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EditorialBridging the expectations gap in retirement advice
Most clients arrive at retirement planning with a number in their head and a lifestyle in their imagination. The two rarely match. Bridging that gap – early, honestly and repeatedly – is becoming the defining skill in retirement advice.
EditorialThe diversification illusion: why “balanced” portfolios may be more exposed than they appear
Portfolios that look diversified are often driven by a few forces, mainly US mega-cap tech. Passive indexing amplifies this at high valuations. True diversification means owning differently, not more.
EditorialThe New Age of Advice
NewsThe trustee becomes the gatekeeper: what legislated advice fee caps mean for practices that charge from super
Super trustees will be legally obliged to cap the advice fees they deduct from member accounts. A third party now sets the ceiling on what practices can charge, and will build the controls to enforce it.
NewsA $50,000 sale, 1,400 complaints and a going concern note: the Sequoia case is the profession's live test
Sequoia has disclosed material uncertainty over its ability to continue as a going concern and intends to revive the $50,000 sale of InterPrac. This is where the question of who pays for large-scale advice failure gets answered in practice.
NewsThe prudential fence: why Mulino revived the new class of adviser, and then locked most of the industry out
The new class of adviser is back, confined for at least three years to APRA-regulated super funds and life insurers. Advice licensees and banks are locked out, and the three-year review clause is the part nobody is examining.
EditorialPrivate Markets: breaking through the noise
With growing client demand and expanding access across asset classes, including private equity, credit, infrastructure, unlisted bonds, and hedge funds, advisers are under pressure to navigate this complex space.
EditorialAsset Allocation is a Trade-Off
It may sound counter-intuitive, but delivering a great experience to your clients also requires that you consider the implications of many of your decisions for areas well beyond your clients’ immediate concerns.
EditorialGive AI the Job Nobody Wants
I bet two years of my life companies would use AI do the work they valued. They did not. Here's why I think advice will be the last job AI takes.
EditorialTwelve years late, but welcome: the SMSF residential borrowing ban
The prohibition on new residential LRBAs has been in force since 10 August. The policy is right, twelve years after Murray recommended it. The process that delivered it, and the drafting it left behind, deserve less applause.
NewsPayday super's first two months done, but the June quarter tail carries a contributions cap sting
Eight weeks in, the seven-business-day regime is holding, but deferred June quarter contributions can tip higher-income clients over the $32,500 cap, and the government's promised legislative fix is not yet law.
EditorialThe scheme is working. The funding model is not.
Advisers are about to pay for a third round of failures they had no part in. Defending the levy's design has become indefensible, and defending compensation itself remains essential.
NewsAdviser exam's 34th cycle sat as qualified-but-absent pool grows
The 34th adviser exam was held on 20 August, results due September. June's cycle drew fewer candidates and passes, 6,220 exam passers sit outside the register, and the exam survives the coming education reforms.
EditorialThe consultation is closed. The definition is not.
Consultation on the definition that decides everything closed after seventeen days. The regime it anchors starts in ten months, and at least one more tranche is still to come.
EditorialThe number the profession refuses to lead with
Seven straight weeks of adviser growth made headlines. The same spreadsheet shows the register down 247 over twelve months, and that is the number that should be setting strategy.
EditorialThe diversification illusion
Why “balanced” portfolios may be more exposed than they appear
EditorialConfidence, Not Capital: The Big Retirement Advice Opportunity