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21 December 2024
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Most Australians don’t realise they are being charged up to six different types of fees on their superannuation. These fees can be opaque and hard to compare across different funds and investment options.
UniSuper and AustralianSuper are large, complex investment businesses, and it's worth taking a look under the hood before making an investment decision. This looks at the growing trend of bringing investment management in-house.
Although investors should not aim only to minimise costs, fees eat into compounded returns over the long term. Markets are competitive and it is possible to invest a diversified portfolio for negligible cost.
From going it alone with an SMSF to defaulting into a large super fund's balanced option, administration time and fees for super vary materially. Here's a guide to the costs involved and the potential impact on returns.
Treasury has conducted a post-implementation review of the banning of stamping fees paid by product issuers to brokers and advisers. The Australian Shareholders' Association does not support the banning.
If you thought fund managers were banned from paying commissions to financial advisers and brokers to prevent conflicts of interest, you have not kept up with the move to classify clients as wholesale investors.
Popular belief is that all index funds are the same, but it pays to follow this framework, which shows there is more to consider than the cheapest management cost. Replicating an index is not easy.
Treasury has finally banned commissions paid to brokers and advisers on LICs and LITs but the exemption from FoFA rules remains for other listed products in the 'real' economy, whatever that is.
The arguments on whether advisers can accept selling fees on LICs and LITs is heating up as lobbyists work both sides of the fence. Your input to our survey will give Treasury some useful data.
The LIC/LIT stamping fee issue is hotting up, as the Federal Treasurer sets up a snap 'public consultation' to help him. Take our survey and we will present the conclusions to Josh Frydenberg.
Advisers accepting selling fees to push LICs and LITs (and hybrids) has become an industry flashpoint. The heated debate is overlooking crucial points which must be addressed in any final resolution.
Investors overlook that they are charged more as the market rises. Far more financial services should cost a flat fee, with portfolios dominated by index exposure backed by a few active managers.
It’s with heavy hearts that we announce Firstlinks’ co-founder and former Managing Editor, Graham Hand, has died aged 66. Graham was a legendary figure in the finance industry and here are three tributes to him.
Last year, I wrote an article suggesting returns from ASX stocks would trample those from housing over the next decade. One year later, this is an update on how that forecast is going and what's changed since.
Australia is in the early throes of an intergenerational wealth transfer worth an estimated $3.5 trillion. Here's a case study highlighting some of the challenges with transferring wealth between generations.
The Future Fund's original purpose was to meet the unfunded liabilities of Commonwealth defined benefit schemes. These liabilities have ballooned to an estimated $290 billion and taxpayers continue to be treated like fools.
ASFA provides a key guide for how much you will need to live on in retirement. Unfortunately it has many deficiencies, and the averages don't tell the full story of the growing gender superannuation gap.
The Big Four banks have had an extraordinary run and it’s left income investors with a conundrum: to stick with them even though they now offer relatively low dividend yields and limited growth prospects or to look elsewhere.