Financial regulators have been reluctant to dish out jail terms. A new research paper finds that prison terms can be a cost-effective governance mechanism. A second paper gauges the impact of self-control on investment behaviour.

In the increasingly intense strategic and economic competition between Washington and Beijing, it's naive to think Australia can just sit on the sidelines.

Hindsight has taught us the importance of active core bond funds as an insurance policy and now is the time to consider expanding your investable universe as the secular need for income intensifies.

The rise of intangible assets has created a new level of economic potential for successful businesses. For both growth and value investors, the nature of fundamental analysis must evolve to match an intangible world.

A broader approach to retirement income, looking beyond yield and incorporating expected return and risk, means some income-generating assets should be excluded from retirement portfolios.

Since the GFC, we have seen a re-emergence of the low growth world which persisted before the 1950s. Investment returns in the 2020s and beyond will be concentrated in a few winners with real earnings growth.

Infrastructure's ability to provide consistent returns through market cycles, generate attractive long-term revenue streams, and provide diversification makes it a must-have inclusion in portfolios in the 2020s.

One of the best performing equity sub-asset classes over 20 years is seemingly being ignored. Investors should seriously consider an allocation to Global SMID equities in their portfolios.

Many investors are reconsidering a strong traditional overweight exposure to Australian equities. But structural forces driving domestic growth continue to support an overweight allocation to Australian equities into the 2020s.

Alpha still matters and an active approach can enhance portfolio returns, creating extra saving to be spent in retirement.

We can never know for certain how the macro backdrop will change or which investment style will dominate. But focusing on uncovering fundamental earnings leadership tunes out market noise, and enhances returns.

The conversation with retirees needs to move away from projections based on averages and volatility risk measures, towards a probability-based assessment of running out of money.

In times of lower growth and falling interest rates, volatility strategies can be used to produce a steady stream of income to complement other sources of returns.

Value investing experienced one of its worst underperformances in the decade since the GFC. As we enter the 2020s, valuations heavily favour value stocks and the data shows that value has a greater than 85% chance of outperforming growth from here.

This hypothetical Investment Committee considers three relevant, forward-looking economic and market scenarios which have a reasonable probability of occurring during the next two to three years.

The significant valuation gap between listed and direct infrastructure markets presents an opportunity to arbitrage value from the two as the gap closes. Understanding the weight of this change into 2020 and beyond is key.

The diverse characteristics of credit markets provides investors the ability to construct robust portfolios, offering investment opportunities suitable for all potential market environments.

To achieve a satisfactory return from equities, you must identify high quality forecastable businesses, apply a strict valuation discipline and have the conviction to be different from the herd.

Trailing a rising market can feel like missing out - but pure pursuit of highest returns can have unintended consequences. Protecting capital on the downside has a material impact on total returns.

Moving into the 2020s, global equity portfolios should be concentrated and highly selective, positioned to address both fundamental changes in the global backdrop and vulnerabilities in the successful styles of recent years.