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22 February 2026
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Financial advice fee structures, institutions embracing bank hybrids, the varying costs of pension indexation, making super last through retirement, picking winners versus avoiding losers.
The Future of Financial Advice reforms have substantially addressed poor practices in the industry, and there's strong justification for different ways to charge fees for financial advice.
Until recently, institutional investors did not buy many bank hybrids, leaving issue size and margins subject to retail demand. But retail investors, including SMSFs, no longer have the market to themselves.
With the budget in deficit, debate about the sustainability of welfare and spending gathers pace. Looking at pension indexation alone, the two methods used differ by $300 billion in revenue between now and 2050.
Australian research on retirement withdrawal rates challenges the long-accepted ‘4% Rule’ used by many planning professionals when advising self-funded retirees. The optimal rate? Well, let's start a conversation.
Watching the market each day to pick a winner is not the best way to handle a retirement plan. A better and less stressful approach for your investment portfolio is to avoid losers, sit back and watch the grass grow.
What are the best ways to build a simple portfolio from scratch? I’ve addressed this issue before but think it’s worth revisiting given markets and the world have since changed, throwing up new challenges and things to consider.
The renowned investor says 2025’s real story wasn’t AI or US stocks but the shift away from American assets and a collapse in the value of money. And he outlines how to best position portfolios for what’s ahead.
We don’t have a housing shortage; we have housing misallocation. This explores why so many bedrooms go unused, what’s been tried before, and five things to unlock housing capacity – no new building required.
Nearly all the indicators an investor would look for suggest that this secular bull market is approaching its end. My models forecast that the US is set for 0% annual returns over the next decade.
The post-World War Two economic system is unravelling, leading to huge shifts in currency, bond and commodity markets, yet stocks seem oblivious to the chaos. This looks to history as a guide for what’s next.
Our cost-of-living pressures go beyond the RBA: surging house prices, excessive migration, and expanding government programs, including the NDIS, are fuelling inflation, demanding bold, structural solutions.