Financial markets spent much of the 2026 financial year climbing a wall of worry that, at times, resembled a cliff face. In February 2026, Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, resulting in a spike in oil prices and a sharp sell-off in global share markets. However, as is the case with most geo-political shocks, ...
The tax changes in May’s federal Budget have triggered a familiar reflex among wealthy families and their advisers: how do we reduce some of the pain?
There is a fair bit to weigh up. Division 296 is now law, taxing super balances above $3 million from 1 July 2026. The CGT and negative gearing changes passed in June and are law too, in force from 1 ...
Throughout our many decades as investors in the sharemarket, we have lived through various periods where people begin to seriously question whether using a value philosophy can still yield good long-term results.
This question generally rears its head when sharemarkets are driven by momentum or themes, and becomes more intense when stockmarkets are ...
Australians have understandable reasons for favouring domestic shares. Local companies are familiar, dividends can carry franking credits and the market has produced many successful businesses. But familiarity can disguise concentration. At 30 June 2026, MSCI Australia had 40.8% in financials and 24.5% in materials. Nearly two-thirds of the index was ...
Markets are constantly trying to anticipate what comes next. Reserve managers at central banks, by contrast, spend far more time thinking about the forces that could reshape the global financial system over the next decade and beyond.
Regardless of timeframe, all investors are navigating a changing investment environment. Assumptions that underpinned ...
My recent conversations with clients have become noticeably more negative on Australia.
It feels similar to the ‘mortgage cliff’ narrative of 2022 and 2023. The risks were spoken about constantly, but the most bearish outcomes did not materialise.
Here are 17 reasons Australia remains an attractive place to invest, and why the economy and markets will ...
Inflation, the RBA, wage growth, house prices... Australian investors spend so much time navigating domestic indicators that we may lose sight of the bigger picture. It is easy to get bogged down by every data release and policy debate, but sometimes the most useful perspective comes from stepping back and asking a simpler question - How do we compare ...
I have been a professional advisor in the stock market since 1982. For half of that time, I’ve been speaking to professional investors, to fund managers, and for the other half, I’ve been talking to self-managed super fund investors trying to look after their own money.
The difference between professionals and SMSF investors is that professionals have ...
Cost-of-living pressures don’t stop at retirement. If anything, they can make an already difficult transition even harder: moving from a lifetime of disciplined saving to drawing income with confidence.
That is a shift many people underestimate. For decades, the retirement system has trained Australians to accumulate – to contribute regularly, avoid ...
As unintended consequences of the Labor tax package in the federal budget continue to roll out, one that could have far reaching effects is the loss of tax neutrality between retained earnings and distributed profits under the new capital gains tax regime.
Consider the tax effect of removing the 50% CGT discount and replacing it with an inflation ...
You could be fooled into thinking that the AI boom is all about NVIDIA, OpenAI, Anthropic and the hyperscalers. Fortunately for investors, the opportunity extends far beyond them. While all eyes are on AI, it's easy to overlook what actually makes it run – power and the hard assets of essential infrastructure, assets that Goldman Sachs refer to as HALO ...
'You can afford to take more risk.' Every risk-profiling questionnaire leans on the idea, and it sounds like arithmetic: a bigger balance can absorb a bigger fall. Nick Maggiulli argued in Firstlinks that the logic is backwards, because the pain of losing a dollar grows faster than the pleasure of gaining one. He is right, and in Australia he is right ...
Financial markets spent much of the 2026 financial year climbing a wall of worry that, at times, resembled a cliff face. In February 2026, Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, resulting in a spike in oil prices and a sharp sell-off in global share markets. However, as is the case with most geo-political shocks, ...
The tax changes in May’s federal Budget have triggered a familiar reflex among wealthy families and their advisers: how do we reduce some of the pain?
There is a fair bit to weigh up. Division 296 is now law, taxing super balances above $3 million from 1 July 2026. The CGT and negative gearing changes passed in June and are law too, in force from 1 ...
Throughout our many decades as investors in the sharemarket, we have lived through various periods where people begin to seriously question whether using a value philosophy can still yield good long-term results.
This question generally rears its head when sharemarkets are driven by momentum or themes, and becomes more intense when stockmarkets are ...
Australians have understandable reasons for favouring domestic shares. Local companies are familiar, dividends can carry franking credits and the market has produced many successful businesses. But familiarity can disguise concentration. At 30 June 2026, MSCI Australia had 40.8% in financials and 24.5% in materials. Nearly two-thirds of the index was ...
Markets are constantly trying to anticipate what comes next. Reserve managers at central banks, by contrast, spend far more time thinking about the forces that could reshape the global financial system over the next decade and beyond.
Regardless of timeframe, all investors are navigating a changing investment environment. Assumptions that underpinned ...
My recent conversations with clients have become noticeably more negative on Australia.
It feels similar to the ‘mortgage cliff’ narrative of 2022 and 2023. The risks were spoken about constantly, but the most bearish outcomes did not materialise.
Here are 17 reasons Australia remains an attractive place to invest, and why the economy and markets will ...
Inflation, the RBA, wage growth, house prices... Australian investors spend so much time navigating domestic indicators that we may lose sight of the bigger picture. It is easy to get bogged down by every data release and policy debate, but sometimes the most useful perspective comes from stepping back and asking a simpler question - How do we compare ...
I have been a professional advisor in the stock market since 1982. For half of that time, I’ve been speaking to professional investors, to fund managers, and for the other half, I’ve been talking to self-managed super fund investors trying to look after their own money.
The difference between professionals and SMSF investors is that professionals have ...
Cost-of-living pressures don’t stop at retirement. If anything, they can make an already difficult transition even harder: moving from a lifetime of disciplined saving to drawing income with confidence.
That is a shift many people underestimate. For decades, the retirement system has trained Australians to accumulate – to contribute regularly, avoid ...
As unintended consequences of the Labor tax package in the federal budget continue to roll out, one that could have far reaching effects is the loss of tax neutrality between retained earnings and distributed profits under the new capital gains tax regime.
Consider the tax effect of removing the 50% CGT discount and replacing it with an inflation ...
You could be fooled into thinking that the AI boom is all about NVIDIA, OpenAI, Anthropic and the hyperscalers. Fortunately for investors, the opportunity extends far beyond them. While all eyes are on AI, it's easy to overlook what actually makes it run – power and the hard assets of essential infrastructure, assets that Goldman Sachs refer to as HALO ...
'You can afford to take more risk.' Every risk-profiling questionnaire leans on the idea, and it sounds like arithmetic: a bigger balance can absorb a bigger fall. Nick Maggiulli argued in Firstlinks that the logic is backwards, because the pain of losing a dollar grows faster than the pleasure of gaining one. He is right, and in Australia he is right ...
