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28 October 2026
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The Government has finally released the Aged Care Taskforce Report which contains 23 recommendations to reform home care and residential aged care. The report pinpoints who should pay for the increasing cost of aged care.
The $17.7 billion plan for aged care looks exciting but while the system will provide greater choice, transparency and care for many, there will still be senior members of 'Team Australia' who miss out.
Although the Aged Care Royal Commission (with Paul Keating) and Budget announcements gave the aged care sector high profile, the welcome 'granny flat' changes came with inadequate extra Home Care Packages.
Australia's major banks face many challenges but they are strong and remarkably adaptive and resilient. They have also finally accepted they are too big to behave badly.
Financial advice took at battering at the Royal Commission, but if the focus starts on the client's goals and eliminates conflicts, changes can set the industry up for a better future.
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.
The survey on the Royal Commission included hundreds of comments on what it overlooked. To give a perspective on how our readers felt about the results, here is a large sample.
Ken Henry deserves to be remembered for a remarkable contribution to Australia including the GFC rescue package, not for a few hours of misjudgement at the Royal Commission, being true to form.
There is much to admire about the work of the Royal Commission, but in recommending a ban on banks paying commissions to mortgage brokers, he has underestimated the role they play.
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?
The big institutions looked outside banking for growth, but found complex conglomerate structures hard to manage and needing different skills. Now it's back to basics, just as another challenge looms.
A high-profile dividend cut and a prominent fund manager’s apology have reignited a long-running debate. If investors can access similar exposures more cheaply and efficiently elsewhere, what exactly is keeping LICs alive?
The fight over testamentary trusts looked settled. Then the draft legislation arrived. Hidden in a technical detail is a question that could force many families to rethink wills they thought were already future-proof.
Investors have long accepted one portfolio rule without much question. A major tax shift could change that calculation entirely, forcing difficult trade-offs between risk, discipline and an overlooked cost lurking beneath.
From the maths of retirement, estimating spending and picking the right asset allocation to survive a poor decade, here are the questions every retiree – current or future – should be able to answer for themselves.
A decades-old estate planning tool has survived one tax crackdown only to be caught by another. The surprise isn't who the reform is targeting, but who could end up paying the price for drafting choices made years ago.
The value of a testamentary trust is not determined by wealth alone. Depending on circumstances, it can reduce the tax burden on inherited income, create efficiencies and help build intergenerational wealth.