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4 September 2026
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More Caveat Emptor, Chris Cuffe on the state of our industry, know the manager, performance fees, great returns in 2013 and Quality Investing
The funds management industry is undergoing consolidation and evolving rapidly, under pressure to provide better service and high returns while cutting costs. Chris Cuffe discusses the present and the future.
Poor management can quickly erode value, even in a good business, so it’s important to have confidence in the people pulling the levers.
Paying a high performance fee must be a good problem to have, as it must mean the fund manager has delivered outstanding performance, right? It's not always the case, and it pays to know how the fee is calculated.
As we near the end of 2013, it looks like this year has been a repeat of 2012 for shares in the major developed world stock markets - high returns plus super-low volatility.
Quality measures gained popularity after the burst of the dot com bubble and the spectacular failures of companies such as Enron and WorldCom, and more recently, the GFC. But how do we measure quality?
For the last few years there has been much talk of a 'cost-of-living' crisis in Australia and of 'falling living standards'. Lately this has flared up again with the pickup in inflation resulting in a renewed fall in real wages.
Fear of running out has become a defining retirement anxiety. Why do some retirees die with substantial wealth while others deplete their nest egg? Evidence suggests the answer is more complicated than we think.
What if Australia’s golden age of dividends is ending? Rather than overhaul your portfolio, it may be worth considering where new capital can work harder. I discuss four income strategies and the trade-offs behind each.
Tax rules have changed, but many investors are still using yesterday’s strategies. Insurance bonds may offer advantages for those seeking greater control, tax efficiency and certainty about their wealth.
What begins as appetite, grows into excess and ultimately ends in spectacle. Millions of investors just discovered this the hard way.
Treasury’s latest CGT reform draft delivers a win for testamentary trusts and deceased estates, exempting estate-derived gains from the 30% floor. However, questions on death and divorce rollovers remain unresolved.