According to Christopher Burton and Andrew Karsh commodities offer significant diversification opportunities which may reduce overall portfolio risk and improve returns. Commodities pay no interest and offer investors no share of any future profits ... Read more

Matt Christensen is Executive Director of Eurosif which is the premier European think tank and industry association for sustainable investment. Eurosif defines Sustainable Investment as an investment philosophy that combines investors' financial objectives ... Read more

Dylan Greenway provides a brief introduction to agricultural schemes which have recently had such bad press. Greenway argues that agricultural schemes which typically last from 6 to 25 years have low or negative correlation to traditional investments. ... Read more

Even in these difficult economic times employers are saying that it can be hard work finding quality employees. This important Mercer research presented to us by David Anderson in his paper compares what employers think employees believe is important ... Read more

Sam Aylett tells us how to market smarter not harder and proactively not reactively. He details how the AXA Financial Advising Network has developed tools to help their advisers. AXA based advisers are able to develop a "Real Business Plan" ... Read more

This paper considers some of the key issues financial planners should evaluate if they wish to go about incorporating advice on aged care needs into their financial planning business. Aged care is more than just hostels and nursing homes; it also includes ... Read more

Hugh Bannister of Optimo Financial has spent most of his working life building computer software modelling tools for the energy and finance leasing industries. Through the years Bannister has also received personal financial advice that has not served ... Read more

Alex Denham is a well known technical analyst at Challenger. This paper describes what options small fund trustees have when the complying pension they have been paying is not able to get actuarial sign-off as being financially viable. She particularly ... Read more

Helen Mentiplay and Peter Riddell are lawyers at TurksLegal. In this paper they explore the implications on income protection policies of a 2008 NSW Supreme Court case (Carolyn Philips (née Durrand) v Tower Australia Ltd). The case involved an ... Read more

When Ross Higgins joined Austock, he was asked to develop a new type of Insurance Bond. As Ross points out the Insurance Bond market has been moribund for many years because, "the Life Industry failed to move insurance bonds with the times by introducing ... Read more