Education

The representative working group is lobbying the government for a broader section of study to be eligible for credit within the ‘equivalent degree’ requirement for advisers in the hope that more people will be encouraged to join the profession.

While financial advisers remain at the heart of the issue, the role of convincing consumers about the value of advice is shared with government and the industry at large.

With the right application, education bonds can provide a long term savings plan for a child or grandchild’s education that is both flexible and tax-savvy.

The advisers taking advantage of the government’s decision to provide a free pass on education would do well to remember that future governments might not be so generous, writes Helen Nan.

Advisers can practice without a relevant degree for around 30 years according to the draft proposal. They do need a clean record, however – but only up to the end of 2021.

It has become clear that investment returns will be challenging in the coming decade. The focus on intra-sector questions like value versus growth, energy or financials and duration versus credit obscures the larger decision on asset allocation and portfolio construction. Strategic asset allocation has long been appreciated as the major source of long-term returns, yet…

The closing of submissions for the Quality of Advice review saw a flurry of detailed proposals released in recent weeks.

From the outset, it is important to highlight that I do not disagree that interest rates should be higher than the current ’emergency’ settings by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

ASIC says Regtech could be a great solution after it effectively banned finfluencers from giving unlicensed financial advice with hefty prison time and financial penalties. The corporate regulator has cracked-down on finfluencers spruiking online financial rubbish through social media and stepped up its warnings. ASIC says “unlicensed finfluencers could face five years’ jail time or…

As an adviser, you want your clients to be educated on the importance of financial advice.  Research has shown that a one-size-fits-all approach to communication isn’t the most effective tactic and while it’s near impossible to customise messages person to person, it turns out that it’s quite easy to customise them by one big factor…

While watching one of the most popular TV series in recent years, Billions, which follows the story of hedge fund billionaires, you wouldn’t necessarily expect to gain business ideas or insights. Perhaps investment ideas given that the characters in the series are known for pushing the limits to generate the maximum return possible, but definitely…

Following-on from the COP26 meeting last November, there has been a tectonic shift towards “green” asset investments to ensure that the (voluntary) national goals of the Paris Agreement are met, and there is a rapid reduction of carbon-dioxide emissions to ‘net zero’ levels. The Australian Financial Review said that as of September 30, “sustainable funds…