Where finance meets fantasy: option trading strategies and unicorns
My three-year-old daughter recently asked for a unicorn for Christmas. I asked her why and she responded, “Because I want it Daddy – a purple unicorn that can fly.” I told her, “Santa may have one left over from last year and maybe he can bring it this Christmas,” and hoped she would ask for
September 10, 2015
Bennelong, Fidante and Macquarie slug it out for Distributor of the Year honours
Bennelong Funds Management and Fidante Partners are in the running to be named Distributor of the Year in the Professional Planner|Zenith Fund Awards 2015, and if either of them gets up it will bring to an end the reign of Macquarie, which has held the title since 2009. The Distributor of the Year Award is
September 10, 2015
FPA Congress workshop program opens – delegates urged to secure places now
Attendees at the Financial Planning Association 2015 Professionals Congress have been urged to act now to reserve places at workshops they want to attend, to avoid missing out. With record registrations tipped at the 2015 congress, and places at workshops limited, reserving a place now is the best way to ensure entry on the day.
September 10, 2015
A new kind of advice: Why Eleanor Dartnall is doing things her own way
One morning in 2006 Eleanor Dartnall was alone in her new office in the Southern Highlands of NSW, contemplating the enormity of what she’d just done after calling time on a long and successful career as a senior executive with Perpetual Trustees. Part of Dartnall’s responsibility at Perpetual had been managing the company’s financial planners.
September 08, 2015
Better business in the long run to be ‘fanatically ethical’ and proud of it
It’s always disappointing to talk to a financial planner at a conference and to learn that the issue on the agenda they found least interesting was the one focused on ethics. Sure, ethics isn’t as sexy as, say, how to maximise the sale price of a practice, or how maximise a client’s long-term investment returns.
September 08, 2015
Women, wealth and opportunity as $2.4 trillion changes hands
An enormous intergenerational transfer of wealth will occur over the next three decades as the baby boomers and their parents pass down $2.4 trillion. Women will be the main beneficiaries purely because women live longer than men. This bounty will further bolster the personal wealth many women have already earned and accumulated. There’s no question that
September 06, 2015
Addressing the shortfall in financial planning innovation
Too many financial planning principals view themselves solely as business owners rather than as entrepreneurs, according to Stewart Bell, founder of Audere Coaching and Consulting. Entrepreneurialism is underpinned by innovation, which is something he believes is sadly lacking from Australia’s financial services environment, particularly in planning. “Some are embracing it, but others are playing around
September 06, 2015
Smoothing out the bumps to give ‘the confidence to remain invested’
A rollercoaster is an apt metaphor for the experience investors have as they get close to retirement: strapped into an investment market with no control over its direction, unable to get out. Some love the thrill of it, but others cannot wait for the ride to be over – and would get out now, if
September 06, 2015
New learning channel the future for adviser education
BT Group Licensees (BTGL) – made up of Securitor, BT Select and Licensee Select – has launched a new, flexible and digital Learning Channel for advisers, representing the future direction of adviser education. The development of the Learning Channel reflects BTGL’s desire to deliver advisers quality and inspiring education programs in a timely manner that
September 04, 2015
Industry super’s digital embrace may be a key to broader advice engagement
Homegrown robo-advice tools targeting Australian industry super funds and their members may be laying the groundwork for greater uptake of broader-based digital advice. The more than 10 million members of industry super funds are some of the most under-serviced segments of the financial advice market, according to Jeremy Duffield, co-founder of SuperEd. “We think there
September 03, 2015
More finalists in the Professional Planner|Zenith Fund Awards 2015
Today Professional Planner reveals more finalists in the Professional Planner|Zenith Fund Awards 2015, ahead of the announcement of winners across 19 fund categories, including Distributor of the Year and the headline Fund Manager of the Year, at an awards event at Ivy Ballroom, Sydney, on October 9. The second tranche of finalists covers a further eight categories.
September 03, 2015
