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Home / Author: Bev Durston

Bev Durston

Managing downside risks in retirement with alternative assets

Alternative assets can enhance retirement portfolios through diversification, but their use requires skilled navigation and a willingness to compromise on liquidity to allow assets to realise their long-term potential.

Managing uncertainty in retirement

The way retirement risks and outcomes are visualised and communicated needs to move from simplistic assumptions on returns to calculating a range of outcomes and probabilities to better represent the real world.

Long-term investors fail to reap their natural advantage

Despite similar objectives, the proportion of Australian superannuation assets in alternative and less liquid assets is much lower than for other long-term investors such as family offices and global pension funds.

The defined contribution obsession with liquidity

Australia's defined contribution superannuation market seems to be obsessed with ‘liquid’ investments. For the long-term investment that super inherently is, it doesn't make sense to limit our options.

Super funds fail clients by not reporting retirement income

A simple yet effective improvement to Australia’s superannuation system would be the uniform reporting of projected retirement incomes to keep individuals focused on building enough super for their twilight years.

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Investment strategies

High quality businesses are on sale

Beneath the dominance of the ASX's largest stocks, much of the market has been left behind. High-quality companies are now trading at levels rarely seen, offering opportunities for investors willing to look deeper.

Investment strategies

The whirlwind is upon us

Something unusual is happening in markets. The winners are pulling further ahead at an extraordinary pace. As return dispersion hits extreme levels, volatility is rising and the investing landscape is becoming harder to navigate.

Strategy

Inequality destabilises economies

Extreme wealth concentration is no longer just a side effect of growth. As inequality deepens, its consequences are shifting from a social concern to a broader threat to economic stability and democratic resilience.

Investment strategies

Have AI’s four horsemen arrived?

AI exuberance is colliding with economic reality. Cracks are emerging as spending surges, ROI remains uncertain and enterprise behaviour shifts. The next phase may look less like an expansion and more like a reckoning.

Taxation

Budget tax changes only scratch the surface. Here are 4 reforms Australia needs next

The 2026 budget has reignited Australia’s tax reform debate, but more work remains. Beneath the surface lies a harder question: what structural reforms are needed to make the country's tax system fit for the future?

Taxation

Negative gearing: quarantined, not killed

The Budget's negative gearing changes defer deductions rather than deny them, yet a worked example shows quarantining can halve the tax benefit's present value for buyers of established dwellings.

Investment strategies

Family offices have quietly taken over Australian private capital

In just four years, Australia's private capital landscape has transformed. We are seeing changes across who deploys capital, how deals are structured and why new platforms and investor pathways are rapidly emerging.

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