Wealth

Insights on wealth management, investments, and personal finance.

Wealth
How to align investments with your appetite for risk
You’ll never properly understand your appetite for losing money on any assets you buy (~aka your risk-return profile) by simply defining yourself as having either a low, moderate or aggressive attitude to saving. Even financial advisers tossed out these meaningless ‘personality descriptors’ years ago and refocused on understanding an individual’s savings objectives. Not sure if you’re a ‘nervous nelly’ or a baby Rambo when it comes to all-things-financial? The most effective way to find out is by turning the risk-return conundrum on its head by soul-searching your future aspirations. Most financial advisers now initiate the risk profile conversation by asking what you want to achieve financially, and when you want to get there by.Bridging the aspiration disconnectHowever, if your expectations are out of whack with your capacity to attain them, Wayne Leggett principal of Paramount Financial Services suggests either A) getting a job that pays more, B) taking greater risks with money than you’re initially comfortable with, and/or C) potentially working a lot longer to get there. “Remember, not everyone has the same aspirations for retirement, and if you’re comfortable being one of the 40%-plus of Australian retirees re
Wealth
Making sense of Australia’s roboadvice playing field
If you’re like many Australians with less complicated financial situations and fewer assets to invest in, paying a full service financial adviser an annual average fee of between $3,500 and $5,000 to create and maintain a full-blown financial plan would simply be overkill. However, that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t benefit from some specific financial advice. If that sounds like you, you’re not alone. Due to an explosion of digital information sources and advice, ‘DYOR’ (do your own research) has become popular with Macquarie data suggesting that 52% of investors are now self-directed. Following the Hayne royal commission into the financial planning sector in 2017, former Future Fund board member Brian Watson estimated that around 1.1 million people – some of whom are currently advised by a human – could be best suited to receive what’s called roboadvice. Fast forward eight years, and even full service advice firms and using AI enhanced roboadvice to automate parts of their business without requiring human intervention. Many automated tools advice professionals use are also at your fingertips online.What is roboadvice?If you’re new to roboadvice, what it really offers is countless algorithm-driven and digitally-enab
Wealth
UK's draft crypto regulation legislation eyes US accord
The United Kingdom has published draft legislation for regulating the cryptocurrency industry, and points to strong collaboration with the United States. British Finance Minister Rachel Reeves announced the plans at Innovate Finance’s annual fintech conference earlier in the week, stating it would be a “comprehensive regulatory regime for crypto assets". She also noted that the proposed legislation would look to make the nation a “world leader in digital assets", and that the U.K. planned on deepening regulatory cooperation with the U.S. to boost the "responsible" adoption of digital assets. “For the U.K. to be a world leader in digital assets, international cooperation is vital,” she told attendees at the summit. Reeves met with her U.S. counterpart Scott Bessent last week to discuss trade, but has previously said that improving business with the European Union was “arguably even more important.” A Treasury Department statement confirmed that the outlined rules would cover crypto exchanges, dealers and agents being regulated to help with “cracking down on bad actors while supporting legitimate innovation." “Crypto firms with UK customers will also have to meet clear standards [for] transparency, consumer protect
Wealth
You can't have any pudding: Tips for scoring a pay rise
In an ideal world, you should never have to go cap-in-hand for a pay rise. After all, any street-savvy manager will intuitively know what you’re worth on the open job market and take the steps to ensure you don’t stray into another employer's arms. If that sounds a little antediluvian, you’re right - it is. In a world where employers work hard to lock down fixed costs, you’ll have to fight equally hard to justify a pay increase. Asking for a pay increase is at the best of times not only tricky, it’s also fraught with hidden risks. That's why Azzet set out in search of some of the tricks needed to give you the best shot of at least getting a fair hearing.Get handGiven that you always want to negotiate a pay rise from a position of strength, there are certain things you need to consider before plundering on in. Where most people go wrong, says Professor Gary Martin, CEO of the Australian Institute of Management (WA), is when they misread the tea leaves, and/or assume that their employer is obligated to automatically increase salaries from one year to the next – even if only in line with CPI increases. During the December quarter of 2024, annual wage growth in Australia slowed to 3.2%, the lowest quarterly increase
Wealth
Private capital to token into the trillions: Deloitte
The financial services sector is on the brink of a major transformation, with private capital, active ETFs and tokenisation expected to drive significant disruption over the next 3-5 years, new analysis shows. According to Deloitte’s 2025 Financial Services Industry Predictions report, one of the most notable trends is the rapid expansion of private capital investment among retail investors. Currently standing at US$2.4 trillion by 2030. This growth, Deloitte says, will be fuelled by broader product availability and regulatory shifts that lower barriers to entry for individual investors. While the private assets today are primarily held in interval funds managed by specialised firms, traditional investment managers are increasingly adopting familiar vehicles like mutual funds and ETFs to meet retail demand. That includes BondBloxx Investment Management and Virtus Investment Partners, which both rolled out actively managed private credit ETFs in December last year. State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) launched its own private credit ETF in February this year, offering exposure to both the public and private debt markets. Deloitte says private capital allocations within mutual funds and ETFs could reach 15% of ‘illi

