Under the Active Advantage collaboration that has run for a few seasons since 2020, the 2026 event series in Australia from MFS, Baillie Gifford and Orbis generated strong interest in the perspectives of active asset managers operating in a world driven by benchmarks and regulator-imposed performance tests.
What’s most interesting about this successful coalition of the active willing, so to speak, was not just their technical arguments. It was the authenticity of deeming themselves ready to work together for a common cause beyond the usual restraints of self-interest or brand guidelines.
Call it a partnership, a collaboration, a strategic alliance, the compound benefits of prosecuting an argument alongside a natural rival brings a number of additional reputation benefits. It shows genuine leadership, a focus on the end result for investors, and ultimately, reveals underlying legitimacy to show up for a common good.
Madden was privileged to work up close with the Active Advantage collaborators, curating some great media coverage in support of the good folks working together, such as this AFR reporting from senior scribe Jonathan Shapiro. Jono’s piece harmonised the best of the co-opetition model in action.
But we are also seeing other brands take on the co-opetition opportunity in related areas of the financial services industry. Sparked largely by the great race to solve and capitalise on two of Australia’s biggest demographic challenges, the business concept of collaborating with a competitive rival appears to have returned in earnest.
First made a ‘thing’ in the 1990’s to combat the dominance of large bancassurance and vertically integrated financial services companies, co-opetition’s come back has a fresh target of maximising solutions for the great post-retirement incomes challenge, combined with managing the vast intergenerational asset handoff.
So far this year we have seen traditional life insurance companies collab with retail platforms, with annuities providers and with other post-retirement income product manufacturers.
Madden client Generation Life took co-opetition to another level, announcing almost 12 months ago a strategic alliance with the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock. And Vanguard has added a number of ‘strategic partnerships’ to its lineup, including the late October 2025 tie-up with JPMorgan Asset Management.
The stretching of the hand of friendship between what might otherwise be fierce rivals in competing for assets shows a sign of a maturing market. Ten years ago, that kind of behaviour would’ve raised eyebrows. Today, it’s a sign you’re paying attention to resolving collective social and industry problems that are bigger than the sum of their parts.
Because the alternative is reverting to a vertically integrated, go-it-alone model that isn’t fit for purpose. Co-opetition is powerful from a reputation perspective, when done well. But it isn’t a branding exercise.
And here’s the part the industry doesn’t say out loud: pre-retiree clients don’t really care as much as we do about whose logo is on the solution. They care whether it works. Whether it is ethical. Simple to understand. Whether it comes with the confidence of being fully recommended and governance-ticked from their adviser’s analysis along with accredited third-party and regulatory scrutiny.
Clients want choice, and they want flexibility and a willingness to have their super fund or asset manager lean in to properly look at things from their side of the desk.
So, the firms prepared to collaborate with their competitors aren’t necessarily generous. They’re being pragmatic, and recognising that relevance and public trust also now depend on broader ecosystems and speciality, not building solo empires.
This is why co-opetition isn’t just “back” it’s becoming a bit of a dividing line. On one side: firms operating as the ‘one stop shop’ and claiming they can do it all. On the other are brands thinking laterally and building partnerships that deliver.
If you know which side you’re on, you probably don’t need to talk about it.