Here's one adviser who has mastered social media and how it fits together, to stand out in the profession's "sea of sameness".

The current financial advice model serving retirees is suboptimal.

While consumers conduct more and more of their own research on their financial options, advisers are actually better placed to gain credibility and trust - largely through cloud computing - according to Brian Greer, national sales manager with Allied Kiwi, and a speaker at next week's Finology Conference in Auckland...

In the past, trust was built via face-to-face meetings with clients or prospects. However, in today's busy world with low cost and easy access to technology, things have changed. Trust can now be built from afar...

Statements of advice are one of the more onerous requirements for financial advisers under the new regulatory regime. Code Standards 9 and 12 now mandate advisers must provide written information to clients regarding personalised services. With very little guidance from the regulator on how to go about this, financialalert asked some advisers what they're doing to comply and how they're going about writing financial plans...

There are three key reasons why it is prudent to reduce commodities allocations and redistribute some of that allocation into equities - and in particular, western equities...

A regular keynote at PortfolioConstruction Conference, the Hon. Dr Pippa Malmgren was unable to join us this year - so in association with Ironbark Asset Management, we recently caught up with Pippa to get her views on building shock resistant portfolios...

In the next few weeks, the publishing industry will have given us two books that, paired together, blow the doors off of conventional market theory. Both acknowledge that if you want to study and understand the markets, instead of examining the movements of stock prices, you have to shift your attention to the people who are actually making the trades...

Given the long-term timeframe of superannuation investors – 20 or 30 years – and the long-term nature of many agribusiness ventures, the two make a good match, says Frank Delaunty, managing director of Dirt Management Agricultural Investment Managers, managers of Warakirri Agriculture, in explaining his product to attendees at the recent Lonsec Agribusiness Conference...

Boutique managers are becoming increasingly popular, but do they add value? Yes and No, according to van Eyk Research managing director Stephen van Eyk in his presentation to the recent inaugural meeting of the Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers’ Roundtable. The following article summarises Stephen's rationale, and links to his presentation, including performance analysis of more than 30 boutique, medium and large Australian equity fund managers.