Lambert cements plans for Countplus Mark 2
Listed accounting consolidator Countplus has finalised the business model for its sister company C+2 and brought the new company’s proposed listing date forward one year. Countplus executive chairman Barry Lambert said C+2 would implement a three-pronged strategy which involved Countplus acquiring an initial 30 per cent interest in large accounting firms, paid for with cash.
November 21, 2013
ASIC grilled at Senate Committee
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission was slammed for its slow pace and lack of transparency when dealing with rogue financial planners at the latest Senate Economics Legislation Committee meeting on Wednesday. During the 90 minute session, ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft fielded a barrage of questions from Nationals Senator for New South Wales John Williams
November 21, 2013
CBA/Colonial goes direct to SME super market
Commonwealth Bank of Australia and its wealth arm Colonial First State have made enhancements to its new low-cost, direct-to-consumer MySuper product in an aggressive bid to sell more services to its corporate customers. Enhancements to Essential Super will allow the 450,000 small businesses which currently bank with CBA to also use its online and mobile
November 21, 2013
OneVue charges toward public listing
Listed funds manager Perpetual and billionaire Alex Waislitz have invested in investment and administration platform business, OneVue, as it charges towards a public listing in the second quarter of 2014. On Thursday OneVue announced it had completed the first round of an $8 million capital raising program, attracting $6.75 million from major investors including Perpetual
November 21, 2013
Dixon Advisory wades into SMSF debate
Financial planning firm Dixon Advisory has urged the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to get its facts right and tighten up the existing rules around self-managed superannuation funds before introducing further, unnecessary complexity. Dixon Advisory’s managing director, Financial Advisory Nerida Cole said the proposed changes contained in ASIC’s consultation paper 216 may be avoidable if
November 19, 2013
Bonus round: men get double
Male accountants were paid double the bonuses of their female equivalents in the financial year ended June 30, 2013, according to recruitment specialists Lloyd Morgan. The Lloyd Morgan MySalaryPortal showed male accountants received an average bonus of $12,900 last year compared with $6,400 for females. Western Australia recorded the largest discrepancy with the average male
November 19, 2013
New managing director at AMP SMSF
AMP has appointed Suncorp executive Natasha Fenech as the new managing director of AMP SMSF. Fenech will join AMP in February from Suncorp where she is currently executive general manager, Personal insurance customer, product and pricing. She will report to Paul Sainsbury who was promoted to chief customer officer in April. Sainsbury said Fenech’s appointment
November 19, 2013
Legal advice: Dealing with client complaints
Australian Financial Services Licensees (AFSLs) must now acknowledge all client complaints immediately and resolve problems in prescribed time frames, under recent changes to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Regulatory Guide 165 (RG165). In order to comply with the new requirements, AFSLs must adjust their current internal dispute resolution system for clients. The regulator has
November 19, 2013
A new investment approach for emerging markets
Fast-growing emerging market economies have been an important source of returns for many investors over the last decade. However in the last year, returns from emerging markets have been more volatile. In order to gain the best risk-adjusted returns in future, investors need new strategies. While economic data supports a positive outlook for developed markets,
November 19, 2013
Dot.com bubble deja vu
There’s an expression that financial crises strike when everyone who lived through the last one retires and there’s no-one left who remembers. On that basis, the second dot.com bubble should have taken longer than 13 years to inflate. Surely many investment professionals observed the Twitter flotation with a looming sense of deja vu. These professionals
November 19, 2013
Investors bolster exposure to global equities
Investors and advisers are ramping up their exposure to international equities to pre-Global Financial Crisis levels in the pursuit of some stellar, past performance. The MSCI World ex-Australia Index returned 26.9 per cent in the year to October 31, 2013, beating the S&P/ASX 200 Index which returned 25.5 per cent over the same period. Global
November 15, 2013
Leaving a self-managed fund
A self-managed superannuation fund doesn’t have an expiry date but will generally end when the primary trustees die, unless there are also children in the fund. This is merely a function of Australia’s tax system, which requires most people to cash out their super in full once both members of a couple have died. When
November 15, 2013
