If financial planners don’t ‘get’ professionalism now, we never will
Unless financial planners are truly serious about reform, they will continue to suffer the consequences, as Robert MC Brown explains. The reputation of the financial planning industry is surely in deep trouble when our ethics are mocked and satirised on Shaun Micallef’s TV show, Mad as Hell. In a recent segment, a financial planner, looking every bit the
May 12, 2014
What history tells us about where share returns are heading
In the last few years, the extraordinary policy measures of major central banks – especially the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) – have provided enormous support to share prices globally. Short-term interest rates close to zero and historically low bond yields have encouraged investors into higher risk assets, like shares, in search of higher returns.
May 12, 2014
New ASX offering could alter state of play for independent financial planners
ASX mFund could bring a substantial shift in the terms of engagement between investors, platform providers and fund managers, according to one of the new managed funds settlement service’s foundation members. Having officially launched yesterday, after a years-long process that included significant regulatory hurdles, mFund is an electronic processing service allowing investors to buy and
May 09, 2014
Why ethics is an individual issue – and why it starts at the top
Unethical, immoral and even criminal activity by companies starts in the boardroom, and if company is rotten at the top it is far more likely to be rotten all the way through, according to Michael Woodford, former president of Olympus, and author of the book Exposure – From President to Whistleblower at Olympus. Please CLICK
May 09, 2014
Exempt true independent financial planners from ‘copious’ disclosure: Alafaci
Financial planning stalwart Dominic Alafaci has called for genuinely independent financial planners to be exempted from the “copious disclosures regime” that rightly applies to non-independent planners. Alafaci, managing director of Collins House Private Wealth and a life member of the Financial Planning Association of Australia, argues that extensive disclosure requirements only make sense where a
May 09, 2014
The fund manager’s view: mFund set to shake things up
ASX has launched its much-anticipated mFund Settlement Service. Peter Dorrian examines the benefits of the exchange’s latest initiative. Direct investing has become a phenomenon in Australia. Sparked initially by the attractively priced privatisation of state-owned assets through the late 1980s and 1990s and stoked by a rapidly rising domestic share market leading up to 2007,
May 09, 2014
Aged-care rule changes an advice opportunity that clients will pay for
With July 1 fast approaching, Lara Hansen looks at what is changing in aged care and the main implications this creates for advice. Just when many advisers were starting to understand aged care, the rules are about to change. But isn’t that always the way with legislation. Clients who move into aged care from July 1, 2014
May 07, 2014
Spotlighting the problems of a product-centric view of advice
Three things happened this week that should send a chill down the spines of all self-respecting financial planners. In fact all these things happened on Monday. It was quite the start to the week. First up, the ABC TV program Four Corners exposed further problems within the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning arm; secondly, BT Financial
May 07, 2014
Retirement income did not fall for most in GFC says ‘astonished’ QSuper
The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) never happened in income terms. That’s the new finding from QSuper that’s causing it to rethink the way it communicates to members. Brad Holzberger (pictured), chief investment officer at QSuper, has described the find as “astonishing”. “If we’d known this, we would’ve communicated it very differently to members at the
May 07, 2014
Call the doctor: financial planning partnership targets medical sector
An enterprising partnership melding business and financial advice with a broader education program is proving a profitable client acquisition tool for ANZ-owned licensee Financial Services Partners (FSP). For the last six months, FSP has been engaged by the Fintuition Institute, a subsidiary of financial planning practice Fintuition, which is in turn part of Fortnum. “They
May 05, 2014
Individual personalised risk advice and the best interests duty
Typically a risk insurance dispute will arise when the insurer decides to avoid the policy. Quite often it is on the basis of non-disclosure on the part of the policy holder because the wording of the policy limits what is not covered. The next step is to examine the conduct of the financial adviser who
May 05, 2014
Investing is not about who’s most beautiful, it’s about who the judges prefer
In the long run the market is a weighing machine but in the short run it counts votes. Eventually, fundamentals will determine the right price but eventually can be a long time coming. In the meantime, being right at the wrong time is frustrating, career-threatening and expensive. This is what John Maynard Keynes was getting
May 05, 2014
