Masterclass NZ is a post-graduate extension program focused on contemporary issues that are fundamental to building better quality portfolios. Each year, the one-day program features five research-based, active learning sessions.

Many baby boomers are retiring with decent super balances and need advice on spending their retirement savings appropriately. Consuming capital for a higher standard of living is, after all, what super is for!

A retiree's spending will change over time. However, changes in spending profile over time are often ignored when it comes to retirement income planning.

Against the backdrop of legislated increases in financial adviser education, standards and ethics, finology must be seen as central to the curriculum of what financial advisers learn and how they practice, for professionalism to be complete.

Practitioners demand a trifecta from fund managers - performance, simplicity, connection. But many great investments are contrarian and uncomfortable.

Managed accounts have become increasingly popular with approximately A$40bn in assets. Prepare to ride the managed accounts tsunami or be left in its wake.

“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care,” cautioned Theodore Roosevelt. This is especially true when risk is involved.

Too much of our communication with end investors is either irrelevant, unintelligible to the average investor - or worse still, both.

While robo-advisors have been the big buzz as replacement humans, they’re not (and data proves it). Technology alone is not enough (otherwise everyone with a FitBit on their wrist would be healthy).

Behavioural biases - substitution, aggregation, and feedback risks, overconfidence, and limited attention and availability bias - distort money managers' perceptions and lead them to take risks they don’t see.

Government incentives may help to encourage downsizing but the decision itself may not be purely financial as recent research reveals.

Trust – the belief that those to whom we are vulnerable are both willing and able to act in our interests – is the no.1 factor in the decision to select and retain an asset manager.

The combination of man and machine - tech-augmented humans or "cyborgs" - can be more effective than either alone, posing the greatest opportunity to human financial advisers in the long run.

While economics studies how humans allocate scarce resources, and psychology studies the human mind and behavior, there is a gap at the intersection between the two – an emerging new body of knowledge dubbed, "Finology".

Despite the view that computers will come to dominate certain areas within financial planning, the reality is that there are still ways that computer-human duos can be more effective than computers or humans alone.

Finology Summit 2018 will help you better understand the preferences, needs and objectives of individual investors, to further improve the way you relate with them and help them achieve their goals. The program features an exceptional and eclectic international faculty of behavioural finance, behavioural economics, and psychology experts covering various aspects of finology with particular focus on the implementation challenges, tools and opportunities faced by practitioners.

Three recent research papers continue to grow our understanding of how behavioural traits impact on markets. The first provides insights into Warren Buffett's success; the other two examine the markets' response to earnings information.

Plenty of anecdotes suggest that baby boomers are spending their savings and will leave nothing for the next generation. Looking at the actual data, this is questionable.

While some still firmly believe that values and ethics have no part to play in investing, the tide is turning. Values play a vital role in investment and business decisions - and, increasingly, investors care about more than just financial returns.

Human beings are subject to behavioural biases, which negatively affect their ability to make rational choices. These behavioural biases create market inefficiencies that active investment managers can exploit to generate alpha.