Trade Wars, the US Election, Brexit 3.0, natural disasters and pandemic risks are causing fear and uncertainty in Australian equity investors. The key to capturing opportunities is to focus on what matters to long-term returns.

To fully appreciate the risks and opportunities in a high VUCA environment, portfolio construction practitioners must adopt a mindful approach in order to adapt to unexpected events.

Financial decisions are among the most important life-shaping decisions we make. Two recent research papers provide further evidence as to how practitioners can help improve clients' financial decisions.

Practitioners are often reluctant to adopt new solutions because of high risk. "If it has never been done, how do you know it works?". But failure to try new approaches can mean missed opportunities.

Established in 2007, the annual Investment Management Research Symposium presents contemporary investment research. The two-day blended face-to-face and online learning program is designed and curated by our specialist, experienced and independent team, and features an exceptional Faculty of 20+ leading finance and investment thinkers from around the world. Each presents research related to this year's theme, "We are living in exceptional times".

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.

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

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.

Although influenced by logical factors, changes in investment markets are often irrational and illogical. A whole-brain approach to seeking alpha is necessary to win in the investment game.

Great eyesight depends on more than just clarity of vision - peripheral awareness, eye co-ordination, depth perception, focus and colour sensitivity all play a crucial role, without which our vision is impaired. Strategies Conference 2019 looks ahead at the issues that will dominate the 2020s and beyond to provide greater clarity in building quality portfolios.

Established in 2002, Strategies Conference has gained a reputation as THE portfolio construction strategies conference of the year. The two-day, blended face-to-face and online learning program is designed and curated by our specialist, experienced and independent team and features our Faculty of 50+ leading investment thinkers from around the world. Each offers his/her best high conviction ideas on contemporary and emerging portfolio construction strategies, in the context of the program theme, 20/20 vision.

Two recent research papers explore the impact of investors' increasing appetite for environmentally responsible investments.

Portfolio construction is multi-faceted and should be iterative. Five key components provide a framework to design quality portfolios to meet clients' objectives.

Retirement bucket strategies tie specific expenses to specific portfolios. But looking at categories of spending doesn't necessarily work. A better approach is to segment spending within each category.

A new study shows that retirement savers demonstrate a strong preference for trusted managed fund brands over unbranded funds - but unbranded funds are strongly favoured over poorly trusted fund brands.

The Investment Management Research Workshop 2019 showcased contemporary academic research that is relevant to investment management.

Only by making the effort to understand and align investment beliefs with values can we get a sharper understanding of our clients' true objectives and provide solutions that will really meet their needs.

More than one third of Australians think there is widespread corruption in the banking and finance sector.

The subtle channels can be so powerful that they communicate information without us knowing it. Body Linguistics, EQ and awareness are the keys to understanding others.

Practitioners need to know what words to use and lose - and be able to apply that knowledge - to improve their conversations with clients about fees, regulations and investment strategies.