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David Bell

Are lifecycle funds appropriate for MySuper products?

The Stronger Super reforms have significantly raised the profile of lifecycle funds by legitimising their use as a single investment strategy for MySuper products. But are lifecycle funds any better than normal balanced funds?

How ASIC defines ‘hedge funds’ and what it means to you

ASIC's new definition of 'hedge funds' will have important ramifications for many industry participants, and may even affect PI insurance costs.

Mortality risk could be the death of you

It is unfortunate that super funds and financial planners spend far more time considering investment risk than mortality risk. In future, retirement savings must last much longer, and a study of mortality risk shows how long.

Don’t spend your career further exposing yourself

We should consider how our investment portfolio interacts with other risks in our lives, including not investing in shares of the company or the industry you are employed by.

Is APRA's Standard Risk Measure helpful?

Super fund Product Disclosure Statements now include a measure of risk called the ‘Standard Risk Measure’, or SRM, but it has some important shortcomings, especially ignoring the size of losses.

An introduction to lifecycle theory

Lifecycle theory is one of the more exciting and applicable research fields in financial academia yet it receives little discussion in Australia’s superannuation industry. The findings have the potential to improve outcomes for Australian households.

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Retirement

The retirement scorecard: how many of these questions can you answer?

From the maths of retirement, estimating spending and picking the right asset allocation to survive a poor decade, here are the questions every retiree – current or future – should be able to answer for themselves.

2026 is not 1999

The US market looks eerily similar to the dot-com era with soaring AI spending and tech giants dominating returns. But one difference separates today’s boom from the dot-com bubble and it could determine what happens next.

Planning

Taxing time for trusts

Trusts are facing a shake-up, but an overhaul may not be necessary. Families can explore restructuring strategies that preserve succession and the asset protection benefits that have made these structures valuable.

Economy

Why the US economy is stronger than you might think

War, inflation and higher rates were expected to derail America. But has the market got it wrong? Three forces are driving the economy beyond expectations, revealing implications for stock prices and portfolio positioning.

Gold

How much trust is in your portfolio?

Everyone talks about diversifying assets. Far fewer think about diversifying trust. As inflation, debt and market assumptions collide, the question is whether portfolios need greater protection from unexpected outcomes.

Retirement

Retirement in reality - 7 months in

Seven months into retirement, I'm still uncovering surprises. This month was spent reflecting on the slow pace of health change, the myth of neatly scheduled part-time work and the unexpected persistence of retirement guilt.

The new geography of technology leadership

The next chapter of technology may not belong to the companies or business models many expect. As the landscape shifts, some opportunities are emerging in places that remain surprisingly overlooked by global markets.

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