Volume 4, Issue 1

Applied Financial Planning
LESTER WILLS  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Lester Wills discusses research originally written by James Montier. Montier has developed a list of 10 perilous errors people make when investing. Wills says that when you consider Montier's list, they seem pretty obvious. "Too many things that are ... Read more
DIANA BEAL  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Diana Beal is a retired academic. Her paper comes from research she conducted while Associate Professor in personal finance at the University of Southern Queensland. The research sought to answer the question about how much older Australians intended ... Read more
Taxation & Estate Planning
JOCELYN FURLAN  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Jocelyn Furlan is the Acting Chairperson of the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal. In this role she sees many super fund death benefit cases. This gives her an excellent insight into common issues that arise which could more easily and effectively ... Read more
NATALIE SILLAR  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Natalie Sillar uses this paper to provide a diverse range of marketing and sales ideas about generational marketing. Natalie is at BT Financial Group which has developed three toolkits to empower financial planners who use its Wrap Platform to better ... Read more
PETER GANDOLFO  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Peter Gandolfo heads up the legal division of Partners Group. In this paper, Peter argues that succession planning is critical. He then details a 12-step program to implement orderly succession. A succession plan "should be done in conjunction ... Read more
Superannuation
Graeme Colley
GRAEME COLLEY  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Graeme Colley delivers some excellent research on how the Better Super accountbased pensions provide a sound basis for retiree clients. It should be possible to place "restrictions on an account-based pension with carefully worded conditions attaching ... Read more
ROSS CLARE  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Ross Clare works at the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia. In this paper Ross takes data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to determine the level and diversity of superannuation balances across both the self-employed, wage ... Read more
Technology
HELENA GIBSON  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Helena Gibson is at Perpetual in their platform division. Initially she details an important innovation that Perpetual has created called the WealthFocus Investment Advantage. This innovation has three capital gains tax benefits that other platforms ... Read more
Investment
Julie McKay
JULIE MCKAY  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Julie McKay works for Leveraged Equities. Her paper provides excellent background research on why using gearing to build wealth over the medium- to long-term remains a valid strategy. "Even in today's financial environment not all debt is bad. ... Read more
ROBERT DEUTSCH  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Robert Deutsch works for The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). He details how and why many self funded instalments were largely withdrawn from the market during 2008. One of the reasons was the spike in financial market volatility. Robert then describes ... Read more
Insurance
ALEX WAGNER  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Alex Wagner is the claims manager at Zurich. In this paper Alex shows that insurers assess claims under the spotlight of two competing objectives - the need to assess claims quickly because of potential commercial reputational damage and the prudential ... Read more
JON DE FRIES  |  FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2009
Jon de Fries argues that "well-structured business insurance helps keep your business functioning and protects the value of your business in the case of unplanned events." His paper points out the chronic under-insurance across Australia, especially ... Read more