It actually is panic stations now for limited AFSL applicants
Accountants who have not already started the training they need to complete before they can apply for a limited Australian financial services licence (AFSL) now stand little chance of meeting a June 30 deadline to be licensed to continue providing advice on self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs). The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has set
January 12, 2016
What’s the difference between a financial planner and a gold-digger?
There are few industries outside of financial services more obsessed with money than the music business. And if there was a song about financial planning, it would probably be Gold Digger. By definition, a gold-digger is not interested in forming a relationship with a person, or in a person’s character, their winning personality or even
January 12, 2016
First FPA student award winner passionate but level-headed about the future
Unexpectedly finding a passion for financial planning has already changed the life of the winner of the inaugural FPA University Student of the Year Award. Natalie Cross now wants to find a way to help other young people in the pre-wealth building phase change their financial futures. Cross says she hopes technology will make it
January 10, 2016
Is your business really worth less today than it was a fortnight ago?
On Friday last week the S&P/ASX 200 Index fell below 5000 points. If this carries on for much longer you’ll start to see the implications across the funds-management industry. Budgets will be slashed, costs will be reined in, and there will be retrenchments (quietly, of course). Fund managers accumulate investors’ funds and get paid a
January 10, 2016
Professional advice is not a factor in the decision equation for most super fund ‘switchers’
In each of the past three years (up until the end of November 2015, anyway) members of superannuation funds switched about $35 billion between funds – either from industry funds to retail or self-managed super funds (SMSFs), from SMSFs to industry or retail funds, or from retail funds to industry funds or SMSFs. A total
January 07, 2016
Why smart investors give a fair hearing to ideas they disagree with
Here we go again! Between now and the middle of January you will have to try hard if you are to avoid an avalanche of predictions about the year ahead. One of the interesting features of this annual outlook overload is the almost total absence of diversity. Pretty much everyone says pretty much the same
January 07, 2016
Car crashes, divorce and portfolio construction: what makes us human
People make mistakes. It’s called being human. Few would be surprised to learn that one in five Australian motorists have been involved in at least one car accident in the last five years, based on Roy Morgan Research, and there were 48,000 divorces in Australia in 2014, according to McCrindle Research. Still people continue to
January 05, 2016
Interest rates set for lift-off, but equities the best pick in autumn of bull market
Investors spent most of 2015 worrying about when US interest rates would rise. Now they have, the key question has changed. What we need to know now is how quickly rates will normalise, the trajectory of lift-off and where they will ultimately end up. The Federal Reserve and investment markets disagree on this, with investors
January 05, 2016
Welcome to 2016 and the arrival of the future of financial advice
Happy New Year! In what seems like the blink of an eye, we’re back and the new year is underway. And what a year it promises to be. There are several key pieces of new legislation in consultation phase, and if the government’s timetable is honoured we’ll see the final drafts of the bills, which
January 05, 2016
iShares leads global ETF inflows with $130 billion in 2015
BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) announced today that its iShares business led the global industry by winning $130bn[1] in new flows in 2015, or a 13% organic growth rate. BlackRock set new growth records in the U.S. ($97 billion vs. $82 billion in 2014) and Europe ($34 billion vs. $20 billion in 2014), and won 42%
January 04, 2016
Merry Christmas as we look back on what caught our attention in 2015
The most-read articles of 2015 reflect the issues that Professional Planner’s readers responded to most, and considered most interesting, over the course of a long and tumultuous year. The hot-button topics inevitably included regulatory change – particularly the review of retail life insurance undertaken by a working group led by the high-profile actuary John Trowbridge
December 20, 2015
When knowledge saves time and avoids the risk of rejection
If you’re thinking of applying for a limited Australian financial services licence (AFSL) and have been keeping an eye on the industry media, you’ll know that nearly half the applications received by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have been rejected. So, why is the rejection rate so high, and what can you do
December 20, 2015
