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Allocating investments in the year ahead
At the Morningstar Investment Conference 2015 in Sydney on 21 May 2015, delegates were asked a series of questions prior to each session, and the results were presented. They provide a valuable insight...
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Weddings and the power of compounding
If instead of lavishing your guests with expensive wine at an outrageously over-priced location with a million flowers and expensive bands, you had headed down to the Registry Office and had a drink at...
View ArticleOnline wealth advice is a reality
Financial advice in Australia has not been static. Fuelled by the superannuation guarantee system, the industry provides a wide range of services to investors; strategic advice, insurance, investment...
View ArticleThe upside of fintech for wealth managers
Fintech has captured the imagination of many financial services firms looking to leverage differentiating technology to accelerate their innovation. Nowhere is that more true than within the wealth and...
View ArticleThe underfunded world of fund manager research
Standing between financial advisers and the fund managers recommended to clients is a research function, either internal staff or outsourced to a Research House. However, this research work is often...
View ArticleWhy are reverse mortgages unpopular?
For the asset-rich, cash-poor retirees who were too late into the superannuation system to build a decent balance, reverse mortgages seem the ideal product. Banks will lend between 15% and 35% (rising...
View ArticleScenes from a roboadvice pitch to angel investors
Somewhere in an industrial estate in Australia, three angel investors sit in lounge chairs at one end of a warehouse. It’s a big, open space with large windows, deliberately not welcoming or...
View ArticleWhat are all these fintech startups actually doing?
It was an eye-opening conference. Under the auspices of the financial technology (‘fintech’) network started by Afiniation, 31 startups with ‘market-ready’ solutions presented their businesses to an...
View ArticleFinancial Advisers Register a good place to start
A note from ASIC to Cuffelinks readers In March this year, ASIC launched the Financial Advisers Register (FAR), the first comprehensive register of people who provide personal advice on investments,...
View ArticleResults of roboadvice survey
A few weeks ago, our article, Scenes from a roboadvice pitch to angel investors, presented a fictitious pitch by a roboadviser startup to venture capitalists. Judging by the thousands of times it has...
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Trusted professions go with the Flo’
Trust. It’s at the heart of finance. Trust is that special property that bends time, allowing for the provision of a good, service or facility today on the strength of a belief that the other party...
View ArticleRoboadvice disruption – you won’t see it coming
Cuffelinks’ article, “Scenes from a roboadvice pitch to angle investors” provoked much comment. There was an air of cynicism in the feedback that roboadvice would never really replace current...
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The reality of roboadvice
The impact of digital innovation has been felt in many parts of the global economy and the financial planning sector is not immune. Recent turbulence in the advice industry, coupled with an...
View ArticleDon’t have retirement village regrets
The stories of people moving into a retirement community and suffering buyer regret years later when they realise what they get back have been well told. The ABC’s 7.30 programme highlighted the issue...
View ArticleChallenging a will: money or family?
Fights over wills provide an appalling insight into the bitterness, anger, and recrimination that can tear families apart. Even when quite small sums are at stake, adult children, ex-spouses,...
View ArticleProviding financial assistance to parents
A Cuffelinks reader has asked about the options and opportunities for the younger generation to financially assist their parents. He says: “People in my situation would be curious about tax-effective...
View ArticleSix challenges for robo-advisers
We believe robo-advisers will be paradigm-changing, but that doesn’t mean they have a free pass to success. They must overcome six significant challenges if they are to evolve into profitable financial...
View ArticleTake care when assisting parents financially
This article continues from Alex Denham’s, ‘Providing financial assistance to parents’, and is in response to a reader’s request to delve further into this little-explored theme. It focusses on what...
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Spinning the wheel in retirement
A common perception in finance is that the risk in growth assets, like equities, declines over a longer investment horizon. Recent research by consulting economists, Drew, Walk & Co into the equity...
View ArticleDeath and taxes on your own terms
Benjamin Franklin’s statement that nothing in life is certain but death and taxes remains relevant after 200 years. As a result of an ageing population and increasing household wealth for older...
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