As a NZ delegate at the recent PortfolioConstruction Forum Conference in Sydney, here are the key pointsfor NZ advisers to take on board from this year's Lifecycle Investing theme - which should raise the priority of financial advice in clients' minds.

As people get older and live longer, mature and elderly clients are starting to make up a larger part of advisers' client bases - and they bring a lot more issues than just their finances.

I'm used to being alone and against consensus. I believe the next decade is going to see the strongest level of global economic growth anyone today has seen.

Of all the challenges for financial advisers, one of the most daunting is persuading clients to discuss their finances with family members.

The Fed will have to think of a new strategy to reopen the availability of credit - and that is a problem. At present, all routes of Bernanke's QE maze lead to the same exit - deflation.

Back in February, we published an expose on links between Phoenix Forex, OakFX, World Investor New Zealand magazine and various others. Over seven months later, the Financial Markets Authority has warned the public.

Abenomics brought rapid policy change to Japan and its economy is showing signs of improvement. More change is needed but it could work out nicely.

In theory, investment advisory businesses should be booming but the reality is many are just limping along. Where is the disconnect and what needs to change?

In a report that will no doubt be read closely by the Financial Markets Authority - and therefore should get the attention of New Zealand advisers - the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has made 12 recommendations for financial advisers.

There is intense speculation as to who will be the next chair of the US Fed.

As of 1 July, anyone who has permanently immigrated between Australia and New Zealand can transfer their retirement savings to their new homeland. But it's not a simple like-for-like swap and it's already had its problems.

Indonesia's rise is one of the big stories of the Asian century, a future great power in Asia, just behind China and India. Indonesia may matter as much to Australia investors as China and the US.

All of the Conference sessions are building blocks for this session which helps delegates determine the key takeouts from the jam-packed program and actions delegates should take when building investor portfolios.

A fundamental-based approach to equity index investing can be a powerful way to reduce risk and improve performance over the investment lifecycle.

Agricultural equities is the 'third leg' of the global natural resources sector, joining energy and mining.

Under the lifecycle investing approach, real return outcomes are the most crucial measure of investment outcomes. But managing real return risk involves thinking differently about what risk really means in portfolios.

Reforms undertaken after the 1997 crisis drive the economic resilience of South East Asia today. Going forward, cyclical risks exist, but the region is set to do better still.

Recorded exclusively for PortfolioConstruction Forum PIMCO's Mohammed El-Erian discusses QE, and whether Australia can continue to escape the new normal.

Is the strong performance of trend-following strategies a statistical fluke of the last few decades or a more robust phenomenon over a wide range of economic conditions?

Exclusively for PortfolioConstruction Forum, Nobel laureate Robert Merton discusses moving to an income goal for the retirement phase of an investor's lifecycle.