Approaching KPIs from a different perspective: love your work!
It is already November and many readers’ thoughts may already be drifting to the end of the year. Your friends, family and business colleagues may soon be asking, “Have you had a good year?” You may also be asking yourself the same question as you reflect on 2014. Thinking about the question from a business
November 17, 2014
AXA IM to offer impact investing fund of funds strategy
AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) plans to offer its impact investing fund of funds strategy to external investors in response to growing client demand. The move forms part of AXA IM’s growing suite of multi-asset ESG integrated strategies which are gaining positive momentum with global and Australian investors. AXA IM’s global Responsible Investment team began
November 14, 2014
Barclays and MSCI announce launch of Green Bond Index family
Barclays, a publisher of leading broad market bond benchmarks, and MSCI Inc., a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, announced today the launch of a new green bond index family measuring the global market of fixed income securities issued to fund projects and initiatives with direct environmental benefits. The Barclays MSCI Green Bond
November 14, 2014
Two months on: the financial planning revolution, refined
Two months after arriving at Harvard University, Simon Malian has begun refining a plan to create a virtual financial planning service and is considering developing a real estate investment tool to create a beach-head into the industry. Malian, a Master of Science in computational science and engineering candidate in the Harvard School of Engineering and
November 14, 2014
Financial advice is an accountant’s path to asset-based fees
Accountants often view financial advice as a way of boosting practice values and adding a product-led revenue stream, says Michael Rees-Evans, director, Libertas Wealth Consulting. “I’ve spoken to accountants…I think the motivation for a lot of them getting into advice seems to be the attraction of what they perceive as easy money…It simply gets them
November 14, 2014
State Street and FNZ to deliver enhanced personalised wealth administration
State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) and FNZ Australia (FNZ) have announced that State Street’s Australian clients will now have access to FNZ’s wealth management technology solutions. This combined solution will bring together FNZ’s global platform technologies and State Street’s custody and asset servicing capabilities to provide a range of personalised wealth administration services via a
November 13, 2014
Volatility no barrier to success
High levels of volatility in global markets have again driven opposing behaviours between Australian active investors and high net worth investors in regards to demand for overseas assets. This was a key finding of the October Certitude Global Investing Intentional Index (CGIII). The CGIII, which collates the views of 515 actively engaged leading investors and
November 12, 2014
Poor financial advice is often underpinned by bad risk profiling
The Australian financial planning sector is moving toward a behavioural finance approach to risk profiling regulation, according to the national head of DNA Behavior. “This supports the very basic Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) language that’s in the regulation around know your client, know the product,” says Malcolm Le Lievre, managing partner, DNA Behavior. The
November 12, 2014
Why a super fund’s stance on governance may hold pointers for planners
Professional Planner wouldn’t usually pay too much attention to a superannuation fund’s stance on a corporate governance issue. But there’s a current example of the board of a fund taking a stand against the board of a listed company that raises some questions for financial planners. You might not have heard of First Super before
November 12, 2014
Does a sell-off mean sharemarkets have returned to the bad old days?
While nobody enjoyed the recent sharemarket sell-off, Ron Bewley thinks his June 30 index forecast is still solid. There is no doubt that September was not a good month for share investors in Australia. Fuelled by crises in Ukraine and Iraq-Syria, weaker iron ore prices, and talk of changing the regulation of banks, the ASX
November 12, 2014
ING DIRECT Living Super hits $1bn FUM
Just two years after launching, ING DIRECT Living Super has hit $1 billion Funds Under Management (FUM), testament to the increasing appetite that exists for no fee and low fee super options. Launched in 2012 as a direct to the customer offering and made available through accredited advisers in mid-2014, Living Super houses the first
November 11, 2014
First Super to oppose re-election of CBA Board members who served during financial advice scandal
First Super will use its vote at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting of the Commonwealth Bank to oppose the re-election of two directors who were on the Board during the CBA financial planning scandal. “Widespread conflicted financial advice practices at Commonwealth Financial Planning resulted in a Senate Committee Inquiry – which recommended a Royal Commission
November 10, 2014
