Editorial
In-depth editorial for Australian financial advisers — technical explainers, CPD-eligible pieces and specialist deep-dives.
Bridging 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.
The 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.
The New Age of Advice
Private 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.
Asset 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.
Give 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.
Twelve 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.
The 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.
The 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.
The 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.
The diversification illusion
Why “balanced” portfolios may be more exposed than they appear
Confidence, Not Capital: The Big Retirement Advice Opportunity