Wealth
CommBank wins its 12th 'Major Bank of the Year' award
There were seven repeat winners in the banking and finance categories of the 2024 Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards. The awards have been running for 13 years, and one of the standout repeat winners was Commonwealth Bank, which won the Major Bank of the Year award for the 12th year running. Another repeat winner was UniSuper, which won both the Industry Superannuation Fund of the Year and overall Superannuation Fund of the Year award for the second year in a row. “The banking and finance category celebrated seven repeat winners, including the dominant Commonwealth Bank (winning for an incredible 12th straight year as the Major Bank of the Year), Perth-based RAC (winning for a sixth straight year as the Major General Insurer of the Year) and UniSuper which won both Industry Superannuation Fund of the Year and the overall Superannuation Fund of the Year for a second straight year – and has now won a total of seven Annual Customer Satisfaction Awards since 2019,” Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine said. While repeated winners returned for consecutive years, others made a comeback after a long absence. “There were also two companies that returned to the winner’s circle in 2024 after previous victories in their respect
Wealth
Doing the needful: The Azzet guide to investing in India
Given the paucity of ASX-listed stocks with scale and global reach, operating within dynamic sectors like IT, defence, electronics, aeronautics, and pharmaceuticals, most Australian investors now see the benefits of having exposure to offshore share markets. The United States has typically been the go-to offshore market for Australian investors, especially given the rich pickings of high growth global tech giants listed on the NASDAQ.India is quietly filling the voidHowever, with the U.S. economy in the middle of a structural descaling, as it pivots away from international trade, investors will increasingly look to other popular global markets to fill some of this void. Admittedly, investor interest in China – the world’s second largest economy - is far from new. However, with the economy having stalled since lengthy COVID lockdowns and issues related to their property market, it’s India which has quietly emerged as a strong candidate to fill the void. Admittedly, subsistence agrarian-based farming remains India's lifeblood. However, this self-sufficient agricultural system often masks the rapid emergence of modern day India – now the world’s fifth largest economy – from a developing into a first world economy. D
Wealth
Australian growth stocks seen plumbing decade-long lows
Australian ‘growth’ stocks are trading close to 10-year lows, according to Goldman Sachs. In a research note, the investment bank said these companies had been the worst performers during the recent sell-off, diving about 20% from their peaks in February versus about a 7% fall by the ASX 200 index. Growth stocks are companies that are expected to grow faster than other companies, often by reinvesting earnings rather than returning them to shareholders as dividends. “This performance looks even more dislocated when you consider that they generated market-like returns during the last two major economic shocks of the past 30 years (modestly outperforming during both the GFC and Covid sell-offs),” Goldman Sachs analysts Matthew Ross and Tony Wu said in the note. “There are a few factors at play here that help explain some of this break from history, but we note that ‘Growth’ valuations are now close to the trough levels that they’ve traded on over the past decade.” They said that although the long-dated nature of their earnings typically made ‘growth’ stocks less sensitive to economic cycles, many of them had high levels of sales to the United States, which has announced tariffs on imports. Stocks in Goldman Sachs' h
Wealth
Should retirees with market jitters consider annuities?
If you are about to retire, you’re probably questioning whether super – as tax-efficient as it might be – is too exposed to highly volatile share markets to deliver dependable retirement income. Account based pensions (ABP) linked to a super fund are the go-to retirement income solution for most retirees. However, if you are worried about your super’s exposure to highly volatile share markets or simply suffer from FORO (fear of running out of savings in retirement) why not consider outsourcing some of your retirement income to an annuity provider? Despite being complex investment vehicles that most retirees struggle to understand, annuities may still look relatively attractive, especially given the Reserve Bank’s (RBA) reluctance to cut rates.What is an annuity?An annuity is simply an ‘olde worlde’ term for a product where you hand over a lump sum to a financial services provider, and in return, they guarantee to pay you an income stream. One way to look at annuities is as ‘reverse life insurance’. That’s because members of the (annuity) pool who live longer end up being subsidised by those with shorter lives. Given the fear of running out of money in retirement (FORO) – aka longevity risk – is something most