superannuation

The announcement by the Australian Labor Party (“the ALP”) of its policy shift to stop the cash rebate of franked dividends was predictable … and is alarming. Show More

In the AFR today I argue that Peter Costello is right that there is a role for the government to play in providing super savers with a public sector alternative to existing super funds---in fact, I argued exactly the same thing at length way back in 2009 with my "KangaSupa"... Show More

On Friday the 9th June, the AFR ran an excellent article on the new breed of superannuation funds hitting the Australian market place, most of whom are targeted towards Gen-Y and millennials, Australia’s most populous generation. “Inside the multi-billion dollar battle for Millennials’ super”, which you can access here, looked... Show More

Ahead of what is likely to be a controversial budget, anticipation is further stimulated by the plethora of policy suggestions and thought bubbles that have been leaked by the Treasury Department. The task set for the Government and Treasurer encapsulates a range of serious problems far greater than simply balancing... Show More

The last few weeks in Australia have been dominated by talk of a housing bubble, and potential government measures to improve affordability, including the use of superannuation. Show More

Last week's AFR contains an interesting article on housing affordability and a new front on the crisis. It addresses the emerging issue of retirees draining their superannuation savings to pay off their mortgages and then go on the aged pension. Effectively defeating the purpose of superannuation. Show More

There’s a residential real estate affordability problem (I’m not fond of the word ‘crisis’ because not many things really are a crisis) in this country. Affordability, no matter what the good or service, is generally due to scarcity, or to put it another way demand supply imbalance. How do you... Show More

In The AFR I evaluate the "big interest rate duration short" and find that it has delivered in spades with the value of a AAA rated portfolio of Australian government bonds suffering a savage, two standard deviation plus loss of more than 2 percentage points (in total return terms) since... Show More

There’s a worrying new trend happening in superannuation that no one seems to have noticed: the amount of post tax money that Self Managed Super Fund savers have been putting away was approximately 10 per cent lower in the June quarter 2016 than it was in the same quarter last... Show More

If, like me, you assumed Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison was going to go easy on well-established superannuation savers in the Budget, you likely share my slightly queasy feeling. It turns out we’re more alone that we first thought and that a changing landscape may call for a change in strategy. Show More

The Australian Financial Review is reporting that today Brad Cooper, the chief executive of BT Financial Group, will call for “retirees to start paying income tax on annual superannuation earnings of more than $150,000 in a push to secure changes so the system can meet the retirement and budgetary needs... Show More

Just shy of 80% of the net worth of everyday Australians is trapped inside owner occupied housing and superannuation. That is the finding's of a Roy Morgan survey which spoke to over 250,000 Australian's. Show More

Why does the world's richest country need wealthy foreigners to fund it's own entrepreneurs? That is one conclusion to come from last weeks news that SIV applicants may need to tip a couple of million dollars into start-up and emerging companies in order to obtain a visa. Show More

The Federal Budget is a “do nothing’’ budget containing deficit forecasts that can only be a guess. Show More

We don't always agree with Joe Hockey, but we think he's right to trigger a debate about allowing young Australians to access their super savings to fund home purchases. This is the debate we have to have. We need to stop being so precious about superannuation, and to recognise the... Show More

The ABS National Accounts detailed Finance & Wealth data for Q3 2014 showed household net worth increasing to a record $7,718bn, up from $1,733bn at September 1994, an average quarterly growth rate over the long term of 1.9%. During Q3 household net worth increased by $122bn - largely driven by... Show More

5 alternatives to the big 4 banks: #1 - BUY: Challenger Financial Group Ltd (ASX:CGF). Last trading at 7.53, this investment management firm has a sweetspot. A growing superannuation industry, the great demand for annuities and other long-term products that can supplement super for more retirement income. It plans to... Show More

Brokers, with a few exceptions, have rated banks 'hold' or 'underweight' - but the share prices keep going up. Current and forecast price-earnings ratios, price/earnings growth ratios, price-to-book ratios and all the other conventional measures of the four big banks are, by historical standards, expensive. Yet the banks' values keep... Show More

Jo Townsend, the CIO of REST Super, a $28billion superannuation fund, says they have sent the majority of new funds allocations offshore. Townsend says the dominance of the top 10 stocks in the Australian exchange have meant they have barely allocated new funds to domestic managers in over two years.... Show More

BlackRock CEO, Larry Fink, told the UK to copy Australian Superannuation: Speaking at the National Association of Pension Funds Investment Conference in Edinburgh yesterday, Larry Fink said a compulsory pension saving programme, similar to the Australian superannuation scheme, would help solve the UK's pension's crisis. Superannuation, introduced in 1992, is... Show More