46: TCorp's Stewart Brentnall - TCorp, partnerships and the Canadian Model

Stewart Brentnall is the Chief Investment Officer of Tcorp, the asset management arm of state of NSW. In this interview we discuss the fund's move towards a total portfolio approach, how TCorp views partnerships with fund managers and his thoughts on the Canadian Model. Overview of podcast with Stewart Brentnall: 2:00 Getting started in investing. 2:40 My first boss, while I was on secondment to Clayton Utz, was Julie Bishop 5:30 Building a multi-manager platform at ANZ 6:00 TCorp mergers 6:45 Internalisation of asset management functions 7:30 Moving towards a total portfolio approach 8:30 Asset classes don't describe very well how much risk they bring to a portfolio 11:00 Streamlining the portfolio and reducing the number of managers in it 12:00 Equities are at the centre of the investment process and every other asset is measured against the risk/return profile of equities 13:00 How were the changes received by the existing staff? Did you get any pushback? 15:00 Addressing agency risk 15:30 How do you look at strategic partnerships? 17:30 Thoughts on passive versus active as TCorp continues to grow. 19:00 Teaming up with Canadian pension funds 20:00 What are your thoughts on the Canadian Model? Will it still be successful in an environment where returns are lower and so cost will need to be managed more? 22:00 The governance around internalising is tricky 23:00 How is TCorp positioned in this crisis environment? 27:00 Role of technology