Meet our team – Darryl Bruce
Read excerpts from our Q&A below:
For this week’s “Team Spotlight”, we sat down with Darryl to discuss his background, fixed income insights and what led to his role at IAM Perth.
Darryl brings over two decades of experience in financial services, spanning Australia, the UK, and New Zealand, to his role at IAM’s Perth office. “I would love to say that I had long-held aspirations to work in the bond market, but I sort of fell into fixed income!” Darryl said. After studying accounting at university, he commenced his professional journey as a credit analyst at ANZ in Auckland. His analytical acumen paved the way for roles as an analyst and eventually a corporate bond fund manager in the UK, where he spent almost 15 years honing his expertise in fixed income investing.
Upon relocating to Perth in 2013, Darryl encountered both challenges and opportunities in the local financial landscape. “My fixed income background was both a blessing and a curse,” he admits. While job opportunities in the fixed income sector were scarce, especially in Perth, Darryl recognized a tremendous opportunity to introduce and promote fixed income as a crucial component of investment portfolios in Australia. “Fixed income was (and still is) massively underrepresented in investor portfolios in Australia and hence there was an amazing opportunity to build a business.”
With this office marking a new entry into Perth for IAM, Darryl said he is absolutely convinced of the opportunity in fixed income across Australia, and particularly in Western Australia. Significant wealth has been built up in WA and in many cases, investors in the west have quite a high risk tolerance. Darryl is a firm believer that a well-diversified investment portfolio includes a range of asset classes. A portfolio that has a heavy weighting, by global standards, in risky/volatile assets should also have a meaningful exposure to a lower risk and more stable asset class like fixed income. Darryl’s conviction comes from speaking to hundreds of investors over the past 10 years who have welcomed fixed income into their portfolio and “that is only the tip of the iceberg as far as the opportunity is concerned”.
As Darryl settles into his role at IAM’s Perth office, his primary focus is to broadly build IAM’s business in WA by raising the awareness of both IAM and fixed income in general. He clarified “When I say ‘broadly’ I am talking about IAM’s full product suite including cash, loans and bonds from the side of both issuers and investors. This will see me engaging with private investors, financial advisors and other middle market and institutional investors. It is a very exciting proposition for me!”
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We asked Darryl what it was that drew him to IAM. Darryl said that as a participant in the Australian fixed income market, he had been tracking IAM’s progress for a while. He was very impressed with its growth trajectory over what had been a relatively short period of time. Darryl was very familiar with a number of the key staff members at IAM, many of whom he had worked with previously. “They are a highly professional group and so I wasn’t surprised to see them produce impressive results. Ultimately the decision to join IAM was a relatively straightforward one!”
Darryl strongly believes that fixed income should be represented in most investment portfolios however many Australian investors are unaware of exactly what fixed income can bring to portfolios. They are often also unsure of how to access the asset class. Darryl said one of the aspects of the job he thoroughly enjoys is educating investors about an asset class that can bring welcome stability to well diversified portfolios.
We asked Darryl what else he finds rewarding about his role. “This probably sounds a little cliched, and it is not exclusive to fixed income, however, I also really enjoy working with people, both investors and also colleagues within the organisation. Over the years I have built many strong and lasting relationships through working in fixed income. That was brought home to me last week after visiting IAM’s Sydney office and reconnecting with many familiar faces”.
Beyond his professional endeavours, Darryl shares insights into his personal life and the factors that influenced his decision to settle in Perth. Originally from New Zealand, Darryl had almost 15 years in England (London and Manchester) before arriving in Perth in 2013. “My partner’s roots in Perth and our desire for our children to grow up in Australia or New Zealand were significant drivers,” he said. They have two daughters that were both born in England and despite being committed Anglophiles they were very keen for their girls to grow up in Australia or New Zealand. Despite all the obvious attractions of life down under, they found it took a good 2 or 3 years to get properly established and feel confident that they had made the right decision by moving here.
Darryl says that with his recent time off before starting at IAM, he travelled, exercised, read, cooked, did the school run (twice a day), did a wine course, started renovating a property and many other things. “Over the years many retired clients have told me that they have never been as busy as they have been since they retired. To be honest, I was always highly sceptical of that claim however now I can completely relate to it!”. Darryl thought there might be lulls or periods of boredom but that was never a problem! He has always enjoyed working however he was slightly wary about coming back after all this time off. However, after a few days with the team in Sydney, he was fully motivated and ready to go.
Finally, we asked Darryl what his strategy is for effectively covering and servicing clients. Darryl said it is essential to build up relationships of integrity, trust and mutual understanding. This takes time to establish but once in place, it should result in a rewarding long-term relationship for both parties. Not all investors are the same and it is crucial to listen to investors aims and motivations rather than simply assuming that you know what they want. Some investors like to be in almost constant contact while others prefer very infrequent contact. It is fundamentally important to understand this and provide the appropriate type of service to meet the needs of individual investors.
