One of the grim facts about financial services is that by and large it is an industry highly reliant on selling.
This isn’t to say that people who are sold a product or take-up a service, such as financial advice, are taking on commitments they either don’t need …
Australia’s banking sector was inadvertently put in its place last week by China banking heavyweight ICBC.
On the same day ANZ Bank announced plans to set aside $1 billion to invest in any number of Asian assets, ICBC splashed out exactly six times this amount to grab a …
The regulation of financial markets is a tough old game and in a way has many similarities with the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Overzealous regulators with a penchant for market intervention run the risk of creating uncertainty and dampening sentiment, leaving investor porridge cold, while …
Australian investors are only mildly optimistic about the growth prospects of the domestic share market in the first part of 2008.
The latest CoreData Investor Sentiment Index reveals investors have only a ‘tepid’ collective intent to slightly increase their weighting to shares between January and March 2008.
The index, …
Financial planners know that understanding client attitudes towards risk is a key step in helping them meet their investment objectives.
Clients often lack a solid understanding of financial risk, and an initial review by CoreData UK of some investments held by clients and mapped against their objectives proves …
Inheritance tax (IHT) is almost an anomaly in the UK’s Byzantine tax system – it is commonly regarded as a voluntary tax, in that financial advisers to the very wealthy can normally ensure their well-heeled clients avoid it.
At the same time, with the recent property price boom, …
