Over the last decade there’s been an explosion in the number and types of listed products available to Australian investors. There’s been a commensurate increase in the number of investors – and financial advisers – using listed securities and products in diversified portfolios. This article, proudly sponsored by GSFM, examines some of the ethical issues pertinent to the use of listed investments. The term homo economicus, or ‘economic man’, was first coined [...]

FASEA’s Code of Ethics seeks to impose ethical duties that go above the requirements of the law. It’s designed to encourage and embed higher standards of behaviour and professionalism in the financial advice industry[1]. However, while laws may be clear, anything open to subjective interpretation can be prone to ‘grey areas’ – not everything is black and white. In this article, proudly sponsored by GSFM, those grey areas are explored [...]

The world depicted in many economics textbooks is populated by completely informed consumers who value choice and make perfectly rational decisions. Such a world is, of course, mythical. In the real world, decisions are an outcome of a complex interplay between our thinking styles and the way information is ‘framed’ or presented to us. The exhausting nature of decision making sees us rely on short cuts and other techniques which [...]

Introduction Compounding the impact of ongoing licensee consolidation and new professional development requirements, the LIF driven reshaping of adviser remuneration for life insurance advice – in the form of lower up-front commissions and higher renewal commissions – has left many advisers no choice but to rethink, and, in many cases, fine tune their business models. Typical adviser responses have included a heightened focus on the efficiency of advice delivery (and [...]