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Thursday, 3 December 2020
Recently trending Five ways the Retirement Review points to new policiesGraeme Shaw on why investing is at a pivotal momentRetirement Review gives strong views on hoarding of super11 key findings on retirement dreams during the pandemicBank scorecard 2020: when will the mojo return?
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Investing in a traditional index can be compared with taking the main road to a destination, but if you know the backroads and traffic conditions, you coud reach your goal quicker.
Founder-led companies and 'entrepreneurial investors' make better, calculated judgements and tap into experiences which give them an advantage over more conservative investors.
With the strongest defensive assets earning close to zero and negative real returns, investors are looking at other ways to shock-proof their portfolios, but it invariably means taking on more risk.
The fear of sequence risk drives investors to take equity and risky asset exposures out of their retirement portfolios, but is this such a good idea? Looking back over the last 40 years provides some perspective.
The risk of internal fraud is a commercial reality of doing business, but how does a financial institution manage the optics of a low risk appetite and still communicate the message to employees that it is not ‘open slather’?
When investing capital, you expect the return to adequately compensate you for the likelihood of loss. Understanding both risk and reward is vital, so the more you know about 'knowns' and 'unknowns' the better.
We may already know how risk averse we are when it comes to investing, but how much of this is affected by ambiguity aversion. A better understanding of financial products could improve the investment choices we make.
We cannot afford to ‘make things up as we go along’. We need a plan that addresses short, medium and long term goals, and we need to take action to address those goals now, not later.
The Retirement Income Review goes much further than an innocent-sounding 'fact base', and is sure to guide policies in the run up to the next election. It will change how we think about retirement incomes.
Company profits have not improved for many years but higher valuations have been driven by falling rates and excess liquidity. Conditions do not suit a value and contrarian manager but here are some opportunities.
The Review includes some profound findings, most notable that retirement income should include drawing down far more capital. Expect post-retirement products to proliferate under a Retirement Income Covenant.
A mid-pandemic survey of over 1,000 people near or in retirement found three in four are not confident how long their money will last. Only 18% felt their money was safe during a strong economic downturn.
Banks severely cut dividends in 2020 but are expected to improve payments in 2021. History provides clues to when the banks will return to their 2019 levels of profitability, but who is positioned the best?
It's not only that 60 is the new 40, but 80 is the new 60. Many Baby Boomers spend up in retirement and are less inclined to leave a nest egg to their children. The ways wealth transfers will affect all investors.