Fifth consecutive national award for La Trobe Financial

MELBOURNE, Australia - Dec. 4, 2013 - PRLog -- Today it was announced that La Trobe Financial’s Pooled Mortgages Option (“the Fund”) has been judged the Best Mortgage Fund in Australia by the personal finance journal Money magazine. This is the first time in the journal’s history that a mortgage fund has achieved this feat.

One of the award judges, respected and noted property commentator and managing director of SQM Research, Louis Christopher, stated that:

“The fund has been an extraordinarily reliable product for investors during difficult years for pooled mortgage trusts.

While a number of mortgage trusts had to suspend redemptions and wind down, La Trobe has stayed open the entire time because the underlying loans were well managed and the liquidity offered generally matches the liquidity of the loans.

Today La Trobe are as prudent as ever on loan performance and this, combined with their sound operating history, are the primary reasons why they continue to rate high with SQM Research.”

La Trobe Financial’s Chief Wealth Management Officer, Randal Williams, confirmed that a strong organisational history of success was an important contributing factor in the Fund’s sustained performance.

“We are delighted to receive our fifth consecutive ‘Best of the Best’ award. It is a vindication of a focussed business strategy that has been developed over a period of more than sixty years.

Our driving principle is that it is far more important to be solid than to be big. We have adopted this philosophy in managing over $10 billion for institutional investors without loss since 1952 and have applied it with equal force to our retail offerings.

For this reason, our proudest achievement is that we have never lost a cent of capital for any of the investors in our pooled investment options, nor have we had to freeze or restrict redemptions.”

La Trobe Financial’s Vice President and Head of Funds Management, Chris Andrews, added that a disciplined investment strategy remains a key focus for the Fund.

“Investors are looking for capital stability and a reliable income at a premium to cash. Our rigorous credit assessment process targets a portfolio of small exposures, highly diversified by geography and sector and with strictly controlled loan to value ratios.

Our role as a Fund Manager is not to be “all things to all people”, but to be clearly focused and to remain committed to our investment philosophy. Our team is driven by the need for consistency and repeatability of performance.”

The Fund is independently rated and has been recognised on an international platform, having won 2 International Alternative Investment Review (IAIR) Awards for Excellence in Mortgage Fund Management and Excellence and Innovation in Australian Management.

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