The Financial System Inquirys final report was blunt in its assessment of the current state of Australias super system noting that the superannuation system is not operationally efficient due to a lack of strong price-based competition The Inquirys concern with super fees and costs led to one of the ...

As many in the superannuation and managed investments industries are well aware there has been a number of significant changes to the manner in which indirect costs will need to be calculated and disclosed in PDSs that are on issue after 1 January 2016 While parts of the industry are continuing to ...

ASIC released its report Financial advice Fees for no service today It says that there has been a systemic failure by advice licensees within some of the major banks and AMP to provide ongoing advice in return for ongoing fees The report relates chiefly to arrangements between licensees and clients ...

APRA is seeking to improve the role of the Appointed Actuary in general and life insurance companies and has proposed some reforms in a discussion paper released earlier this year ...

The main Prime Trust appeal judgement is relatively well known but a trusts responsible entities and their officers should look at what the appeal court had to say on other related matters ...

The final report of the Financial System Inquiry recommended that APRA-regulated superannuation trustees be required to offer a comprehensive income product for retirement This rather modest recommendation in the final report stands in stark contrast to the retirement phase policy options canvassed ...

You may be forgiven for having lost track of the proposed reforms to the taxation of managed investment trusts or MITs given that this initiative has been announced by successive Federal governments since 2010 Finally though an exposure draft of new legislation is expected to be released before ...

There has been so much talk about blockchain and distributed ledger technology recently especially in financial services that you might be forgiven for thinking it might be more hype than substance But we think it could be very important technology ...

After more than three years of inertia, the Australian renewable energy industry is finally showing signs of a resurgence ...

The high-profile ‘fake honey’ scandal has made food fraud front-page news in Australia in 2018. With the ACCC having now concluded its honey investigation, due to ‘testing uncertainty’, we explore how new technologies like blockchain could potentially assist in preventing food fraud. ...