We outline below the key superannuation changes announced in the Federal Budget 2018 on 8 May 2018. Some of the proposed changes will have a substantial impact on SMSFs if they are finalised as law. Read more

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 afoot; probably the biggest ever. Industry opinion is calling for a ban ... Read more

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 applications. Banks have entirely inadequate processes in place to verify ... Read more

For the last eight years, investing has seemed to be a pretty easy activity to most observers. Not only have markets given strong returns, but the apparent riskiness of both individual assets and overall portfolios has been low. It has not simply been ... Read more

As 2018 began, the consensus market narrative was centered around a Goldilocks scenario characterised by synchronised strong global growth and modest inflation pressures. This macro backdrop, combined with still-accommodative monetary policy in developed ... Read more

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 in the References and is demonstrated in Figure 1, which shows the performance ... Read more

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 to other cryptocurrencies with the same characteristics as Bitcoin. Read more

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 the Royal Commission and look at them in the context of other current law ... Read more

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 via a novated car lease agreement. Read more

The maximum value for participants in the First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSSS) will generally arise from making voluntary concessional contributions (CCs) to their super fund. A large part of the benefit stems from the tax differential between personal ... Read more