The future of financial advice – the practitioners’ perspective. Insights and analysis from leading industry figures. Part 1: The institutionally-owned dealer group. Neil Younger, Head of dealer groups, BT Financial Group. The future of the advice industry will be very [...]
By Andrew Connors, senior investment specialist, MLC Investment Management, and Michael Karagianis, investment Strategist, MLC Investment Management. If you ignore history then you’re doomed to make the same mistakes. The recent bout of financial market nervousness serves as a timely [...]
Performance-based fees are not a sensible remuneration model for financial planners. No form of remuneration that is linked to investment outcomes is truly satisfactory. A planner’s income need not rise or fall depending on investment markets – which are driven [...]
Two recent events have underlined the financial services industry’s willingness to dig deep to help worthwhile causes, raising more than $320,000 between them.
Investors hear a lot about emerging markets and how these markets should be included in their portfolios. Here are a few interesting numbers that tell the story.
For the second year running, Professional Planner and fund research group Standard & Poor’s (S&P) have joined forces to recognise excellence in the Australian managed funds industry. Today, we are pleased to announce the complete list of finalists in the [...]
Over the past two years, Professional Planner Online has established itself as an invaluable adjunct to Professional Planner – the leading magazine for Australia’s fee-based financial planning community. The website has been a source of news and information for financial [...]
Emerging markets offer attractive investment opportunities, but opportunity comes with risk, as Lisa Pennell reports. Emerging markets could well be described as the wild card in the deck of international investment options. Including the regions of South America, Latin America, [...]
Although they’re designed to be simple from an investor’s perspective, much goes on behind the scenes in capital- and income-protected products. Simon Hoyle reports Capital-protected and income-protected products are a little like the proverbial duck. On the surface – from [...]
Advisers who fail to embrace ETFs risk missing out on booming consumer demand, reports Lisa Pennell. More than half of all investors currently using exchange-traded funds (ETFs) did not consult financial advisers, according to the recently-released Investment Trends December 2009 [...]
Burnt by a decade of poor returns, Australian advisers have been reluctant adopters of international equities. But, as David Chaplin reports, the world has changed, and maybe for the better. According to rocket scientists, the massive earthquake that struck Chile [...]
There are 416,000 self-managed super funds in Australia, with assets approaching about $360 billion, yet there is little hard data on SMSF asset allocation or investment performance. A Professional Planner/Russell Investments roundtable examined how trustees make investment decisions, who they rely on, and the [...]
The Minister for Financial Services, Superannaution and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen, faces the industry and outlines the Government’s blueprint for financial planning.
Risk industry leaders gathered at a Professional Planner/CommInsure roundtable to discuss what advisers and the insurance industry can do to make clients’ experiences with risk products better. ROUNDTABLE PARTICIPANTS John Brogden – Chief executive officer, Investment and Financial Services Association [...]
The past year has seen a flurry of government reports, ministerial announcements and even legislative change in the world of financial planning. If you can climb over the wall of noise that this generates, wade through the sea of newsprint [...]
Research commissioned by Industry Super Network (ISN) suggests that the Government’s Future of Financial Advice reforms will substantially increase opportunities to provide financial advice.
The final Cooper Review report confirms what many of us have long known: the self-managed super fund (SMSF) sector is functioning well and is successful. In the 504-page report (including parts one and two), there were relatively few recommendations applying [...]
The wisdom to know the
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