2016 Review and Outlook for 2017

2016 Review: some surprising events but ok overall 2016 will undoubtedly be remembered as a year of unexpected outcomes, particularly in a political context. The sudden rise of “populist politics” delivered a number of surprising vote outcomes around the world including the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States and

The ‘Trump Effect’ on markets – what to expect

Despite being consistently written off as having little or no chance of defeating his opponent, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump won the recent US Presidential Election and will succeed Barack Obama in late January 2017 to become the 45th President of the United States. In this article, we take a look at what impact Trump’s presidency

Staying calm during a volatile market

Welcome to the New Year, we look forward to guiding you through the investment market in 2016. 2015 in review At home the broader Australian market (S&P ASX300) finished just 2.8% up for the calender year, trading between 5982 in late April to 4918 in late September. All major commodities continued to fall throughout the

Socially Responsible Investment

Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) takes into consideration not only the financial returns of a company but the social impact it makes. This can involve various levels of social responsibility from sustainability themed investing, negative screening (avoiding certain types of companies, for example, alcohol, gaming and tobacco) to best practice in relation to environmental, social

Investing for income in retirement

A large number of Australia’s population are approaching retirement age and looking for an income stream to fund their retirement. By law retirees aged between 65 and 74 need to drawdown a minimum of 5% of the value of their pension investments each year. Unfortunately, a conservative investment portfolio will generally provide a return below