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30 August 2025
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Chris Cuffe on company engagement; write-offs, tangibles and intangibles; ATO surveillance of SMSFs; wagering and financial services; and characteristics of skilled managers.
SMSFs are being targeted by property marketers, but is a single, illiquid investment a good super strategy, with its associated leverage? ASIC is worried SMSF trustees are not seeing the full picture, so we went looking.
Don’t judge the extent to which institutional investors influence listed companies by the big public event, the AGM. Private meetings with executives of listed companies are ongoing and lively.
If high levels of intangibles are not written down by the auditors – even after years of generating mediocre returns – the market will often do the writing down for them. Either way, shareholders receive lousy returns.
The ATO will step up surveillance of SMSFs in 2013/14, and trustees need to ensure their fund is compliant. There are rules around the acquisition of assets, especially related party transactions.
There are insightful parallels between the bookmaking industry and the financial services sector, and it would help if market analysts and fund researchers assigned odds to their predictions.
The key to good investing is knowing when the odds are in your favour, and equally important, knowing how to apply that edge. With experience, it should give the confidence to run more concentrated portfolios.
Each generation believes its economic challenges were uniquely tough - but what does the data say? A closer look reveals a more nuanced, complex story behind the generational hardship debate.
Australia could unlock smarter investment and greater equity by reforming housing tax concessions. Rethinking exemptions on the family home could benefit most Australians, especially renters and owners of modest homes.
The Labor government is talking up tax reform to lift Australia’s ailing economic growth. Before any changes are made, it’s important to know who pays tax, who owns assets, and how much people have in their super for retirement.
This goes through the different options including shares, property and business ownership and declares a winner, as well as outlining the mindset needed to earn enough to never have to work again.
Everyone has a theory as to why housing in Australia is so expensive. There are a lot of different factors at play, from skewed migration patterns to banking trends and housing's status as a national obsession.
China's steel production, equivalent to building one Sydney Harbour Bridge every 10 minutes, has driven Australia's economic growth. With China's slowdown, what does this mean for Australia's economy and investments?