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6 October 2025
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‘Regrets, I’ve had a few …’ Special 250th Edition ebook plus Royal Commission coverage.
For a Special 250th Edition, we asked: "What is an enduring investment lesson you learned from making a mistake?" and we received a wide range of responses that might prevent someone from repeating the same error.
The characteristic tone of the Royal Commission was set on the first day focus on financial advice, and no witness has been able to defend commissions to advisers and the vertical integration model.
Grandfathering and the implications for commissions has become a major flash point, and the Royal Commission is focussing on problems created when advisers are given the wrong incentives.
The Royal Commission is asking whether percentage-based fees offer the wrong incentives and why administration is not a flat fee business. Where might this go in wealth management?
The Financial Services Royal Commission is discovering behaviour that is far worse than expected, with widespread implications for wealth management. Banks are challenged making the vertical integration model work.
The Royal Commission is exposing the product / advice disconnect, and different rules are required for aligned and non-aligned advisers to recognise the conflict in vertical integration. The medical profession is a model.
The Royal Commission's attention switched from the big players to a small independent advice firm with only six staff, but it showed the potential for conflicted advice runs deep.
Following the Ripoll Inquiry in November 2009, the Labor Government formulated the Future of Financial Advice proposals. A lot has happened since, and the Royal Commission is dealing with the consequences.
This AI cycle feels less like a revolution and more like a rerun. Just like fibre in 2000, shale in 2014, and cannabis in 2019, the technology or product is real but the capital cycle will be brutal. Investors beware.
An explosion in low-skilled migration to Australia has depressed wages, killed productivity, and cut rental vacancy rates to near decades-lows. It’s time both sides of politics addressed the issue.
LICs are continuing to struggle with large discounts and frustrated investors are wondering whether it’s worth holding onto them. This explains why the next 6-12 months will be make or break for many LICs.
Australian housing’s 50-year boom was driven by falling rates and rising borrowing power — not rent or yield. With those drivers exhausted, future returns must reconcile with economic fundamentals. Are we ready?
Younger Australians think they’ll need $100k a year in retirement - nearly double what current retirees spend. Expectations are rising fast, but are they realistic or just another case of lifestyle inflation?
This week, I got the news that my mother has dementia. It came shortly after my father received the same diagnosis. This is a meditation on getting old and my regrets in not getting my parents’ affairs in order sooner.