Mark Beyer

AUSTRALIANS aged from 50 to 64 years have accumulated an average wealth of $240,000, the majority of which is in the family home, a new report has found.

MARGIN lending is not the high-risk activity of popular mythology, judging by the latest Reserve Bank analysis of the market.Total margin lending grew by 32 per cent over the 12 months to March 2002, to reach $9.7 billion.

A POPULAR marketing tool for fund managers these days is to publicise the awards they have won.This suits many fund managers because there are numerous awards waiting to be picked up.

THE two big winners in the latest fund manager awards, UBS Global Asset Management (UBS) and Perpetual Investments, come from very different backgrounds.

WITH June 30 approaching, many investors start to focus on ways of managing their looming tax bill.This short-term imperative is often seen to be at odds with the longer-term goals of building wealth or generating higher investment income.

RETURNS from Australian-based hedge funds varied from as high as 31.6 per cent to minus 8.3 per cent last year, a new study has found.The performance of hedge funds covered by the survey shows the very wide variation in returns.

WHEN major companies like Telstra and Mayne experience a sharp fall in their share price, investors trying to build a ‘blue chip’ share portfolio can be excused for feeling exasperated.

INVESTORS should expect substantially lower returns from all major markets over the coming decade, fund manager Perpetual has warned.

A STUDY of long-term investment returns produced by fund managers has found substantial variation.

THE Reserve Bank was expected to lift official interest rates after its board meeting this week.Whether it moved this week, or next month, it is inevitable that rates will increase over the rest of the year.

RUNNING a DIY superannuation fund can be costly, time consuming and entails significant legal responsibilities.What, then, are the benefits that attract so many investors to DIY super?

AUSTRALIA currently has more than 230,000 do-it-yourself superannuation funds and the number is growing by about 18,000 each year.What is the attraction of this rapidly growing sector and how appropriate is DIY super for most investors?

AN American stockbroker once told me: “If people really knew what we get up to on Wall Street, we would all be in a lot of trouble”.

INVESTORS in resource stocks have generally enjoyed strong returns over the past three years.

MACQUARIE Bank is offering retail investors an opportunity to buy in to a new private equity fund, the Macquarie Private Equity Trust II.

THE olive industry has grown rapidly over recent years and nearly a dozen olive projects are currently being marketed to investors.

THE Australian Tax Office has had a dramatic impact on the tax-effective investment sector over the past two years.However, participants in new projects can feel confident that a favourable tax regime will apply to their investments.

THE current regulatory structure for agricultural investment schemes is inadequate and could lead to a re-run of the unscrupulous practices of the mid-1990s, research group van Eyk Capital has warned.

Much maligned in recent times, tax-effective schemes in the agriculture sector appear set to make a comeback, although in a streamlined form, as Mark Beyer reports on pages 6, 7 & 8.

A handful of stockbrokers are lead managers for the vast bulk of capital raisings for WA Companies.

TOP Perth corporate adviser Charles Fear is setting up his own business under the name Argonaut Capital.Argonaut will be one of the few corporate advisory groups that does not target the mining and technology sectors.

WHEN mining giant WMC decided last year to offload its gold business, it created new growth opportunities for other mining companies.

GRESHAM Advisory Partners appears to have a privileged position in the corporate advisory market.

EQUITY capital raisings (initial public offerings, placements and rights issues) represent one of the key segments in the corporate finance market.

THE introduction of a new system for calculating ASX indices will have major implications for some of Australia’s biggest companies.

ONE of the perennial discussion points among investors and advisers is trying to decide the best way to invest in the stock market. Should you buy shares directly through a stockbroker or invest in managed funds?

ONE of the reasons many investors put their money with major fund management groups is to benefit from their depth of knowledge and expertise.

Superannuation remains a dark mystery for many Australians, even though 8% of our salaries (9% from July 1) are paid into super funds each and every year.

Virtually all wage and salary earners in Australia receive compulsory superannuation contributions every year, equivalent to 8% of their salary.

The local stockbring industry has undergone a dramatic change in the past 18 month with the withdrawal of most of the big US firms from Perth. And that’s created enormous opportunities for those brokers who have stayed a traditional course.

IT’S hard to walk down a city street or read a magazine these days without seeing a Colonial First State advertisement.

ONLINE investment services are becoming an increasingly popular way of buying and selling managed investments.About 65,000 people have used the Internet to invest inmanaged funds, according to ACNielsen.consult senior analyst Mark Johnston.