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1 February 2026
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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.
New data shows that despite talk about large super funds shifting from public to private assets, the change hasn't been dramatic. However, there are other things that may challenge the long-term performance of Big Super.
Super funds are increasingly allocating low and middle-income Australia’s hard-earned dollars to sophisticated and opaque unlisted assets. Reform is needed to bring transparency to the valuations of these assets.
We face a huge economic transformation that is not a priority for politicians. Yet a typical super portfolio emits about 28 tonnes of CO2 per annum through its equities ownership, more than the average household.
Given gold is liquid, efficient to allocate to and has a track record of protecting portfolios during equity market turbulence, is it worth a modest allocation to gold in a diversified super portfolio?
Even if a marriage ends amicably, there are complications when partners share an SMSF. You can't simply 'split' the assets on a handshake, and who takes the capital gains and what's the impact on an estate?
On the surface, a diversified fund looks the same as an SMSF with the same asset allocations. But to fund retirement, a member must sell units in the fund, whereas the cash balance is used in an SMSF.
1997 Nobel Laureate Robert Merton wants greater focus on the income that will sustain a retirement, and even Jane Austen understood this. And he has a surprising proposal to help with longevity risk.
Unless all members of an SMSF or SAF are of the same age and have the same retirement goals, the new super rules look like complicating tax payments when one member is in pension and the other accumulation.
SMSFs transferring funds to a tax-free pension account under the proposed cap of $1.6 million will not need to sell or segregate assets from an accumulation account for the same member.
If your SMSF has invested in personal assets like vintage cars or valuable artworks, new restrictions come into effect on 1 July 2016. You may need to find another way to pay for your passion.
Nobel laureate Robert Merton wants us to focus on the income that will sustain us in retirement, even Jane Austen understood this. And he has a surprising proposal to help with longevity risk.
What are the best ways to build a simple portfolio from scratch? I’ve addressed this issue before but think it’s worth revisiting given markets and the world have since changed, throwing up new challenges and things to consider.
At this time last year, I forecast that 2025 would likely be a positive year given strong economic prospects and disinflation. The outlook for this year is less clear cut and here is what investors should do.
Treasury has released draft legislation for a new version of the controversial $3 million super tax. It's a significant improvement on the original proposal but there are some stings in the tail.
The renowned investor says 2025’s real story wasn’t AI or US stocks but the shift away from American assets and a collapse in the value of money. And he outlines how to best position portfolios for what’s ahead.
The predictions include dividends will outstrip growth as a source of Australian equity returns, US market performance will be underwhelming, while US government bonds will beat gold.
We don’t have a housing shortage; we have housing misallocation. This explores why so many bedrooms go unused, what’s been tried before, and five things to unlock housing capacity – no new building required.