In Practice

The switch in focus to retirement incomes, ahead of the introduction of the Retirement Income Covenant, was evident at the annual SMSF Association conference last week. Deborah Ralston said: “Super has been a bit overdone”. Ralston, one of the panellists on the Government’s Retirement Income Review (RIR), which handed down its report in July 2020,…

In 1943, the president of IBM, Tom Watson, famously remarked that he saw a worldwide market for “maybe five computers”. Bringing that forecast up to date, IDC, a global technology research firm, predicts that by the time we reach 2025 the planet will host 56 billion connected devices. The internet of things (IoT) is not…

Entering 2021, financial advisers and investors are facing many challenges when it comes to managing their portfolios. On the one hand, low interest rates and quantitative easing policies have all but removed the diversification and income benefits of traditional fixed-income investments. On the other hand, the same policies have sent equity markets back to pre-pandemic…

Evergreen Consultants, founded by experienced consultant Angela Ashton, this week launched an industry leading stress testing program for financial advisers. It is said to be the first of its kind made available in the ‘retail market’ and is available to Evergreen clients via their proprietary GreenVUE reporting platform. The launch comes after the most volatile…

Following on from The Inside Network’s MDA Feature – 2020 round-up article published earlier this week, we received an influx of communication around the many managed accounts not included on the list. According to the Institute of Managed Account Professionals (IMAP), funds under management (FUM) for managed accounts in Australia stood at $79.9 billion at…

Milestone Group has extended the rollout of its new pControl asset allocation offering to Asia-Pacific to service increasing demand due to greater complexities of front and middle-office requirements in the use of funds-of-funds and other third-party investment structures. The ‘pControl Asset Allocation’ product is based on the platform built by the Australian-bred global group’s pControl…

The shift towards non-aligned platform advice forced structural change within the wealth management that was long overdue. Findings from the Royal Banking Commission helped drive the push towards independent platforms and product providers because of their renewed client focus. New technology-based platforms have allowed financial advisers the ability to hold, transact and administer on a…

Managed Discretionary Accounts (MDAs) are a relatively new investment solution available to consumers and financial advisers following recent advances in platform technology. MDAs are constantly evolving and are at a point where advisers can offer clients a broad range of investment assets while clients have complete visibility of the investments held in their portfolio. According…

Global investment manager Pacific Investment Management Corporation (PIMCO) released the results of an extensive survey of Australian investors this week. The first of what will be a regular temperature check for investment markets, questioned 2,500 individual investors aged over 35 with liquid assets exceeding US$100,000 on key market indicators. The survey spanned five key Asia…

The Banking Royal Commission was a watershed moment for the financial advising industry, and almost two years on, has there been change? In one word, yes. Too much change. So much change, that Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Morrison government, along with a long list of industry leaders are all  saying  that…

Loftus Peak, Australian global equities boutique, has become the second manager to launch a “quoted managed fund.” This looks set to become a strong trend in retail distribution, with a host of managers lining up for the new form of listing and an extra administrator entering this part of the market, Link Fund Solutions. The…

For many advisers, life insurance is an important part of their income. But unless the insurance sector changes its business lines, particularly with troublesome income protection products, they will all feel the pinch come the third quarter next year. The industry will have to re-cut its products, not just with income protection (IP) insurance, according…