Estate planning: where there’s a will, there’s a way
Part 1 of this series on estate planning looked at the decision-making process that should be followed to prepare an effective plan. Parts 2 and 3 outline the documentation required to ensure that your...
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Do investment principles stand test of time?
Time travel is a skill that would dramatically transform the world of the investor. Sadly, despite all the technological advances of the past two decades, the ability to go back or forward in time...
View ArticleStranded: too old to work, too young for the pension
After a career spanning business, software analysis and the Arts, and now in my late 50’s, a few years ago I decided to reinvent myself as a financial planner. I studied and started applying for jobs....
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Regulator demands robos understand clients
Quick and simple digital advice makes investing easy, but do the long-term consequences outweigh the short-term benefits? A new report by US market regulator, the Financial Industry Regulatory...
View ArticleWill roboadvice exterminate traditional advisers?
A concise definition of roboadvice is an online wealth management service that provides automated, algorithm-based portfolio management advice without the use of human financial planners. The question...
View ArticleDiversification in thinking and practice
In 2015, Brookvine ran a workshop modestly entitled ‘WhiteBoarding 2.0’ where advisors and Chief Investment Officers to High Net Worth (HNW) clients and Family Offices (FO) assessed the role of...
View ArticleEstate planning and your wishes after death
Part 1 of this series on estate planning looked at the decision-making processes involved in preparing an effective plan. Part 2 outlined the documentation required to ensure that your strategy is...
View ArticleShould much of our financial advice be outlawed?
Recently, a person named David Blake implied that almost all financial advice given today should be outlawed. You often hear outlandish claims from people less than fully informed on financial advice,...
View ArticleAdvice is silver bullet on super battlefield
In the battle to retain super fund members into retirement, advice is the key weapon. And First State Super’s acquisition of financial planning firm StatePlus for about $1 billion is a clarion call to...
View ArticleFintechs overcome the trust barrier
It’s become fashionable post-GFC to label any company disrupting the financial services sector as a ‘fintech’. Small, fast-moving and innovative, these firms are primarily start-ups and offer a new...
View ArticleCourt defends super death benefits from bankruptcy
Protection from creditors is an unsung benefit of superannuation. Life does not always go according to Plan A. I keep hammering it into my small business clients in particular that, while they may be...
View ArticleBanks team up with their FinTech competitors
These are challenging times for the incumbent heavyweights of the financial services sector. Beset by regulatory, governance, technological, capital, and investment issues, they are increasingly facing...
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Asset test changes create questionable advice
From 1 January 2017 the asset test taper rate for the aged pension will increase from $1.50 to $3.00 per fortnight for every $1,000 in assets held above the threshold. This has led to some rather...
View ArticleSAFs can provide powerful estate planning solutions
A small APRA fund (SAF), which is essentially an SMSF with a professional trustee, can provide valuable estate planning solutions for families with particular needs. In this article, we outline two...
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Five questions after Super Scott’s Santa surprise
“Contrariwise,” continued Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.” Treasurer Scott Morrison has delivered the Christmas...
View ArticleCareless estate planning: how artists can lose their legal voice
When a famous person dies, particularly if they were involved in producing art of any type, the legal implications are like any death, but on steroids (or stronger). Soon after George Michael was found...
View ArticleA robo response: digital wealth advice will engage at all levels
Graham’s Centrelink/robo analogy raises a valuable point that if the fact-find has deficiencies, then the outcome is likely sub-optimal. I think the analogy is a bit too harsh in that the Centrelink...
View ArticleLessons for roboadvice in Centrelink debacle
‘Robo’ has rapidly become the prefix of choice for anything to do with automation or robotics. The biggest local political story of the Australian summer was the use of Centrelink’s computers to chase...
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Trust alternatives after 1 July super changes
Given the impending superannuation changes, it’s worth taking a fresh look at estate and superannuation succession planning arrangements. Background From 1 July 2017, individuals will be able to have a...
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HNW asset allocation and advice trends
In an advanced look at the results, the 2016 Investment Trends High Net Worth (HNW) Investor Report updates research on the use of advisers and the latest asset allocations. The study is based on 2,500...
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