Editorial

Banks less enamoured of wealth management

The days of the major banks competing for major wealth management assets are gone due to a combination of indifferent financial results and regulatory and reputational ri...

Editorial

Professional standards and de-risking the industry

With the passage of the Professional Standards legislation, the major employers have already set about de-risking their planning exposures, Mike Taylor writes....

Editorial

Churn: Real or politically expedient?

Was the life insurance industry ever really guilty of “excessive” churn or was churn a means to a politically-motivated end?...

Editorial

ASIC’s concerns on vertical integration and best interests

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has left Federal Parliamentarians in no doubt that it has concerns about the compatibility of vertical integration wi...

Editorial

Uncertainties of 2016 move into 2017

The financial services industry is facing another year of uncertainty but there will be opportunities for it to become the master of its own destiny....

Editorial

Waiting for the revolution

Mike Taylor writes that accountant licensing has thus far proved to be the revolution which has not quite happened but the clock is still ticking. ...

Editorial

A fleeting glimpse of profit sharing on the other side

There have long been accusations that industry funds have been the beneficiaries of generous rebate arrangements from group insurers and both the Productivity Commission ...

Editorial

ASIC Report 499 — A grevious indictment

There can be no more grievous indictment of a service provider than that they continually charged for a service that was never provided....

Editorial

Who will hold reins of professional standards body?

The Government’s creation of an independent standards body will alter the dynamics of the financial planning industry and create a new hierarchy. ...

Editorial

Claims handling reality trumps perception

Mike Taylor writes that ASIC must deal in the complex realities of insurance claims handling, not the headline-making perceptions....

Editorial

The churn chimera and real politik

There will always be a big question mark over whether churn was a real problem or a handy political lever, but the outcome represents the exercise of pragmatic politics....

Editorial

Staking out the default battleground

Mike Taylor writes that the Productivity Commission’s consideration of alternative default models represents the real superannuation idealogical battleground....