News

Two years after the launch of its inaugural direct lending fund, Epsilon have forged a partnership with a prominent multi-office family to debut a new low correlation private credit fund.

The barriers to enter the advice profession differ significantly between the two nations, as do the regulatory parameters. Despite the differences, the US and Australian advice industries have a big problem in common.

After a string of high-profile incidents, the sale of Australia’s largest listed cybersecurity company, Tesserent (ASX:TNT) to French multinational Thales is a reminder of the value in carefully selected small cap stocks.

The public appears to be rewarding efforts to reshape the financial advice and banking industries after the royal commission, with advisers and the banks both enjoying an increase in faith across the community.

Stakeholders have welcomed a recommendation from the Senate Economics Legislative Committee that the government review its controversial plan to limit franking credits stemming from capital raisings and share buybacks.

Financial services minister Stephen Jones has accepted 14 of Michelle Levy’s 22 recommendations to increase advice access, with super funds set to play an expanded role and advisers benefitting from a drastic cut to red tape. Banks and insurers, however, have had their advice reform hopes dashed – for now.

On what was set up as a discussion around the proposals put forward by the Quality of Advice Review, the topic repeatedly shifted to the frustration providers felt at not being able to work with ASIC to bring compliant solutions to market.

Hartley, who joined AMP from Sunsuper in January 2021, will help transition the AWM business to a flatter human resource model before leaving the group in late November.

To give him a taste of the farming life, Stephen’s father sent him to a neighbour who offered him $400 per week in wages, with $200 of that quarantined by his employer for rent and bills. He declined, and headed straight into a career in financial advice. “I was going to be a wool baron, until I very quickly wasn’t,” he says.

Four AMP Group businesses deducted insurance premiums and advice fees from superannuation customers despite knowing they had died, a judge ruled, with two of the companies – AMP Life and AMP Financial Planning – hit with $24 million in penalties.

Back in 2019, then-FPA CEO Dante De Gori and Tangelo Advice Consulting’s Conrad Travers engaged the ATO to see if it would be open to updating guidance on the tax deductibility of upfront advice fees. By the middle of this year, we should see the outcome.

The federal government plans to use part of the $4.2 billion projected budget surplus to provide cost-of-living relief for Australian households and small businesses. It’s also moving forward with controversial plans to change tax concessions for the superannuation industry.