Editorial

When the dealer group model breaks, CEOs fall

As a number of dealer group heads have found themselves out of a job, Mike Taylor writes that it is symptomatic of the impending death of the traditional financial planni...

Editorial

Profitability up and financial advisers optimistic

Although revenues continue to trend down, financial planning practice operating profitability has actually risen in the past year, while advisers also indicate they are o...

Editorial

A guide to building debt portfolios

Building debt portfolios used to be easy. But it’s much harder now. These days, the debt side of portfolios should be absolutely secure and designed as three buckets. Tim...

Editorial

Removing the accountants' exemption

The industry is still waiting on an announcement from the Government following the decision to remove the accountants' exemption on providing advice on SMSFs as part of F...

Editorial

FOFA - signed, sealed ... delivered?

With the FOFA, Stronger Super and MySuper reforms finally taking shape, the financial services industry has a clearer picture of what the future holds, writes Chris Kenne...

Editorial

Are alternative investments a missed opportunity?

In the current investment climate, alternative investments can provide valuable diversification. So why are investors still not jumping on the bandwagon? Freya Purnell re...

Editorial

FOFA alone won’t stop another Trio Capital

With the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services having last week handed down its final report on the collapse of Trio Capital, it is worth r...

Editorial

Should heads roll over Trio Capital?

The last APRA regulatory failure around HIH Insurance saw heads roll. Mike Taylor asks whether the gravity of the Trio Capital collapse ought not to justify similar punis...

Editorial

FOFA - the devil will be in the detail

Until the final wording of the Future of Financial Advice legislation is released, it is impossible to assess what the opt-in agreements have actually achieved for financ...

Editorial

FOFA report calls for product providers to accept responsibility for their failures

Mike Taylor writes that the Government’s FOFA process has finally produced a genuinely positive outcome in the St John report’s clear analysis of the need for financial p...

Editorial

Fund managers face another tough year

It's been a tough 12 months for fund managers with investor sentiment persistently negative and Australian shares among the worst-performing. Unfortunately, things might ...

Editorial

Strategic versus tactical asset allocation

When it comes to asset allocation, the focus has shifted from beating benchmarks to the requirement that liabilities are met, writes Richard Skelt....