The last financial year has been a disappointing one for both global and Australian shares. For the 12 months to 30 June 2012, global shares returned -5.4% (MSCI World (ex Aust) $A; source: AMP Capital Markets), while Australian shares again underperformed global shares returning -9.6% (S&P/ASX200 Accum Index; source: AMP Capital Markets) over the same
New July 2012 Super & Redundancy Thresholds From 1 July, 2012 the superannuation and bona fide redundancy thresholds that apply for the 2012-2013 tax year are: [fusion_old_table id=4 /] Marginal Income Tax Rates for Residents From 1 July, 2012 Personal Income tax rates from 1 July, 2012 will change to become: [fusion_old_table id=5 /] Above
Market Update Global equity markets have performed poorly over April and May due to renewed concerns over Eurozone sovereign debt issues. Key issues remain – will Greece maintain the Euro currency and will Spain be able to continue to meet its debt obligations. Some key developments influencing markets at the moment include: The International Monetary
This Newsletter is provided to Harvest clients, Policy Committees and corporate contacts to keep you and your employees better informed on matters regarding super and wealth. It is not a comprehensive summary. For further information, contact Mario Isaias, Noel Hucker or Inbam Devadason of Harvest on 02 8908 4300. Drop in Concessional Cap for over
Market Update Global equity markets continued to perform strongly over February and March boosted by resolution of the latest Greek sovereign debt deal and data indicating that the US economic recovery is gaining some momentum. However, balancing this news has been the slowing of the Chinese economy and a slight reduction in commodity prices which
An insightful article in the Weekend Business edition of the Sydney Morning Herald (10-11 March, 2012) quotes Jeremy Grantham of investment manager GMO (he's the "G" in GMO) quoting from "Investing advice from your Uncle Polonius"; the first part of GMO's latest quarterly newsletter to clients. In it, he espouses valuable strategies to deal with and profit when
Market Update Global markets have kicked off 2012 in a positive fashion. After a poor 2011 there seems to be a cautious optimism flowing through to equity markets. Some significant developments influencing markets at the moment include: US corporate reporting for the quarter ending 31 December 2011 was reasonable, although slightly below expectations. Australian corporate
Market Update The 2011 calendar year was a poor year for equity markets. The ASX 300 returned -11% for the year. During December global equity markets held up largely due to: the EU (excluding UK) agreeing to stricter government deficit rules (to reduce the rate of growth of sovereign debt). US economic indicators pointing to
Volatile and unpredictable events were the hallmark of calendar 2011. A combination of concerns over US debt and unemployment, European sovereign debt, currency values, issues relating to the stability of the European banking system and questions over continuing Chinese growth rates; all weighed heavily on the minds and decisions of investors. Political instability in the
Data compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the current Australian population heading towards 23 million (jn fact it is 22,699,750 at the time of writing). The most populous state ? New South Wales (with 7.27 million people), followed by Victoria (5.58 million), then Queensland (4.45 million). The median age of an Australian is
