Damen Purcell, COO of Australian Fund Monitors, speaks with Alex Lee, Director of Investor Relations at Laureola Advisors.

Laureola are a specialist investment management firm offering conservative, risk mitigated exposure to life settlements. The firm was established in 2012 to take advantage of the opportunities in the Life Settlements asset class which produces attractive non-correlated long-term returns. Since inception the fund has returned 16.1% with a standard deviation of just 5.6%.

Funds operated by manager: Laureola Australia Feeder Fund

Damen Purcell, COO of Australian Fund Monitors, speaks with Jonathan Wu, Executive Director at Premium China Funds Management.

Premium China was started their first fund in 2005 and have grown to offer 4 actively managed specialist Asian equity and fixed-income funds to both Australian and New Zealand investors. Their Premium Asia fund, which was started in 2009 has returned 12.97% per annum since inception outperforming the Asia Pacific Ex Japan benchmark by over 8% per annum.

Funds operated by manager: Premium Asia Fund, Premium Asia Income Fund, Premium Asia Property Fund, Premium China Fund

Australian Fund Monitors' CEO, Chris Gosselin, speaks with Charlie Aitken from AIM Investment Management about the AIM Global High Conviction Fund's recent and long-term performance.

The AIM Global High Conviction Fund is a long-only fund that invests in a high conviction portfolio of global stocks. The Fund has achieved a down-capture ratio since inception in July 2015 of 81.83%, highlighting its capacity to outperform when market's fall. The Fund has outperformed the Index in 7 out of 10 of the Index's worst months since the Fund's inception, further emphasising its strength in negative markets.

Damen Purcell, COO of Australian Fund Monitors, speaks with Richard Ivers from Prime Value Asset Management about the Prime Value Emerging Opportunities Fund.

Since inception in October 2015, the Fund has returned 14.86% p.a. against the Index's annualised return over the same period of +9.64%. The Fund's Sortino ratio (since inception) of 1.27 vs the Index's 0.74, in conjunction with the Fund's down-capture ratio (since inception) of 45.74%, highlights its capacity to significantly outperform in falling markets.

Funds operated by manager: Prime Value Emerging Opportunities Fund, Prime Value Equity Income (Imputation) Fund - Class A, Prime Value Growth Fund - Class A, Prime Value Opportunities Fund

Finding hidden value in volatile markets

Against a backdrop of heightened economic uncertainty and ever-falling interest rates, Australian investors have flocked to "quality": paying higher multiples across the board for the highest returning, fastest growing businesses. The challenge, in this environment, is to satisfy the desire to invest in quality businesses, without overpaying for them.

In this webinar with Airlie Australian Share Fund portfolio managers, Matt Williams and Emma Fisher, they explore their investment framework for finding underappreciated quality or hidden value in businesses, and how to invest sensibly when markets swing so quickly between fear and euphoria. They also dissect the latest interim results season and what it means for their portfolios.

Damen Purcell, COO of Australian Fund Monitors, speaks with Jonathan Wu, Executive Director at Premium China Funds Management.

Premium China was started their first fund in 2005 and have grown to offer 4 actively managed specialist Asian equity and fixed-income funds to both Australian and New Zealand investors. Their Premium Asia fund, which was started in 2009 has returned 12.97% per annum since inception outperforming the Asia Pacific Ex Japan benchmark by over 8% per annum.

Funds operated by manager: Premium Asia Fund, Premium Asia Income Fund, Premium Asia Property Fund, Premium China Fund

Damen Purcell, COO of Australian Fund Monitors, speaks with Richard Ivers from Prime Value Asset Management about the Prime Value Emerging Opportunities Fund.

Since inception in October 2015, the Fund has returned 14.86% p.a. against the Index's annualised return over the same period of +9.64%. The Fund's Sortino ratio (since inception) of 1.27 vs the Index's 0.74, in conjunction with the Fund's down-capture ratio (since inception) of 45.74%, highlights its capacity to significantly outperform in falling markets.

Funds operated by manager: Prime Value Emerging Opportunities Fund, Prime Value Equity Income (Imputation) Fund - Class A, Prime Value Growth Fund - Class A, Prime Value Opportunities Fund

Australian Fund Monitors' CEO, Chris Gosselin, speaks with Charlie Aitken from AIM Investment Management about the AIM Global High Conviction Fund's recent and long-term performance.

