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.

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.

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...

This month marks the end of the first year of the FMA's audits of advisers. Far from relaxing its vigilence, it plans to increase contact with advisers, increasing monitoring visits and introducing a new "verification visit" regime...

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...

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...

The low uptake of financial advice by consumers directly reflects the negative perceptions of the public towards the financial advisory industry, according to Brian Boggs, co-founder of online education provider, Leading Minds Academy. But advisers can better articulate their value and engage clients...

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.

The financial advisory industry still has a long way to go before the public sees it as a well regulated profession that can be trusted, according to according to financial adviser, Martin Hawes, who will be presenting on the issues of building trust and working with retirees at next month's Finology Conference in Auckland...

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...

The "Wizard of Oz Effect" where the adviser has to go away and do something behind closed doors not only breeds distrust with clients, but also boredom. Instead, the advice process needs to become visual and interactive, according to Dr David Lazenby, Ph.D, a keynote presenter at next month's Finology Conference in Auckland...