Cathryn van der Walt manages her own public relations company, 12 Worlds. She tells us about why she went down the do-it-yourself path and her unique investment portfolio.
Age: 48
Other members of the SMSF: My husband, Brad Middleton
Why did you start it up?
Total disillusionment with the traditional funds management and adviser model. The trigger point personally for me was no communication on a fund rollover on the worst possible day, date and time during the global financial (GFC) crisis by one of Brisbane’s supposed experts in wealth creation. My own wealth creation was put at jeopardy and it took me years to recover – it was unnecessary, very stressful and showed a total disregard for client services and risk management. Their follow up to my complaints was a meeting that they attempted to charge me $700 for! Moving away from that practice was the best thing I ever did.
How big is it?
Under $1 million but not for long hopefully!
Is it more or less difficult to manage than you thought it would be?
Setting it up is time consuming, as well as the initial research into your asset allocation and then the assets themselves. If you focus on investing time and effort here and automating the rest, it’s very beneficial. We do have experience in finance, Brad works in financial services and I work in the tech communications sector and this gives us a solid base. Our research is thorough – I check demand and trends and Brad takes care of the annual reports and financial fundamentals.
Are you pleased with its performance?
Absolutely. We have had realistic goals in our first two years and we know that we made the right choice for our retirement plans.
Can you give us some numbers around performance over the last 1, 3 and 5 years?
The fund is only two years old however we have produced a 30% return on equities in the first 12 months and again 30% in the second 12 months. I can only describe our cash returns as minimal.
What is your asset allocation?
Our breakdown is 40% cash, 40% domestic equities, 20% international equities. Sectors are broken down into 40% food, beverages; technology 35%; financial services 10% and the balance is split between personal care/resources.
What are your favourite investments/stocks and why?
Whilst we balance growth against dividend stocks, our favourite investments focus on items that are of high value in every day life, basically investments that make the world go round currently or will become the high demand items for the future and, of course, pizza!
So our favourite stocks are the Bellamy’s (BAL), Dominos (DMP), Salesforce (CRM), Broadcom (AVGO), Albermarle (ALB), IRESS (IRE) and a range of data centre and security providers here in Australia and the US. We also have some entirely spec stocks in the health, payments, dark fibre and networking as a service space that we remain quietly confident will deliver over time. I would say that our portfolio is not very traditional.
What investments do you have outside of superannuation?
Property, however, we have reduced our exposure. These aren’t attractive ‘homes’ and your price per square metre for purchase is too high. Couple this with the oversupply of investment apartments, overhang of developer stocks and the increased frustration of property managers not covering themselves in glory, it is really unappealing to engage in property. We don’t see this as a viable investment option for us for the time being.
Do you use an advisor or any kind of service provider?
Not for general advice. We do, however, use service providers. We rely on Superfund Partners for the administration of our SMSF and it is excellent.
Important: This content has been prepared without taking account of the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular individual. It does not constitute formal advice. Consider the appropriateness of the information in regards to your circumstances.
