Getting the right policy mix for ageing populations is a vexed issue globally. Just ask Diane Maxwell, who spent nearly six years clashing with vested interests while trying to reform the New Zealand system.
Thanks in part to the pandemic, employers have sufficient awareness of mental health problems in the workforce, their human and economic costs. Now is the time for programs to solve them. A multi-country multi-industry webinar last week (December 9) looked at how employers should learn from the impact of covid-19 and put in place processes…
Strong super returns are about to encounter significant headwinds. And with the government prowling for more money, funds might once again foot the bill. It’s no secret that market conditions have been enormously supportive over the last decade – and that super has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of those conditions, particularly through 2020,…
Howard Marks, one of the investment world’s more celebrated investors, has added his voice to other celebrated investors in decrying continued use of the terms ‘value’ and ‘growth’. The co-founder and co-chair of Oaktree Capital Management, the Los Angeles-based firm renowned for its predominantly fixed income and credit strategies, addressed the opening session of the…
You can do a lot with a well-thought-out nudge, but you probably can’t solve either of the crises of the moment, covid-19 and climate change, according to Richard H. Thaler. The behavioural economist and Nobel Laureate addressed a predominantly Australian webinar audience last week (August 24), organised by the University of Sydney Business School, where…
While there has been much talk about renewed inflation and its harm to portfolios, thanks largely to the US economic recovery, the consensus is this will be transitory. That may be wrong. PIMCO, the world’s largest fixed income manager, believes that there is more risk in the current inflation bogey than the market is anticipating….
The evolution of the listed funds market, dating back nearly 100 years in Australia, turned into a revolution over the past two years. The current discounts represent a buying opportunity. Felicity Thomas, senior private wealth adviser at Shaw and Partners, told an investor webinar last week (August 5) that the discount opportunity for “good-quality” listed…
Investors can expect good news for stocks in the most popular ASX companies in the reporting season this month. Consensus forecasts on corporate earnings are the highest for more than ten years. With about 170 of the S&P/ASX 200 companies reporting between now (early August) and early September, this season’s results, in the middle of…
Peter Burgess of the SMSF Association was able to announce the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) decision himself yesterday and provide instant expert criticism for the association’s members. Burgess, the association’s deputy chief executive and director of policy and education, opened the annual ‘Technical Summit’, held virtually, with the “breaking news” that the ATO had that…
If the news that annual investment returns for the next ten-or-so years will be only 1 per cent-2 per cent has not yet sunk in, then listen to this. This is a 15-minute video from Research Affiliates in the US, designed as an introductory demonstration of a free asset allocation tool for its big super…
