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8 December 2025
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Financial advisers must convince regulators and clients that advice to ‘do nothing’ or maintain a current position is indeed valuable advice, and often more valuable than activity buying or selling shares.
The Big Four banks look similar but they are at fundamentally different stages as they move to simpler business models. Amid challenges from operating systems, loan growth and neobank threats, one factor stands tall.
The overhaul of financial advice practices affects not only advisers but also their clients. Legislative changes are coming by mid next year and too few people are considering them.
Thanks to the Royal Commission, everybody is aware of the problems with vertical integration and in-house conflicts for financial advisers. What should advisers and their clients look for?
The journalist most responsible for the calling of the Royal Commission takes care not to be roped in by everyone with a complaint to push. It takes experienced judgement to gather the right information.
It was not supposed to be the Financial Advice Royal Commission, but there is significant focus on advice, including a little-discussed reduction in the ability to pay advice fees from a super fund.
Professor Pamela Hanrahan of the UNSW provided much of the background material used by the Financial Services Royal Commission, and she reviews the final outcome in this BusinessThink interview.
An excellent response rate gives a good sample of the attitudes of our readers to the Royal Commission's recommendations. We also include some written comments in the responses.
The Royal Commission did good work but it is not above criticism: faced with limited time, it spent too long on some subjects and missed crucial issues that will impact millions.
After a year of analysing financial services like it has never been done before, the RC Final Report was released today with 76 recommendations which are expected to be adopted. What will change?
Wealth management businesses can be profitable and part of a vertically-integrated financial services offer by banks. They could present their best products as being in the best interests of their clients.
More Australians are retiring with larger mortgages and less super. This paper explores how unlocking housing wealth can help ease the nation’s growing retirement cashflow crunch.
I’ve long seen Buffett as a flawed genius: a great investor though a man with shortcomings. With his final letter to Berkshire shareholders, I reflect on how my views of Buffett have changed and the legacy he leaves.
With investor sentiment shifting and ETFs surging ahead, we pit Australia’s biggest LICs against their ETF rivals to see which delivers better returns over the short and long term. The results are revealing.
Thoughtful tax planning is a cornerstone of successful investing. This highlights 13 legal ways that you can reduce tax, preserve capital, and enhance long-term wealth across super, property, and shares.
With rates on hold and housing demand strong, lenders are pushing boundaries. As risky products return, borrowers should be cautious and not let clever marketing cloud their judgment.
Retirement isn’t a clean financial arc. Income shocks, health costs and family pressures hit at random, exposing the limits of age-based planning and the myth of a predictable “retirement journey".