A failure by large super funds to fully hedge against the Australian dollar on international share investments is what I consider to be a major investment boo-boo. Hedging is used to fully or partially eliminate the impact of foreign currency movements (especially the Australian dollar) on the value … [Read more...]
Complacency is a dangerous state of mind when you’re investing billions of dollars on behalf of millions of Australians, especially in the wake of the global financial crisis (GFC). Apparently many of our large super funds have not yet grasped the lessons of this new investment world and have not … [Read more...]
If you’re a regular reader of SuperGuide, you may recall our September 2010 article Mr Shorten, here’s your superannuation to-do list outlining 16 of the major superannuation policies that Mr Shorten needed to focus on over the following 3 years. SuperGuide promised to keep a scorecard of … [Read more...]
In a conciliatory move to try to redress the worst aspects of the excess contributions tax regime, the Federal Government has announced some concessions for first-time offenders who exceed the super contributions caps by relatively small amounts. From 1 July 2011, individuals who breach the … [Read more...]
In September 2010, I published a to-do list of 16 major superannuation issues needing action by the Federal Government post the Federal election. I published this list in the form of a public memo, as a helping hand for the newly appointed Minister of Superannuation, Bill Shorten. Sadly, progress … [Read more...]
Here’s a clever idea. Encourage Australians to save for retirement, and then punish them with a silly tax that potentially wipes out up to 93% of their contributions. If you make super contributions that exceed your contributions cap, you can expect to be hit with excess contributions tax – … [Read more...]
The Government is digesting the Henry Tax Review and presumably cooking up mind-boggling changes to superannuation and retirement policy for the May 2010 Federal Budget. The Cooper review is considering the many industry submissions before preparing and delivering its final report to Government due … [Read more...]
Article update: Great news! The Government is listening to SuperGuide readers. For the latest proposals on extending Superannuation Guarantee to over-70s read the article SG to be paid for over-70s from July 2013. I have received a lot of encouraging emails from readers commenting on my top ten … [Read more...]
In the May 2009 edition of SuperGuide, I promised you a list of what I believed to be the top ten problems with Australia’s super system. My motivation for promising this list was the federal government’s announcement of yet another review (details at bottom of this article) relating to the … [Read more...]
