Newsletter - Winter 2017

In recent times, Self-Managed Super Funds (SMSF) have become very popular and, for many investors, they represent an excellent vehicle to manage their retirement assets.

It is my belief that for many Australian’s who have an SMSF, it is not the most appropriate structure. Truth be known, often the person recommending the fund benefits greatly.  As a financial planner, a SMSF client is gold as they are generally high revenue clients.  The same applies for accountants and those involved with property investment, we are all incentivised to recommend an SMSF. Is this best for the client? Often the answer is yes, it is a great option, however, in a lot of other situations, I’m less confident that an SMSF is appropriate. 

With the New Year fast approaching, millions of people around the world will be thinking about their resolutions and hope to stick with them throughout the year.

A recent survey indicated that 15 percent of New Year’s resolutions are financial goals. Not surprisingly, most resolutions fail. Two key reasons for this are, we often set ourselves overly optimistic goals that are in reality difficult to achieve and, often our goals are vague with no plan on how to achieve them.