Planner background a path to SPAA
A former national technical manager at OnePath Australia has been appointed to the top professional standards role at the Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA). Graeme Colley will fill the new role of director of education and professional standards, which has been established to drive the development of SPAA's established professional standards and education program.
February 09, 2012
‘Naïve advisers’ must embrace private labels
Financial planners are no longer prepared to use administration services where they give away ownership of their clients and are demanding a greater equity stake in financial platforms. Association of Independently Owned Financial Planners (AIOFP) executive director Peter Johnston believes the industry has learned the hard way that white labeling financial products and platforms from institutions is counter productive.
February 07, 2012
Risk advisers look on bright side of life
Financial advisers active in the Australian life risk market are "moderately positive" about the outlook for themselves and their practices despite a challenging year ahead. In constructing the index, Beaton surveyed over 300 advisers actively writing life risk insurance.
February 07, 2012
Life ban for Trio manager
ASIC has accepted an enforceable undertaking from the former operator of the ARP Growth Fund (ARP), permanently preventing him from working in the Australian financial services industry.
February 02, 2012
In Focus: The good life after FoFA
There’s a growing chorus of voices with good news for independent or non-aligned financial planning businesses: There is life after FoFA. And not only that, there’s a very good life to be had, as the Future of Financial Advice changes take effect and as the public begins to grasp just what professional financial planning is
February 01, 2012
New year, new look for Professional Planner
Four-and-a-half years after the launch of Professional Planner magazine and it is time for a new look, fresh feel and a reaffirmation of exactly what the publication stands for. Highlights of the February edition of Professional Planner:
January 20, 2012
Gloom but not all doom for Aussie investors
Plunging consumer confidence is challenging financial planners with research finding that investors are now less confident about investment markets than they were during the global financial crisis (GFC).
January 19, 2012
ASIC powers questioned by Law Council
In a late December submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, the Law Council of Australia registered it concerns over the scope of new powers given to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
January 17, 2012
Valuations stable as vendors brace for FoFA
Financial planning businesses are defying the doomsayers by retaining their value in the face of the Future of Financial Advice reforms (FoFA), which many had predicted would be a catalyst for a mass exodus.
January 12, 2012
Has the GFC turned Gen X into super savers?
The total contribution of superannuation towards Australians’ net wealth is on the increase with research finding that younger people are engaging more with their super than ever before Greater awareness of retirement income shortfalls and the GFC experience are driving factors, with the Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA) predicting that the trend will continue.
January 12, 2012
Academic sparks debate on deferring super
Lifting the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) employer contribution from 9 to 12 per cent flies in the face of research which suggests financial stress is highest for those aged under 45. Financial planning and superannuation industry bodies welcomed the SG Bill’s passage through Federal Parliament in late November last year.
January 10, 2012
Regulator runs eye over CBA advisers
ASIC has accepted an enforceable undertaking from a former Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited (CFP) employee after he failed to meet various obligations as a financial adviser. The action follows an investigation into the advice provided by Simon Langton and several other CFP financial advisers, part of which is ongoing.
January 10, 2012
