Cover story
AMP is still in the race to acquire AXA, but many are questioning whether AMP Financial Planning is ready for the future, Leng Yeow writes.
Industry superannuation funds are petrified about the unstoppable growth of self-managed superannuation funds. This month, SuperRatings is running its Day of Confrontation conference, dedicated to discussing how to curb the growth of the SMSF sector.
Indepth
After a couple of false starts there’s a growing sense in Australia that, this time around, the separately managed account revolution is real. As David Chaplin discovers, it’s independently-minded advisory groups leading the charge.
The outlook for global real estate investment trusts has improved markedly since the dark days of 2008-09, Leng Yeow writes.
Insight
Although the landscape has changed, you can still improve your final retirement position by splitting your super contributions with your spouse, Sue Merriman writes.
Financial planning firms often neglect to consider attitude and intent – crucial in building a great firm – when working out their business success strategies, Jim Stackpool writes.
It can be difficult to discern the difference between a minor and significant breach, and knowing when to contact the regulator, Sophie Gerber writes, but a register could help.
Long-held beliefs about how the market works are being challenged by the way investors actually behave, but there’s little comfort in the knowledge, Barrie Dunstan writes.
Upfront
News Court to rule on dispute The lengthy and bitter legal dispute between a Queensland-based financial planner and a former employee is expected to be resolved this month. Lachlan in expansion mode Macquarie-backed financial group Lachlan Partners has signed a heads of agreement to purchase a Queensland-based practice, just one month after completing a Melbourne.
When fund managers also sit on the boards of superannuation funds, it raises the issue of conflicts of interest, Leng Yeow writes. And though planners cop criticism, super funds need scrutiny too.
Meg Heffron served on the Cooper review panel. She tells Leng Yeow there were a lot of good discussions and plenty of agreement despite participants coming from different backgrounds.
AXIOS Financial Solutions has raised its fees every year – even in the midst of the GFC – but clients have no problem because they receive value for money, principal Bentley Klein tells Leng Yeow.
Risk insurance supplement
Insurance products were exempt from switching to a fee-based model, Leng Yeow writes, but this must change if advisers are to deliver on their value propositions.
It's an interesting concept ... bold, different, innovative and most risk advisers hate it. But can fee-for-advice insurance work? David Chaplin examines the practicalities. Do the maths The Fees4service website has published a worked example of how to translate insurance commissions into a fee structure.
Good health and happiness are inextricably linked. The latest AMP NATSEM Income and Wealth Report, The pursuit of happiness, finds that the happiest Australians are employed, in a relationship, have children and are in good health, without disability.
There are ways and means around putting together a successful insurance application. It does not have to be full of red tape, overly detailed and boring, as Sue Laing explains.
Adopting Cooper’s suggestions about the role of super in insurance products will provide better protection for members and clarify statutory duties, Tim Wedd writes
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