Significant Expansion To Become Full-Service Research House, Adds Key Hires
Insight Investment Consultants (“Insight”), a specialist investment consulting firm founded in 2013 by Chris Lioutas, today announced plans to significantly expand its service offering to become a full- service research house. Insight will launch a fund research ratings business, a natural complement to its large and growing consulting service. Insight currently provides consulting services to 15 licensees representing approximately 380 advisers with over $21Bn in funds under advice.
Insight’s research ratings business will be led by Tim Murphy, who joins Insight on September 1 as Director and Head of Research. Murphy previously spent more than 17 years at Morningstar, where he was most recently the Director of Manager Research, Asia-Pacific. During his time at Morningstar, Murphy led research teams in multiple jurisdictions, oversaw ratings on managed funds, ETFs and LICs, and played a leading role in Morningstar growing to become the leading research house by market share in Australia.
“The growth in managed accounts and resulting concentration of funds flows means there’s never been a greater need for quality over quantity of research” said Chris Lioutas, Insight’s founder. “The strong growth of Insight’s business has created the perfect opportunity to target this gap in the research market and expand our service offering to our existing clients while creating capacity for additional clients and further growth” said Lioutas. “I’m excited to have Tim Murphy joining to lead our new research ratings business as he’s been one of the leading researchers in Australia for some time, so we’re thrilled to have someone of his skills and experience joining us”, Lioutas added.
Insight’s new research ratings will be innovative and differentiated by the following:
Senior, experienced staff with at least 10 years’ experience will always be involved in all research reviews
Research report outputs will be focused on key decision-making points for advisers, enabling more effective portfolio outcomes for clients
Business is owned and managed by local staff, providing greater alignment with and focus on local client needs
“I’m excited about the opportunity to build an innovative and market leading research ratings business at Insight” said Murphy. “Chris and I have known each other for many years and have often discussed how fund research can be improved, so now we have the chance to act on that belief and put it into practice for both our existing and prospective clients”, Murphy added. “The way advisers use fund research has evolved over the years, and we think there’s an opportunity for a more contemporary approach to research that puts local clients at the forefront of our thinking and enables better adviser decision making for their clients’ portfolios”, Murphy said.
With the continued growth of its Consulting business, Insight has also added a key senior hire to its consulting team, with Leo Mauceri joining Insight as a Senior Investment Consultant. Mauceri has over 25 years’ experience and has held a range of senior roles with MLC Asset Management, NAB Wealth, ANZ Wealth and BT Financial Group.
“It’s also great to have Leo Mauceri joining us at a time our consulting business is continuing to see rapid growth and his hiring enables us to more effectively service a wider consulting client base” said Insight Director Manny Damianakis. Mauceri joins existing investment research manager Theodore Hatsis and investment analyst Jayden Ribarovski. Hatsis having joined the firm in 2020 and Ribarovski in 2022.
ABOUT INSIGHT INVESTMENT CONSULTANTS
Insight Investment Consultants is a specialist investment consulting firm founded in 2013, one of the first retail investment consultants servicing financial advisers and licensees through a customised and bespoke approach.
At its core, the firm prides itself on being unbiased and highly convicted in its research and decision- making efforts, always ensuring that their key stakeholders, especially the end client/investor, are front and centre to everything they do and the reason Insight exists as a business.
www.insightinvestmentconsultants.com.au
For further information, please contact:
Leo Mauceri
+61 414 460 063
leo.mauceri@geniumip.com.au
Tim Murphy
+61 410 589 896
tim.murphy@geniumip.com.au
Biographies
Tim Murphy – CFA, CAIA Director, Head of Research
Tim Murphy is a Director and Head of Research at Insight Investment Consultants. He is responsible for building and leading Insight’s research ratings business.
Before joining Insight in 2023, Murphy spent more than 17 years at Morningstar, where he was most recently the Director of Manager Research, Asia-Pacific. During his time at Morningstar, he led research teams in multiple jurisdictions, oversaw ratings on managed funds, ETFs and LICs, and managed Morningstar’s Australian and New Zealand model portfolios for more than a decade. During his time leading the Australian research team, Murphy played a leading role in Morningstar growing to become the leading research house by market share in Australia. He worked on secondment to Morningstar’s London office in 2007 and is regularly sought for comments about investing issues in the media.
Murphy holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in applied finance and a postgraduate diploma in accounting, all from Macquarie University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations. He has completed the Investment Management Workshop at Harvard Business School, is a Fellow of FINSIA, and has been a master’s level guest lecturer on asset management at both Macquarie University and Western Sydney University.
Leo Mauceri – Senior Investment Consultant
Leo has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry. He has held senior roles across product management, investment research and fiduciary governance with MLC Asset Management, NAB Wealth, ANZ Wealth and BT Financial Group.
Leo joined Insight Investment Consultants in August 2023 as Senior Investment Consultant and his main responsibilities include investment committee, product research/monitoring and portfolio construction services to advisers and licensees.
Leo holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Sydney.