity owner in CFS, I would have done a lot better,” he says.
Cuffe decided to put the money into a charity trust. He now runs this trust alongside his better known charity fund: the Third Link Growth Fund, a fund-of-fund that donates its profits to Social Ventures Australia.
During his career at CFS and after that at Challenger Financial Services, Cuffe has experienced many changes in the industry.
He says the public listing of funds management companies is one of the most dramatic.
“Today’s hard-nosed, return-driven industry is largely the result of listings,”
he says.
Looking ahead, however, he expects the non-profit sector to become the most powerful force in wealth management.
“Industry super funds are effective competitors. Because they don’t need a profit margin, they have more scope to achieve returns,” Cuffe, who is a director of Unisuper, says.
He says the current trend among these funds to bring the investment management back in-house is further evidence of their grab for control.
“If you are big enough, why not give it a go yourself?” he says.
