One of the debates raging in the post GFC financial world concerns the relative advantages and disadvantages of investment structures. For example, many people have decided that “managed funds” are expensive, opaque and have bad returns. At the same time, there has been a substantial lift in the funds being invested into “Listed Investment Companies…
Tag Archive for Fund Managers
Financial Planning – DON’T PANIC
Famous words, made all the more famous’er by the late but very great Douglas Adams, in his 4 book trilogy “Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy” (although the actual number of books that make up the trilogy is subject to some dispute). Douglas Adams was referring to the great cosmic guidebook produced by Megadodo Publications. “It…
Buy and hold – or be more active?
There has been a great deal of attention directed over the last couple of years towards a strategy known as “buy/write”. This post will look at how such a strategy has worked, and how the current market impacts such a process. The reason for this post is the strong market focus by advertisers and promoters…
Which is the best super fund?
Which is the best super fund, and how will you decide between the thousands of options on offer?
How Do I Measure Risk?
So, what risks ARE you prepared to take? Some people think it is fun to bungey-jump off a cliff or a bridge or a crane when they are travelling overseas, while others are not prepared to do this – whether it be from fear of heights, concern over the health effect on their eyes or…
10 Year Super Fund returns – Part II
A few people have read my earlier post on this subject of 10 year super fund returns and wondered just what point i was making… (thanks for the feedback Neil and others!). The post was primarily aimed at showing the average 10 year return of the average super fund (which was not much over 4%pa) and…
10 Year Superannuation Returns
The front page of the Australian Financial Review today (Friday 23rd July) suggests that ‘Balanced’ Funds “have failed to keep pace with investments such as low-risk bonds and gold over the past decade even after posting double-digit gains in the year to June“. If you move on to page 51 to read the balance of…
Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble…
Come on, admit it – we all love to be able to point and say, “i told you so”. Sadly, i also am all too human. Therefore, i’m going to point to an example that is already emerging of my warning that the current changes afoot in the industry will move towards greater bias and less…
Managed funds and Listed Investment Trusts
Financial planners can spend many hours agonising over exactly which investment is or is not suitable for an individual portfolio. Some clients want to participate in direct investment themselves and others want professional funds management to take care of the specific selection and administration work, leaving time for advisors to focus on the broader issues. However,…
Why Industry Funds are good “Default Funds” in awards
There has been quite a bit of debate in recent times on various clauses in various “Awards” as they relate to superannuation.
Some argue that this takes away “member choice” and that it unfairly promotes “industry funds” (i have not used capital letters, as i have not investigated whether all awards with these provisions specifically relate to funds that are members of the Industry Funds marketing group). However, i would argue that this is in fact a very good basic step to take in many cases….
