NICOLE MCMILLAN   Financial advisers have been knowingly charging fees to customers who died up to a decade ago. Bank employees accepted cash bribes to falsify proof of employment documents in loan ...STEPHEN ROMIC   The Royal Commission has the financial services industry on edge. Both large institutions and small are sitting up and paying attention as they have never before. Big changes are ...

CARL ROSS   As a fixed income asset class with relatively high duration, sovereign emerging debt is sensitive to interest rates. But is there anything else we can say? The yield on a sovereign ...MICHAEL BROWN   Equally weighted portfolios outperform their market capitalisation counterparts over the long term and over almost all short term periods. The evidence to support this is cited ...

PAUL CRONIN   Insurance has long been viewed as relatively stable offering within the financial services sector. Traditionally, people paid their premiums on a regular basis with monies invested ...NOBLEOAK LIFE INSURANCE   The traditional decision making models of 'needs awareness', 'information search', through to the 'purchase decision' is fast becoming outdated in the new ...

PATRICK LEMMENS   Robo-advice is a hotly debated topic in the fintech space. On the one hand it has opened up the low-wealth market, that was previously unservable, to finally be consulted on their ...HUB24 PTY LTD   In a world where technology is reshaping the way we live, it was always a question of when, not if, digital innovation would change the way consumers manage their money and their ...

SHAUN BACKHAUS   While there are a large number of cryptocurrencies in existence (currently over 1600), this article will focus on Bitcoin for simplicity. Our comments contained here may apply ...DAVID BARRETT   The transitional capital gains tax (CGT) relief election associated with the 2017 super reform measures is a generous concession offered to super fund trustees. It protects assets ...

JEREMY COOPER   Former Prime Minister Paul Keating conceded some years ago that the super system was not designed for people who were going to live over the age of 80. The system he conceived ...NICKI DOYLE   No matter what we're buying, we all want a good customer experience - we want to think 'wow'. As consumers, we're becoming increasingly aware of what great customer ...

STUART SHEARY   For employees who do not have enough money saved to buy a car outright there are a number of options. They can finance the purchase through a private loan, private car lease or ...YVONNE CHU   WHAT'S CHANGED? From 1 July 2017, the 10% test that previously applied to personal deductible contributions has been removed. As a result, all clients under the age of 75 (including ...

VINCE BATTAGLIA   Possible law reforms are on the agenda following the conclusion of the second round of hearings of the Financial Services Royal Commission. We identify the trends arising from ...GERARD MAGNER   The collapse of the Westpoint group and the loss of many millions of dollars of investors' funds has been the subject of much publicity. ASIC has recently announced that it ...

MELANIE DUNN   The superannuation reforms applying from 1 July 2017 made a number of changes impacting transition to retirement income streams and their use by retirees. A transition to retirement ...FINANCIAL STANDARD   We invite readers to send their burning questions on the latest investment trends to underthemicroscope@financialstandard.com.au . In this issue, we talk to Bell Direct equities ...

CLAUDIA PRITCHITT   In the past decade, the media serving financial services has changed almost as much as the financial services industry itself. Financial services changes have been regulatory as ...NAOMI CHRISTOPHER   The rapid evolution of digital, mobile and social technology has propelled the financial advice industry into an era of transformative agility and adaptability. Australian financial ...