The AIM Global High Conviction Fund is a long-only fund that invests in a high conviction portfolio of global stocks. The Fund has achieved a down-capture ratio since inception in July 2015 of 81.83%, highlighting its capacity to outperform when market's fall. The Fund has outperformed the Index in 7 out of 10 of the Index's worst months since the Fund's inception, further emphasising its strength in negative markets.

Damen Purcell, COO of Australian Fund Monitors, speaks with Jonathan Wu, Executive Director at Premium China Funds Management.

Premium China was started their first fund in 2005 and have grown to offer 4 actively managed specialist Asian equity and fixed-income funds to both Australian and New Zealand investors. Their Premium Asia fund, which was started in 2009 has returned 12.97% per annum since inception outperforming the Asia Pacific Ex Japan benchmark by over 8% per annum.

Funds operated by manager: Premium Asia Fund, Premium Asia Income Fund, Premium Asia Property Fund, Premium China Fund

How will the recovery influence risk and returns?

Mark Burgess, Chairman of the Advisory Board at Jamieson Coote Bonds

As the macro risks associated with COVID-19 have loomed over global markets and economies for almost a year now, changing expectations of the shape and strength of the recovery will be important in influencing returns and volatility for 2021. We recently sat down with Mark Burgess, Chairman of the Advisory Board at Jamieson Coote Bonds to discuss this and other important issues on investors' minds.

Navigating the economic recovery

This recovery is unique as we've seen one of the most dramatic interventions in markets in history, to the credit of central banks and governments who took immediate action last year and we are now beginning the see the consequences of that. Will it take traction in the economy? How will the virus develop? These are critical issues which are raising serious question marks about the style and nature of the recovery. Financial markets are looking through this - at some of the beneficial aspects of low rates and at the rising liquidity aspect of central bank intervention. The economic environment is rather unclear, relative to financial markets, which are taking a forward looking view.

Inflation risks on the rise

I'm always reminded of what I believe is the right approach to risk and look to a range of scenarios, such as economic growth. Inflation should be one of those scenarios. How does inflation play out? Is it a rising risk? We're likely to get an uptick in inflation as the year-on-year comparisons turn positive. There are a couple of factors that have helped keep inflation low in the past, such as globalisation, that appear to be changing and therefore the ability to keep inflation at low levels is changing at the margin. On the flip side, we have very slack labour markets, we have an output gap that's quite wide, and at these low interest rates, capacity can be added quite quickly across the world. With this in mind, my expectation is that perhaps inflation will uptick but we're unlikely to get the kind of embedded or serious inflation that we saw say in the 1970s. Competition caused by excess investment as a result of low interest rates could cause deflation in parts of an investor's portfolio, and the inflation-deflation combination should be assessed across the assets that go into a well-diversified portfolio. Watch the video to hear more.

Constructing fixed income allocations - the risk of chasing yield

Yields are going to be low generally and the most important risk is not to chase yield for yield sake. If you're chasing yield with risk attached to it, those risks will be lurking in the background more over the next two to three years than they have in the past. As bond yields are marginally moving back up, they're getting ready to be a defensive asset again. Markets are experiencing this combination where yield is becoming available in some places and in other places there's certainly a lot of competition for yield. Investors should be cautious as risk attached to yield is one of the most important things to watch out for. We've long advocated this; one example is separating corporate credit from high grade sovereign bonds. High grade government bonds provide safety, while corporate credit will have other risk and return characteristics. Most importantly, as we come out of the COVID-19 environment, we'll find out which corporates are safe and which are in good shape as we see that part of the cycle play out.

"The most important risk is not to chase yield for yield sake."

The important role of high grade government bonds in diversifying some of the unknown risks that remain

High grade government bonds were defensive during the downturn, playing the important diversifying role that they have always played in portfolios. As government bonds edge slightly higher again, they will provide that defensive characteristic and diversification within a portfolio. We believe they will always be a good asset to hold. Australian investors haven't held a large position in government bonds historically, and a key lesson from the events of last year proved the diversification characteristics of the asset, at a time where diversification was difficult to find. There are a couple of other places to find diversification, but high grade government bonds are certainly one component of that. Watch the video to hear more.