On the Reader's Digest NZ Most Trusted Professions 2012 survey, financial advisers ranked 31 out of 40. To improve trust, we need to deliver the advice services clients value most - and a recent survey provides valuable insights into what that is...

Last month's Finology Conference introduced a new term for a subject financial advisers deal with every day. We spoke with delegates to get their key takeouts - for example, the importance of making financial planning fun.

If we step back and consider risk in the context that risk management experts do, we can test the key issue - a client's capacity for absorbing different risk events.

The new RBNZ governor has signed a slightly revised policy target agreement with a greater focus on financial stability - but for some this is not going far enough. The question is: should NZ join the global currency debasement race?

Soft, albeit stable data for Septemer so far; world imbalances improving; protests aboard; Japan's issues getting bigger?; China, where it is also pouring; QE3/QE Infinity

Is gold the ultimate currency? How do we feel about a currency that lost 79% purchasing power from 1980 to 2000?

We need to understand and assess four aspects of risk to truly understand a client's risk profile and create a portfolio that allows him/her to sleep well at night.

Videos, presentations, podcasts and papers from the jam-packed three day program featuring 50 international and local investment experts sharing their thoughts on the challenge of tHiNkInG oUtSiDe ThE bOx about constructing portfolios.

To make money in the next year, you have got to think in reverse. When it all boils down, there are really only two assets in the world economy.

The field of emotional finance emphasises the difference between actual and perceived risk. Perceived risk may be at its lowest when actual risk is highest...

The Fed seems to have shifted the balance of its twin mandate, prioritising reducing unemployment. Meanwhile, we are in the early days of a 'new' China...

Your client is demanding you go to cash. Was your risk assessment wrong? Not necessarily. His risk tolerance is much the same, but his risk perception has changed.

Your usually rock-solid client calls demanding that you go to cash. Was your risk assessment wrong? Not necessarily. His willingness to accept a loss is pretty much the same, but his perception of risk has changed. Here's how to manage the difference...

A growing chorus of (largely offshore) commentators has Australia falling into a pronounced slump. Are we on the edge of a precipice? No.

Western equity markets have been in a secular bear market since the year 2000. Are we close to or indeed at the end?

I have been doing lots of pondering, and there is one that has taken up more of my concerns than any other: China...

FMA launches new website to help investors plan, choose and track investments; TNP signs strategic alliance; Mentor/Adviserlink merges with Strategi Institute; More former finance company directors sentenced; Australia has $1tn retirement savings gap...

If all the money invested in hedge funds had been put in T-bills, the results would've been twice as good.

Lonsec named Research House of the Year; FSC Australia imposes insurance commission claw-back regime; ETITO rebrands; S&P upgrades Asset Finance outlook; new Code Committee chair...

Africa's economies are among the fastest growing in the world. Is it the next China?