In Fodder this week - Kitces, Edesess & Roe, plus earn CPD with 2 top rated presentations from Conference 2015

Arguably, the future of designing portfolios for accumulators in particular is that the asset class and sector exposures of the portfolio should be adjusted around the risk/return characteristics of the worker's job.

According to a Harvard Business School study, the percentage of US GDP attributable to the financial industry tripled from 1950 to the 2000s. Has any of this increase improved the services rendered by the financial services industry to the real economy?

According to Dr David Lazenby, finology provides a framework for re-envisioning advice from the customer experience perspective - because the traditional advice process can be extremely daunting for clients, and may leave them feeling quite vulnerable.

Fodder today offers two opposing perspectives on how best to build the debt side of retirees' portfolios with Farrely and Pfau plus Papic, Roubini and Jonathan Pain's top 10-rated presentation.

Fodder today offers two opposing perspectives on how best to build the debt side of retirees' portfolios with Farrely and Pfau plus Papic, Roubini and Jonathan Pain's top 10-rated presentation.

The efficient frontier for retirement income generally consists of combinations of stocks and income annuities - perhaps surprisingly, bond funds do not serve a useful role in the optimal retirement income portfolio.

The influx of refugees and economic migrants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East appears as broad-based as the ancient migrations that defined Europe throughout history. Europe needs migrants from a purely economic perspective.

With the US on its way to energy independence, there's a risk it and its Western allies will consider the Middle East less important. That's wishful thinking - a burning Middle East can destabilise the world economically and socially.

With interest rates at record lows, it is a really good time to revisit how we build debt portfolios. A three box approach can really help in making and communicating investment decisions for the secure part of their portfolio in the new, low interest rate environment.

In Fodder this week - Dom McCormick, Ross Barry, Michael Furey & Don Ezra plus earn CPD on Michael Kitces' presentation from Conference 2015.

In Fodder this week - Dom McCormick, Ross Barry, Michael Furey & Don Ezra plus earn CPD on Michael Kitces' presentation from Conference 2015.

An Oxford Uni paper in 2013¹ severely criticised consultants for failing to pick winners via their fund manager research. The New York Times picked it up. But the fact that consultants couldn't identify gold medal winners in advance doesn't matter.

Crisis and Complexity explores over a dozen economic and financial catastrophes since 1720, focusing on both the unique characters and historical events that shaped each crisis as well as their common recurring pattern.

In Fodder this week - Anatole Kaletsky & Bob Gay on Fed rate fallout plus Papic on EM value trap & Kitces on human capital

In Fodder this week - Anatole Kaletsky & Bob Gay on Fed rate fallout plus Papic on EM value trap & Kitces on human capital

Focusing on a client's investment portfolio alone ignores their greatest asset - their ability to continue earning income through the fruits of their labor, also known as their "human capital". Deciding how much risk to take with financial capital given a client's human capital risks is crucial.

Turmoil often provides a fantastic opportunity to reassess one's portfolio - and we're currently going through exactly such turmoil. The question is: what are the critical issues that investors should focus on as they rethink portfolio positioning today?

In all of '87, '98, '05 and '15, the US economy was close to full employment, inflation was tame, commodity prices low, EMs were under financial strain, volatility roiled financial markets, the US dollar was strong, and US monetary policy excessively generous. What followed?

This week's Fodder brings 3 short but powerful insights into the markets plus another "undiscovered fund" from Zenith.