Huljich Wealth Management

[Enumerate]

What is the problem with Huljich Kiwisaver ... an upper quartile fund is boosted by an ex-gracia payment covering off mistakes ... Wow! I wish all my funds managers were as honorable as this.

Gareth Morgan and that woman from the Albatross fund (or something like that) ... leading the chorus of disapproval. Apparently their funds rank at the bottom quartile of fund performance. Maybe they are upset about being pressured to pay some of the losses back.

Why does this go on and on? It is not as if there are no issues that need serious investigation - elsewhere.

Huljich has resigned ... his fund is offering to transfer the money to a default fund. End of story, I would have thought.

For example, why not investigate:

The NZX backtracks in an arbitrary way over the ALF inclusion in the NZX50 ... no further questions are asked?!? The bigger question of NZX role as market regulator (and some of the dubious decisions and lack of coherence, by the NZX in capacity as regulator) are ignored.

SCF and the continuing litany of spin. Illusion and reality at Richina. Deceit at Babcock & Brown ... fear and loathing at Trans Tasman properties ... I could go on and on ... no journalistic interest, no regulatory response, nothing ...

Also, why cannot Bernard Hickey just get over the fact that he does not understand the property market and the financial instruments that support it. There was the major collapse (over 30% - forecast by Bernard) that never happened in property prices and now he is on the affordability bandwagon ... the man only has 2 ideas and they are both wrong. I cringe as I see any deep insight into the situation strangled by his statistics. Bernard thinks by torturing statistics - he can get them to admit to any financial crime.

[minimoke]

Enumerate
HWM issues are well covered in the Kiwsaver area. And he hasn't resigned - he's gone as a Director but has been retained on the payroll for his operational knowledge. The issue with HWM is that their irregualr and non-transparent transactions are symptomatic of the other issues you raise: Kiwis being sucked into dodgy dealing by the upper ecelons of the finance sector.

[macduffy]

Phew, Enumerate, enough material there to keep anyone busy for the reast of the day/week/month?

I support your point about the lack of investigative financial journalism in NZ. The one columnist, not a "regular" journalist, who does scratch these itches is Brian Gaynor who has been a long standing critic of the regulatory regime, both in print and in his weekly slot on TV1's Business programme. His latest weekend column in The Herald also had a dishonorable mention of Jenny Shipley's role in the Richina debacle.

But it's not nearly enough.

[percy]

Chalkie in the Independant says Huljich saga needs its day in court.If the securities commission doesn't prosecute HWM,the recent outspoken member appointee Simon Botherway may as well resign.It is important to make an example of this "cheater".Our securities commission has to become more aggressive and send a strong message to market participants.
As always an excellent article by Chalkie.

[Enumerate]

Enumerate
The issue with HWM is that their irregualr and non-transparent transactions are symptomatic of the other issues you raise: Kiwis being sucked into dodgy dealing by the upper ecelons of the finance sector.

Fact of the matter is the transaction was transparent ... just not to his other directors. They signed off the accounts - were embarassed by the revelations - we are where we are ...

Do you think that "churning" holdings does not occur in NZ managed funds. The broader superannuation section is rife with hidden fees. I would speculate that Huljich's problem is that he was not as clever at disguising the transactions as the upper echelon funds.

What he did was wrong - he resigned as a director, as you point out.

However, the vast array of negligence, manipulation and malfeasance that goes investigated and unreported is the point I would like to make.

Huljich, in my eyes, seems to honest but slightly naive. My complaint is that the ratbags want to hang him out to dry to divert attention from more fundamental issues.

The one columnist, not a "regular" journalist, who does scratch these itches is Brian Gaynor

I agree with you ... I have the highest respect for Gaynor. There have been times in the past where I thought he was a bit extreme in his view. However, he proved correct - I proved incorrect; hence the growing respect.

Chalkie in the Independant says Huljich saga needs its day in court.

On what grounds? Being honest yet naive? Prosecute under the fair trading act?

I would much rather the Securities Commission invest some energy in getting a coherent policy framework together and some independent oversight of market activities. These Securities Commission, in my view, has been negligent (by this I mean: too timid at times and too aggressive at times).

Where is the sense of perspective in all this? That is my point. Prosecuting Huljich would be unjust because it would imply all the other Kiwisaver funds do not churn or impose hidden fees. First prove this latter point before stoning Huljich for adding money to a performing fund.

Perspective please! This is not Salem - there are no witches.

[minimoke]

Huljich, in my eyes, seems to honest but slightly naive. My complaint is that the ratbags want to hang him out to dry to divert attention from more fundamental issues.

I agree with teh overall sentiments of your post. There are bigger ratbags out there that deserve much closer attention. However sionce they are, gnerally, white, male and in teh finance sector they seem to avoiid any scrutiny.

Back to Huljich - your confidence in his honesty is more than mine. I have no doubt at all funds flow from place to place in the inevitable churn. However "topping up" without infoming the other directors smacks of something to hide and a lack of awareness of responsibilities and concern about others to me. Buying shares in your own IPO smacks of "feathering ones own nest" and investing so much in NEW is reckless (if you want to be seen as someone with big steel balls use your own money! Oh thats right he did - he did stick in a Mil or two to give some lift to the Units.). Door-to door selling is not legal and as for attracting Starbucks workers - well that smacks of exploitation to me. And thats without looking too closely at NZF.

But lets not debate the toss. Bring on the Securities Commission and let them be the arbiters of allowable professional practice.

[minimoke]

Gareth Morgan and that woman from the Albatross fund (or something like that) ... leading the chorus of disapproval. Apparently their funds rank at the bottom quartile of fund performance. Maybe they are upset about being pressured to pay some of the losses back.

On hte back of teh News that Mike Pero Mortgages is looking at disassociating thmesleves frm Huljich (and Gareth Morgans perhaps improper outburst of a fellow Kiwsaver trough feeder: "Riley pointed out that Gareth Morgan KiwiSaver funds had taken a hit in the last quarter - research house Morningstar ranked the Morgan growth fund 19th out of 20 on performance in the December quarter. The equivalent Huljich fund came in last."

[percy]

Perspective please! This is not Salem - there are no witches.[/QUOTE]

Chalkie.
"If the commission does not prosecute,it has learnt nothing from finance company failures.The signalling effect of putting an early transgressor through hell should not be underestimated in discouraging further bad behaviour by existing players and low-quality operators entering the industry.
KiwiSaver is already looking like the biggest game in town and just like a good rugby referee,the Securities Commission should show someone a coloured card early in the season to demonstrate to the players that there is a cost for not sticking to the rules."

[Steve]

FWIW and I don't want to show my age here, the Huljich who used to bounce around on Sharetrader many moons ago went by the name 'Long Strangle'. While he hasn't been on the borads since 2005, it was around the time that the Huljich's were getting involved with NZ Finance. If you flick thru the relevant postings, you will see that 'Long Strangle' was quite often on the nose with his guesstimates of future earnings upgrades etc for NZF. From memory, once it became known that he was a Huljich and had involvement with NZF, there were a few comments made regarding ethics & dropping hints with non-public information. That's about when 'Long Strangle' left the boards of Sharetrader.

Unfortunately, I don't recall the first name of this Huljich...

[winner69]

He owned up as being Peter