Predictions are difficult, especially about the future. Just ask VW shareholders
Yogi Berra, the quotable Yankees baseball legend who sadly died last month, would have known what to say to investors caught out by the VW scandal: “Predictions are difficult, especially about the future” was one of his best lines. Anyone holding the car-maker’s shares will know just what he meant. Was the diesel emissions debacle
October 08, 2015
Efficiency, compliance and more time with clients: how changing needs are driving investment solutions
The appointment of Lukasz de Pourbaix as chief investment officer of the newly created Lonsec Investment Solutions reflects changes taking place place in the investment landscape for financial planners, including the drive for increased efficiency and compliance controls. Lonsec Investment Solutions brings together Lonsec’s managed funds and direct equities research with its portfolio construction services.
October 06, 2015
A game of scale: Building sustainable advice businesses
Making financial planning scalable has been a major challenge for advice practices. There are only so many client meetings and advice documents a practice can physically squeeze into a week. However, that number can be a whole lot bigger with technology. It used to be widely accepted that the optimal number of clients a single
October 06, 2015
How I learned to stop worrying and love robo-advice
Robo-advice is the latest buzz to hit our industry. It holds the promise of low-cost financial advice that ticks all the regulatory boxes, and is promoted as high-tech and sophisticated because it’s based on algorithms. It has the potential to tap the large pool of potential clients who don’t have advisers, often because they have
October 06, 2015
FEATURE: Mercer and CFA Institute report underlines the global role of financial planning
A report by Mercer and the CFA Institute has underlined the increasingly important role that financial planning and advice plays in developing best practice in retirement systems around the world. The report, An ideal retirement system, contains 10 principles for both developed and emerging retirement systems (see box). The principles are designed to guide CFA
October 05, 2015
The US Fed’s September stance puts focus on companies that can innovate
After all the speculation that September would host the first rate rise in the US since 2006, the Federal Reserve kept investors waiting again. Holding off was certainly not an easy option. “No change” risks making the US central bank look seriously worried. It is why Fed chair Janet Yellen was at pains to make
October 05, 2015
CBA review highlights the time and cost of chasing paper trails
The weight of numbers already generated in Commonwealth Bank’s Open Advice Review are staggering – and not only in terms of the scale of compensation paid out. Some of the key numbers: more than 930,000 customer advice files; 350,000 affected households; and 23,000 customers who expressed an interest in the program. The program has paid
October 01, 2015
Financial advice model convergence will determine the industry’s winners and losers
At the Afiniation finance technology showcase last week, at least half of the event’s 31 presenters outlined new technology platforms and tools for the wealth management and financial advice industry. It put the spotlight on what financial advice will look like 10 years from now, and how clients will be receiving it. When you look at the financial advice
October 01, 2015
Madison Financial Group to slash its APL but grow adviser numbers slowly in the coming 12 months
Madison Financial Group will aggressively cut the number of products on its approved product list in coming months, but has modest targets for growth in adviser numbers in the year ahead as it becomes increasingly selective about the type of adviser it will take on. Speaking at the Pharos annual conference in Canberra last week,
October 01, 2015
EXCLUSIVE: Life is short – why adviser infidelity is on the rise
You probably all know that the “Life is short. Have an affair” website, Ashley Madison, was hacked recently, revealing to the world the names and email addresses of millions of people who had paid their money and registered their intention they wanted find someone other than their wife or husband to finagle with. Like me,
September 30, 2015
Hitting the reset button to build a new planning platform
While one financial institution has invested upwards of $500 million to build a new platform offering, one of Australia’s most active non-aligned players believes boxing clever will always beat a bottomless budget. OneVue launched Luminous on Monday, a platform offering it’s group chief executive officer Connie Mckeage says marks a departure from the established design methodology
September 30, 2015
