Negative bond yields – What does it mean, and what’s the end game?

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Since the beginning of this year, financial markets and expectations have turned decidedly bearish. Concerns about a Sino-US trade war, along with the so-called ‘inversion’ of the US yield curve,... Read more continue reading

Hands off our Super: Education industry fund members support SG increase to 12 per cent

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New research by specialist education industry superannuation fund, VISSF, shows strong support for increasing the employer superannuation contribution to 12 per cent – even if that is delivered instead of... Read more continue reading

Infrastructure debt – the asset class of the moment

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Following AMP Capital’s record US$6.2 billion fundraise, which brought in commitments from 86 institutions in less than a year, Andrew Jones, Global Head of Infrastructure Debt, explains why infrastructure debt... Read more continue reading

ESG is moving into the mainstream but challenges persist

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State Street Global Advisors, the asset management business of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) has published major new research outlining the key push and pull factors for environmental, social and... Read more continue reading

Advisers should rethink “bucket strategy” in low interest rate environment

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Advisers need to rethink their “bucket strategy” in light of the historically low interest rate environment, and consider changes to cash buckets in order to generate more return for their... Read more continue reading

Zenith sector review: international shares – emerging markets and Asian equities

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Do investors gain emerging market exposures indirectly through Australian equities? What is the optimal emerging market exposure for an international equities portfolio? These are the questions Zenith seeks to answer... Read more continue reading

One in four big bank customers have left or intend to leave after failure to pass on rate cuts

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New research from comparison site Mozo has found that a whopping 70% of Australians do not trust the big banks, with half of that number losing confidence after their failure... Read more continue reading

Asset allocation – the driver of portfolio returns

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Modern Portfolio Theory, pioneered by Harry Markowitz in 1952, introduced investors to the risk/return trade-off. It focused on how investors can construct a portfolio to maximise expected return for a... Read more continue reading

Estate planning – overcoming client objections

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Financial advisers are ideally positioned to initiate and project manage the process of implementing an estate plan. Unfortunately, there are those clients who don’t believe they need an estate plan... Read more continue reading

Australian investors increasingly turning to fixed income ETFs 

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Bond ETFs are transforming how Australian investors access fixed income markets by bringing convenience and transparency to a historically hard-to-access asset class. At BlackRock, we see investors increasingly turning to... Read more continue reading