A new era: the rise of the financial planning academic
The roots of financial planning are in insurance agents and stockbrokers who sought out a way to deliver better advice and guidance to their clients. Similarly, the roots of financial planning education have long been in “adult education” certificate programs that took experienced and active advisors back to school to gain the educational knowledge they
April 30, 2014
Towers Watson urges investors to reassess equity portfolios
Institutional investors should revisit their approach to constructing equity portfolios in order to take advantage of innovations in the industry, according to an article in Towers Watson’s new publication: Global equity investing: Insights into a better portfolio. The article notes that investors have been diversifying away from equities in recent years, yet insists that the
April 28, 2014
TAL figures show people betting on their life
New analysis of claims statistics by Australia’s largest life insurer TAL shows that many customers are stopping their “living insurance” policies just 1.5 years before when the average claim is made. The average age a person discontinues one or more of three types of living insurance policies – cover for disability, critical illness/trauma and income
April 28, 2014
Why vertical integration is just a symptom of a much deeper disease
The issue of vertical integration has raised its head again (as if it ever really went away), as submissions to the government’s Financial System Inquiry (FSI) focus on planners being coerced to place clients’ funds into investment products manufactured by the same institutions that own the financial planners’ licensees. Vertical integration is a rational and
April 28, 2014
Dominance of traditional platforms under threat
The evolution of the financial advice industry is seeing managed accounts emerge as the preferred investment and administration vehicle for many investors, SMSFs and advisers. David Heather explains. Managed accounts are not a recent development in Australia. They have existed in various forms since the 1990s. Some industry reports claim that managed accounts are only a
April 28, 2014
Market-neutral funds deliver on risk-adjusted returns says Zenith
Zenith Investment Partners (Zenith) has released its 2014 Australian Equity Market Neutral Sector review with all of Zenith’s Approved and above rated funds delivering strong risk-adjusted returns for the one year period ending February 2014. Impressively, these funds generated returns comfortably in excess of their cash benchmark with significantly lower volatility than the Australian equity
April 24, 2014
Zenith rates PM Capital Asian Opportunities Fund Ltd
PM Capital Asian Opportunities Fund Limited (ASX Code: PAF) is a newly incorporated listed investment company (LIC) that will invest predominately in listed securities diversified across Asian equity markets (ex Japan). The portfolio will be focussed on absolute, long term, after tax returns (long / short, high cash if no value can be found) and
April 24, 2014
Why creating a financial planning profession may be easier said than done
The word “profession” has been liberally thrown around in the various reports, articles and opinion pieces on the proposed Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) amendments. Let me state at the outset that I am very interested in the concept, and I facilitate the professionalism course for the Actuaries Institute three times each year. That course
April 23, 2014
The 20c Paddle Pop – and why I was doomed to be an economist
I started school on the Gold Coast in 1973. During that first year of school, my weekly banana Paddle Pop cost five cents from the school tuckshop. By the end of 1974, the price of that same Paddle Pop had risen fourfold to the princely sum of 20 cents. I asked the tuck shop lady
April 23, 2014
A prism approach to profitability in a FoFA world
With the FoFA laws being debated once again, it is a herculean task for any financial advisory business to construct a formula for profitability, whilst navigating through layers of compliance that range from law to regulatory guidance to best practice. Irrespective of what the outcome is relating to grandfathering, the costs of doing business in
April 23, 2014
Macquarie Wrap adds the PM Capital Emerging Asia Fund
The PM Capital Emerging Asia Fund has been approved on the Macquarie Wrap menu making access to the Fund easier for advisers. The Fund is also available on Colonial FirstWrap. The Fund takes a differentiated approach to investing in Asia, which is largely dominated by quasi-index funds rather than fundamental bottom-up stock pickers. This formula
April 22, 2014
Call to delay TASA financial adviser regime as key compliance information remains unclear
The professional standards manager for Centrepoint Alliance, Rhett Das, has called for a delay to the June 30 implementation of the Tax Agent Services Act (TASA) for financial planners because key pieces of compliance information still are not confirmed. Das (pictured) told the Professional Investment Services (PIS) conference in Shanghai that it is impossible for
April 16, 2014
