Thoughts on money, from a Financial Planner in Perth
General discussion on the activities of a financial planner and their clients, as well as comment on broad industry trends and practices.
We mere mortals here in Wealth & Security Planners have been bemusedly scanning the various reactions to Australian Securities & Investments Commission guidelines for the Trustees of super funds to be able to provide advice to their members. In case you missed it, the guide is set out here. The impetus for the change is … Read more
If you are bored enough of your day-to-day, you may have noticed my previous posting which included the text of a note that i sent to the Crikey online newsletter in an attempt to get some sort of intelligent discussion happening in regards to commissions and fees for superannuation. Well, it seems that when you … Read more
For many years various pressure groups around the country have been trying to have legislation brought in to ban the payment of commissions from superannuation accounts. Pressure has mounted even further as links are drawn between commissions generated and the recent failures of MIS scheme operators Great Southern and Timbercorp, as well as the demise … Read more
Take a deep breath, ’cause this is a deep one. i have set out below a bit of information on one of the core “tools” that is used in the financial planning industry in an attempt to apply some measure of science to the selection of approriate investment assets. It is actually only a superficial … Read more
Having just spent a bit of time setting out the relative aspects of bias that exist in the Financial Planning industry, i thought it relevant to highlight just how prevalent and deeply ingrained this tendency for bias is. Please bear in mind that i am not making a value judgement here – bias will always … Read more
How to start in an area that is so little understood, even by those who set out to regulate or administer the laws of advice? Let’s start in a place called Mar-a-Lago, a Donald Trump owned private club in the salubrious Palm Beach in the good ol’ US of A. The cream of the local … Read more
Quite possibly THE singularly most important issue that can be dealt with when considering money. This is likely to be a rather lengthy and ongoing discussion, so go make a coffee (or tea or whichever version of calmative you prefer), lean back and open your mind just that extra little bit. There are more issues … Read more
This is a very special word in the area of financial services. At least, it is legislatively important in Australia and a good starting point when you begin to consider money, advice and how they interact. Let’s get technical for just a moment… In Australia, the word “indepedent” and its use by financial intermediaries is … Read more