Lachlan Maddock

Natural catastrophe reinsurance and music royalties have been big winners for PG3, the family office of the founders of Partners Group, which is now bringing its “highly differentiated” uncorrelated strategy to Australian investors.

European private credit manager Park Square Capital is flying into Sydney in search of institutional flows as super funds super-charge their allocations to the asset class.

With three separate businesses now combined under the Insignia banner, MLC Asset Management CIO Dan Farmer says his focus is no longer on “fixing problems” but on driving returns – and he's looking to niche asset classes to do it.

The amount of money rushing into private markets asset classes has made them more efficient, and investors will need to be more selective – and peruse different opportunity sets – if they want to meet their great expectations.

Private market returns are nothing to sneeze at, but investors need to consider whether their prospective allocation is worth doing the hard work to understand the liquidity and transparency issues that come with it.

The flip in the negative correlation between bonds and equities has revealed that the protections investors took for granted were based entirely on assumption. Now they need to diversify their diversification.

Tweets aren't policy, but Yarra Capital believes that financial markets are underestimating Trump's intentions. Expect 2025 to be the year of higher debt, higher inflation and lower growth – not to mention plenty of volatility.

Orbis' Stuart Place is riding from Melbourne to the Moon and Back to fund a treatment for the “monster of a disease” that his youngest son was born with. The investment industry is rallying behind him.

If 2024 showed us anything, it's that super funds have to become more than accumulation machines if they want to maintain their status as the trusted guarantors of most Australians' financial future.

This year's top 10 stories included a peek into AustralianSuper's international equities build out in London, AMP's move to slash employee benefits, and plenty of hard-hitting analysis of the issues that matter in institutional investment. But the real story is how readers helped shape all of that coverage.