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6 October 2025
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Despite advances in investing technology, the most fundamental step - the application process - often frustrates investors. Will 'tokenisation' be the solution to identify fraud, and what's the impact of Optus?
Complex products beyond the purview of ASIC are being offered to retail investors based on tax and return advantages beyond the ability of investors to assess, making them manifestly unsuitable.
Despite advances in technology in many parts of asset management, that most fundamental step - the application process - often bewilders investors. Time for the industry to step up and coordinate a solution.
The increasing complexity of super would leave the fathers of Australia’s system wondering what has happened to their brainchild. Advisers and clients are struggling with the complexity before the looming deadlines.
The driverless car is experiencing something that financial markets have always struggled with: the vagaries of human behaviour. Can Google deliver insights to help finance theory, or can we expect more crashes?
Australia has a world-class superannuation system, but it is also the most complex. From insurances to estate provisions to the many different forms of contributions and withdrawals, we should try to 'keep it simple'.
Extracts from Peter Costello's talk to super fund executives, where he criticises their self-interest and poor handling of the super policy debate. And from a prior speech, he backs Nick Sherry's call for simplicity.
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.