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The Principals’ Community, steered by Kon Costas, has received strong support from the independent advisory community after parting ways with BT Financial Group. The sole purpose of the group is to provide support and guidance to AFSL holders that bar any institutional ownership complications. Costas is delighted with the support, saying: “The feedback and support…

Year after year of growing compliance requirements placed on the financial advice sector likely came to a crescendo with the Financial Services Royal Commission. The introduction of FASEA, additional education requirements and Code of Ethics whilst on their own were a positive step towards professionalisation. However, they added another burden to an industry that most…

Ty Cockle, chief executive officer of Financial Foundations Australia (FFA) initially wanted to be a teacher, and trained to be one, but it was difficult to escape the pull of the family business. The son of renowned Victorian adviser John Cockle, he found the conversations of his childhood inexorably pulled him back to advice. “I’ve…

It’s been a torrid start to the year for 2021’s Fund Manager of the Year, Hyperion. The group is clearly feeling the “tech selloff” pinch after both its flagship funds posted negative returns and missed their benchmark expectations in January, also dragging down one-year numbers as a result. The Hyperion Australian Growth Companies Fund posted…

Investment research firm Morningstar announced the winners of their 2022 Fund Manager of the Year this week. Last year the big names included Hyperion Asset Management, First Sentier Investors and Franklin Templeton. This year was saw a suite of different names take out the top awards with a decided tilt towards low-cost, passive strategies. In…

Gerry Fowler, investment director of multi-asset strategies at abrdn, says everyone will have experienced inflation in some shape or form by now; be it energy bills, food, groceries or the price of cars, inflation is here to stay. “Inflation was considered initially just a purely Covid-related phenomenon. The transport-of-goods inflation went through the roof and…

Leading events company, The Inside Network is helping kick start the return to the CBD with the launch of their 2022 events program, starting with a full house Alternatives Symposium event, held at the city’s newest hotel, The W Melbourne during the week. After nearly 2 years of workers being told to work from home,…

Known for his clever wit and open frankness, investment guru Charlie Munger, reinforced his value style of investing by comparing today’s markets with that of the Dotcom boom while supporting China’s recent expansion. At the same time, voicing his concerns on the growing use of cryptocurrency, which he says should banned. Munger appeared in good…

“The previous cycle was the longest in history and it ended only due to the exogenous shock of the pandemic”. This is one of the key takeaways from global multi-asset Neuberger Berman’s latest outlook paper titled ‘Solving for 2022’. The events of 2020 and 2021 have naturally pushed the memories of 2019 further away, but for…

“It’s never been a better environment to start shorting stocks,” says Ray David, portfolio manager for the Schroder Australian Equity Long Short Fund. “The last decade has been about asset prices rising because of falling interest rates. We think that tailwind has now come to an end, particularly as Covid has changed market dynamics and…

An enduring question is whether one can identify a fund manager that can deliver outperformance relative to the index. Even before ETFs become the alternative, numerous studies have either proven or disproven the case for active management, with no real resolution. That said, the consistent after-fee underperformance of the median active manager is well known….

Heading into uncharted territory, Lucerne Investment Partners CEO Anthony Murphy used the global pandemic as an opportunity to get in-front of the market with a unique offering. Something no one else had. And it’s paid off.  Since our days at Ord Minnett, it had been a while since Murphy and I had touched base, but…