A high equity income strategy tailored for retirees is a core solution for providing better retirement outcomes, maximising income while leaving capital intact.

When markets are exuberant, it is difficult to see - let alone act - against the hubris. When markets are down in the dumps, it is difficult to see past the misery. A reductive macro-economic framework may help.

There are strong behavioural biases that attract investors to complex strategies. However, introducing complexity will, on average, diminish the odds of success and detract from returns.

Knowledge and proficiency in behavioural finance and investor psychology - finology - is developing ever better relationships with clients to help them achieve their goals. Benchmarking your current finology proficiency matters!

Australian cash rates will stay low for decades. Low interest rates mean high asset prices, which means much lower returns ahead. Our client communications must be in tune with this new environment.

A recent independent study into retirement from the perspectives of over 1,500 older Australians found that financial advisers are the keystone to retirees' well-being.

Regulation states that fund managers must not mislead clients. While prescribed scales exist for risk, analysis shows inconsistent application.

As investors themselves, investment advisers can suffer from the very biases they attempt to combat within their clients, risking the delivery of optimal client outcomes and deepening relationships.

Quantitative easing has inflated the price and risk of asset classes. Private debt prices in this risk and offers investors the capital protection they deserve.

Investors are concerned about investing in assets with exposure to carbon emissions. However, regulated electric utilities will be a significant beneficiary in a greener world.

Many assume there are two kinds of business decision makers - those who are ethical and those who are not. However, most of us are both.

Trust is the product of two judgements clients make about us - our competence and our benevolence. So trust could, at least partly, be won without being earned. So is it ethical to try?

farrelly's Dynamic Asset Allocation Handbook (Sep 2021) (on-demand) has been assessed and accredited by Portfolio Construction Forum for Continuing Education (CE/CPD) hours. Those who attend online on-demand must complete a CE Quiz to receive CE/CPD accreditation.

In the 1990s and 2000s, investors were largely able to ignore the macro picture. But macro forces have reawakened and matter more than ever for portfolios to succeed in meeting client goals in the years ahead.

All markets are embedded in a web of human relations, values and norms. We must rethink the relationship between market and civil society to return to a more secure and stable economic plane.

With attractive valuations and global investors underweight the asset class, the case for a dedicated Emerging Market Debt allocation is growing ever stronger.

Style matters when constructing portfolios, but there are other characteristics in a manager that are as - if not more - important in generating consistent returns over the long term.

Private debt essential to modern investment portfolios. If the end objective is an attractive risk-adjusted return, then private debt is the means to get there.

We need to consider an expanded set of solutions including hedge funds and private markets so portfolios are truly the ends to the means.

Portfolio construction practitioners have access to a broader array of investment research, strategies and tools than ever before - yet obstacles to meeting clients' long-term financial goals are equally numerous.