Mark Beyer

ASSISTANT Treasurer Helen Coonan has dismissed concerns that Australia’s superannuation system will leave many people with inadequate retirement incomes.

EVERY time interest rates move up or down, most of the media commentary invariably focuses on the impact on homebuyers.

WHEN the Reserve Bank decided earlier this month to leave interest rates unchanged, it caught most pundits by surprise.

PUBLIC surveys consistently show that accountants and family or friends are the most common sources of financial and investment advice.

THE impact of commissions continues to be one of the most contentious issues in the financial planning industry.

AUSTRALIAN superannuation funds produced their worst returns on record in 2001-02 and have a “higher than normal” probability of posting negative returns again this year, according to consulting group InTech.

THE unexpected strength of the Australian dollar has been bad news for investors in international shares and the prospect is for more of the same.

PLATINUM Asset Management is a conspicuous success story among managers of international equity funds.In fact, it is the only main-stream investment manager to have achieved positive returns from international equities over the past 12 months.

ETHICAL investors who have steered clear of wine and beer companies would be crying into their carrot juice, judging by the results of a new study.

TRUSTEES of superannuation funds need to tread very carefully if they offer an ethical or socially responsible investment option, the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation has warned.

THE Australian IT sector produced another dismal performance over the past 12 months, according to Commonwealth Securities.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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?

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?

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 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.

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.

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.