Funds Focus

In times of falling markets, even the most hardened investment professional can panic and overlook the simplest solution.

I recently found myself watching a feature on Bloomberg covering investor strategies in a falling market. A panel of experts were sitting around a table discussing what investors could do to protect their portfolio or possibly benefit from falling share markets. Their discussion centred on bonds, as the debt markets tend to rise when equities fall; gold, as the ultimate

Having managed a team of planners for a number of years, one of the common mistakes I have seen with both advisers and retirees is the assumption that a 12%pa average return in equities is better than a fixed return of 7%pa from cash.

For the most part, that’s not a bad assumption to make as we know that sharemarket returns are typically volatile but tend to outperform cash over the longer term.

As financial planners we are taught to expect that clients in retirement should take less risk

Strategies for income

Often considered “boring”, overlooked for their lack of zip and flexibility, a guaranteed income for life is not to be sniffed at
Annuities are often overlooked by advisers in structuring client portfolios. The cynic in me says “of course, they don’t pay enough for advisers to consider them”, but I think the reality is that many investors and advisers alike have historically shunned them because of their perceived “low returns”. Who could blame them, with the