Rob da Silva joins the Research IP team as Head of Research

Welcoming the new year with new beginnings and opportunities, we are happy to announce that Rob da Silva joins the Research IP team as Head of Research and will lead the firm’s expansion into the Australian research market.

Rob is a highly capable and respected financial services professional and brings a unique set of skills gained over 39+ years in two careers as a highly regarded investment manager and a leading research expert. This combination is rare in the Australian marketplace and brings sharper insights and a deeper level of understanding of a manager’s competency and value to an investor.

Rob most recently spent nine years as Head of Research at SQM Research (2014 to 2023), leading, developing, and mentoring a strong analyst team and driving ratings coverage to grow from 45 to 450. Over that time, he has assessed, rated, and reported on over 300 fund managers and 1,730 products across all asset classes. Under his leadership, SQM Research received market acclaim by being voted No.1 in the Financial Newswire’s Rating the Ratings Houses Research Survey for 2022. He also has been on the IMAP Managed Awards Judging Panel for 3 years including 2023.

To date, we have been focused on building our research offering exclusively focused on the New Zealand market, but today, we are expanding our coverage to include Australia. This marks an important milestone in our strategic rollout of research and technology based services in the Australian and New Zealand markets.

We have identified a clear opportunity to disrupt the research space. With our technology led approach, combined with a range of experienced investment professionals, we can bring efficiencies while separating opinions from facts. We don’t need to regurgitate the PDS in a research report, the manager can do that. While our research will be freely available to investors and written in plain English, we will also bring a highly competitive pricing model to the industry. Our aim is to get to full market coverage and provide the industry opinion and comparability to make better investment decisions. With engagement already from Australian Managers, we will shortly be releasing research on a range of funds from the likes of Ausbil, First Sentier, and Perpetual with many more in the pipeline. Supported by our RIPPL Effect concept, we aim to quickly achieve full market coverage for the Australian and New Zealand markets.

In summary, Research IP brings a number of competencies to the space:

• Privately owned – NO ownership links to private equity, banks, insurance companies, platforms, or dealer groups.
• Experienced analysts all with 25+ years experience.
• Meticulous and exhaustive assessment process.
• Informative rating report: description and opinion clearly identified.
• No such thing as out-of-cycle: available all year round.
• Rating reports are freely available to all subscribers.
• Very competitive pricing model.

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Please reach out to one of the team about your research needs.

Research IP delivers high quality investment fund research and consultancy services to financial advisers, charities & NFPs, and the broader financial services industry. Our experience spans well over 20 years working directly across the multiple facets of finance, so we understand the key drivers and challenges for managers, as well as the impact on investors and the broader industry.

We strive to give you the best information, so you can help your clients make better decisions, and feel more confident about doing business with you. We believe that not only can everybody win, but everybody should.

Reach out to us today about your research and consulting needs, and how to make the data work for you, and your clients.

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