In Practice

Perennial Partners’ sustainable small cap equities fund, the Perennial Better Future Trust, was up 2.4% net of fees in December, beating the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index’s return of 1.4%. The trust has been in operation for almost four years, since inception in February 2018, and has grown to exceed $100 million in assets. The…

“Learning to live with COVID will be the major theme of 2022,” according to Ken Leech, chief investment officer of leading fixed income manager Western Asset. But not necessarily in the way we think. As the Omicron variant ravages Australia and other parts of the developed world, Leech highlights continuing travel restrictions and lower vaccination…

If we are truly honest about the state of the Australian investment industry when it comes to alternatives, we were very much a backwater for many years. That is, at least, at the mass market, retail, or wholesale level. For many years, the best alternative assets advisers could access were the so-called “black boxes” of…

HUB24 (ASX:HUB) – Shares in the leading wealth management platform are rallying on the back of record second-quarter net inflows of $3.6 billion. This includes $349 million moved to the new Rhythm Super product, a private-label wealth management platform owned by Insignia Financial (ASX: IFL), the former IOOF. The strong quarter means the group is…

On Wednesday, Dixon Advisory & Superannuation Services, the division of ASX-listed E&P Financial Group (ASX:EP1) that was focused on delivering financial advice to high-net-worth clients for several decades, filed for voluntary administration. This marks the beginning of the end for what initially appeared to be an Australian success story.  According to the ASX announcement, administrators…

Dissatisfied with the way in which financial advisers are being treated, the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP) has taken a stand, launching a political movement to voice their concerns. The body says, “the current Coalition government have unfairly targeted financial advisers for their own political purposes. Consumers have become collateral damage by either…

Dwindling financial adviser numbers have dropped below the 20,000 mark, hitting a five-year low.  And although it’s been a difficult few year for some wealth managers, others have evolved during the pandemic, finding themselves head and shoulders above the rest. Sequoia Financial Group (ASX: SEQ) is one of these, having recently acquired Topdocs Legal, a…

One of the most powerful, and potentially long-standing, impacts of the pandemic was the so-called democratisation of investing. With over a billion people stuck at home, many of whom were in secure work, or alternatively the beneficiaries of the largest stimulus package in history, a large portion turned to investing to fill the time. At…

Thanks in part to the pandemic, employers now have sufficient awareness of mental health problems in the workforce, their human and economic costs. Now is the time for programs to solve them. A multi-country, multi-industry webinar last week (December 9) looked at how employers should learn from the impact of Covid-19 and put in place…

These days, becoming a financial adviser is no easy feat. Following the banking and financial services Royal Commission, the bar was raised, with higher education and professional standards put in place to lift the education, training and ethical standards of financial advisers. Financial advisers must be licensed (hold an AFSL) and new advisers must have…

As the FASEA exam deadline of 1 January 2022 nears, the significant impacts on the financial advice industry continue to garner headlines. According to reports, total adviser numbers have now fallen to below 19,000 with many more set to leave in 2022. Similarly, statistics suggest there are as many as 2 million unadvised clients in…

Since their adoption, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been a mixed bag with a long list of lessons learned by United Nations member states and private market investors alike.  The 17 SDGs present an opportunity to invest in the sustainable future of people and the planet. The opportunities cover a wide array of…