Australia’s life insurance industry is facing significant headwinds, driven by regulatory reform, margin pressure and the evolving adviser landscape. The Life Insurance Framework (LIF) review, Protecting Your Super and Putting …
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board Annual Report 2019 has revealed that they are scheduled to review card payments regulation in 2020, which could lead to regulatory changes. …
Financial planner bashing has become a national sport. The financial advice industry has battled consumer and media perceptions that advisers are a bunch of cowboys flogging products to line their …
Most of the developed world has enjoyed a population growth dividend lasting for five or six decades in preparation for dealing with an ageing population. But China has enjoyed only …
From its earliest days, digital technology has sought to help us sift through the information overload to discover relevance. While this promised to broaden our horizons it has in fact …
The idea of nothing has an interesting history in mathematics, and there’s even a theory that the Catholic Church tried to outlaw the concept of zero because the idea of …
“The chief value of trail commissions to the recipient, to put it bluntly, is that they are money for nothing.” Commissioner Kenneth Hayne, Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, …
The final report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry will have to be some kind of masterpiece to meet all of the …
Like many Australians, I did a fair bit of travelling around the country over Christmas and New Year, which involved driving thousands of kilometres across NSW, Queensland and Tasmania. The …
Bugger Married at First Sight, the best TV ever is watching the Royal Commission on the feed while you are working, or better yet, listening to it as you attack yet another data …
For the first time in five years the broad sentiment of Australians has moved from mildly negative – to mildly positive. The broad trend in predicted improving economic conditions, along …
There are more Australian first home owners in the market today as a proportion of all home buyers than there have been for more than five years. The uptick – which …
As a property investor, I became worried about the high interest rate I was being charged on my variable-rate home loan, particularly after getting a letter in the mail notifying …
The four year retreat of first home buyers from market looks to have ended according to data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), indicating that the …
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been asked on numerous occasions by friends, family and colleagues my opinion on whether allowing early access to superannuation is a good idea. …
