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16 September 2025
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The heyday of LICs is in the past, when issuers paid generous fees to brokers and advisers to put their clients into new structures. Most LICs now trade at a discount and more managers should change the structure.
ETFs, LICs and MFs. These investment options share some similarities but there are also important differences that make them more or less suitable for particular investors. There are a few key features to know.
Some fund managers take as much money as they can raise in the interests of generating fees, but especially in the smaller and mid cap space, limiting capacity gives flexibility and a competitive advantage.
A recent global survey revealed a lack of trust in investment firms. There are many areas for improvement such as disclosure, transparency, and conflicts of interest, and different LIC structures are examples.
‘Single-investor’ models are convenient for a range of investments. A bare trust can be a cost-effective and simple way to let a small number of sophisticated investors access an investment through one legal entity.
Listed Investment Trusts are a rival structure to the long-established Listed Investment Companies, but what should investors know about the differences?
Managed accounts are becoming more mainstream. They allow investment transparency, better performance analysis and improved tax optimisation versus some other structures.
Often with multi-manager funds, each manager acts autonomously, unaware of what the others are doing. Funds that adopt a centralised approach can eliminate unnecessary trades and reduce tax inefficiencies.
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.
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.
The creator of the 4% rule for retirement withdrawals, Bill Bengen, has written a new book outlining fresh strategies to outlive your money, including holding fewer stocks in early retirement before increasing allocations.
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.