IFA celebrates its 400th issue this week. Born as Investor's Advisor in October 1999, the magazine, which was formed to take on Reed Business Information's industry magazine, has undergone name, management, editorial and direction changes to become the IFA of today.
In the earliest days there was still a lot of crossover between the institutional (Investor Weekly) and retail coverage. However, in time, with more staff dedicated to the magazine, the thrust became fully focused on planners, accountants and those in the retail space.
Its first revolutionary act was to publish weekly. Until it began, its only competition, Money Management, was publishing fortnightly. There are now three weekly magazines and two monthlies competing in the space.
A brief look at IFA's beginnings shows some interesting themes emerging. One of then editor Prue Moodie's earliest editorials focused on the economic conditions, quite similar to those occurring now.
"This month's talk of inflationary pressures, a possible rate rise, the Ralph business tax reforms, the direction of the share market etc means the Australian financial/economic environment is in the usual state of uncertainty, disarray and general soothsaying frenzy," Moodie wrote.
"There's so much debate within the retail financial services arena over how a financial planner can add value to the plethora of less formal advisory channels, it's easy to forget one very obvious, very important way that they add value every day. To my mind, good financial advisors are those who have such certainty about the quality of their main information sources that they can ignore everything else. A secure planner has his or her noise filter through which only extremely useful information can penetrate.
"Right now, anxiety over the future of the US stock market could be having a paralysing effect on many of your investment strategies if you gave it half a chance."
Fund managers were promoting the idea of value funds in this environment. Succession planning was another issue on the cards, as baby boomer financial planners were set to retire. Fast-forward more than eight years and the same issues are still being tossed around.
Value managers are again questioning the cost of active management, and financial planners are still on the verge of retirement and in need of succession planning.
Moodie was the launch editor of Investor's Advisor. She lasted a year and then became a freelancer in the industry. Anna Fenech followed Moodie into the editor's chair, after a short stint by publisher Greg Bright. Fenech later went on to editor the Wealth section of The Australian, which she has just departed to join the office of new Superannuation and Corporate Law Minister Nick Sherry.
Following Fenech was New Zealand journalist David Chaplin, who lasted in the role four years, moving from editor to managing editor as the InvestorInfo group expanded. He has since returned to New Zealand. Matthew Smith then took over as editor of what was now known as IFA Smith is now working as a freelance journalist in New York.
Meanwhile, the publishing house was also undergoing significant change. From its beginnings at the cusp of the tech boom, the publishing house was destined for a listing.
However, by the time of the listing, the tech boom had become the tech crash and the media house struggled. Private investors took charge of the company from founder Bright, which was a time of upheaval for the company.
In August 2005, the company was bought by equities research house Aspect Huntley for around $4.2 million. In July 2006, Aspect Huntley itself was the subject of a takeover from managed fund research house Morningstar. The new deal was worth $30 million and made Australia one of the largest of the United States-based Morningstar's 13 satellite offices, with a combined staff of 100.
The magazines have managed to keep independent despite the relationship with the research houses - however, access to the research has been a boon to the journalists.
The publishing house now boasts InvestorDaily, which is read by 14,000 industry professionals, IFA, Investor Weekly (now in its14th year) and Masterfunds.
