Advice

An imminent big-milestone birthday has the Brilliant Investment Group (BIG) executive chair thinking about what he’d like to see this year.

What do you do when you finish high school? “Go with your strengths,” Peta Nunn’s school careers counsellor told her. So, she found herself in a maths degree at university. But something didn’t feel right.

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” While not known for his financial advice, Mike Tyson’s famous quote likely resonates with those planning for and entering retirement.

Investing is often seen through the lens of numbers, charts, and performance metrics. But at its core, investing is about people. It’s about the relationships we build, the trust we foster, and the communities we create.

There are plenty of people in the investment industry who say they have been influenced by legendary investor Warren Buffett, but for Gold Coaster Hugh Robertson, the obsession with the “Oracle of Omaha” started when he didn’t really know anything about him. It was the start of a journey that led to his advice firm, Centaur Financial Services.

Melbourne-based Link Wealth Group has acquired its fourth advice practice, buying a majority stake in Hobart-based full-service financial advisory firm, Sky Advisers.

The first thing advisers need to remember, Cerulli notes, is that almost half the intergenerational transfer won’t event be intergenerational, it will be horizontal or intra-generational because it will be passed on to spouses.

AFCA stands by the use of its “But for” methodology to calculate compensation payments, despite the FAAA’s protestations. Clients will get paid what they lost, plus what they would have earned if the advice wasn’t inadequate. Just don’t call it payment for theoretical loss, or opportunity cost.

While advisers and their licensees place most of their compliance eggs in the SOA basket, the real focus should remain on more robust client discovery and documentation processes according to Assured Support’s Ben Moffatt.

The ATO has dug its heels in, and is firm in its belief that upfront advice should remain classed as capital expenditure. But the FAAA did gain a significant concession around tax (financial) advice provision.

From behavioural coaching to asset allocation and emotional support, the evolving role an adviser plays sees them take on a raft of heroic guises. The value of that role is now at least 5.7 per cent of clients’ investible funds according to a new report. 

Dealing with the complexity of her own UK pension led the adviser to specialising in helping clients to do the same. Since then, she’s become an expert in a field most other advisers shy away from.