Bank runs aren’t new, or even rare in the US. There have been over 450 bank failures since 2008, with 2018, 2021 and 2022 the only years in recent memory not to see a bank failure in the US. If one of the big banks in Australia went down, it would require a cataclysmic event. Something that would almost guarantee life as we knew it was over. Society wouldn’t be functioning and there would be much bigger problems than money.

It’s likely the case that most of our clients don’t love tax law as much as we do, which is fair enough. For those who are in a small business, you're probably busy hunting for opportunities to grow & do things you’re passionate about. So don’t worry, we’ll keep you across the changes in Australian tax laws that have significant impacts on SMEs.

For anyone with a passing interest in superannuation, the announcements made by the Federal Government over the last few days would have been interesting. Despite weeks of the Government stating they wanted to legislate the purpose of superannuation before considering any changes to tax concessions, last week they announced changes to superannuation designed to generate $2b in extra tax revenue every year.

Interest rates and inflation were again major themes in Q4, as the US Federal Reserve delivered a hawkish message to round out the year following its December meeting. This capped off a year dominated by inflation. Inflation figures in many developed economies hit the highest levels since the early 80s. The high figures saw some very aggressive monetary policy in response, but there were signs that hawkish messages and aggressive rate moves may have started to have their intended effect.

Now that 2023 is underway, it’s time to take stock of your budget, debt, and investments—and check them against your financial goals. These four steps can get you started.

Another week and it seems almost guaranteed that another fraud, failure, or disaster will emerge in the cryptocurrency world. The latest is the bankruptcy of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange and trading business founded by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF for short) and said to be the second or third largest in the space, depending on who you listen to. At last count, the $32 billion FTX was valued at,based on the last time it raised capital from investors (it was privately held) has gone up in smoke.

Veteran Wall Street floor trader Art Cashin was 18 at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cashin’s father died in his last year of high school, so Cashin bypassed college and made the leap to Wall Street to help support his family. The education he received there was more about street smarts than book smarts.

There are few things that give us more professional satisfaction than being able to work with families and businesses over a long period of time, to help them growth their wealth. Many factors come into play for this: tax minimisation, correct structures, clients running successful businesses, then helping with investments for surplus cashflow. It’s an ongoing journey and one we’re privileged to be a part of.

The major theme from Q3 was the Central Bank resolve to dampen inflation. Unfortunately, the only tool in Central Bank arsenals are interest rate increases, something that continues to offend financial markets. There were large rate increases by the US Federal Reserve and Australia’s Reserve Bank in Q3, with the European Central Bank also joining the party with two large increases. Energy remained an issue, with the prospect of the war in Ukraine now becoming a longer-term battle, as Ukraine’s resistance and Russia’s inability to hold territory was in contrast to early expectations.

Estate planning is often one of those topics that gets pushed onto the “I’ll get to it” list. And it’s no wonder this often happens – estate planning can be hard and knowing where to start is usually the most difficult step. To assist with this, we’ve come up with a broad list of questions that may prompt some thinking and family conversation.

Despite the ongoing noise from the news and financial markets, the fundamentals of investing will always remain the same. Here’s a short video by Dominique Schuh to remind you of some of the investment basics.

After enjoying unprecedented interest rate reductions for over 11 years in Australia, the music stopped around 4 months ago, just before PM Albanese’s win. A 25 point (0.25%) official cash rate rise from the Reserve Bank was followed by a further 50 points in June, and yet another 0.5% rise in July and August. At the time of writing, the cash rate now sits at 1.85%. Rate rises not only affect borrowers, but all consumers of products and services from businesses with debt on their balance sheets or with directors who have rising personal home loan commitments.

Inflation is here. While it took some time to fully show up in the official figures and be acknowledged by learned economic scholars, us mere mortals who engage with increasing prices throughout the economy on a day-to-day basis long knew something was up. Whether it be the price of a supermarket sausage increasing by 20%, paying thousands extra for a car, or another dollar on a cup of coffee, we knew what was happening.

There was one major theme from Q1, being the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While the human implications are the foremost concern, the outbreak of war offered a sharp reminder of how interconnected the world is today, and how quickly the implications of a military conflict feed back into financial markets.

With a federal election just around the corner, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s delivery of the 2022 Federal Budget was met with some skepticism around long-term economic growth versus short-term re-election initiatives. A huge focus was on easing the cost of living pressures through tax cuts, one-off stimulus pay-outs, and excises – particularly given the lower forecasted wage growth with respect to inflation.

Recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine is an important reminder that geopolitical risk is a part of investing in global markets. Navigating geopolitical events requires significant consideration and a sound investment strategy that will serve as an “all weather” approach.

On 10 February 2022, Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Superannuation Outcomes For Australians and Helping Australian Businesses Invest) Bill 2021 passed both houses and will become law once the Governor General gives it Royal Assent. The Bill contained six measures, five of which were super related. We’ve summarised these measures below which will come into effect from 1 July 2022.

Aside from the incendiary media coverage, experienced investors are worth listening to, in their totality, but never be overawed by the terms “billionaire” or “legend”. Keep perspective, no matter how persuasive someone seems, history will show they don’t always get it right. Someone may be able speak at length and seem convincing because they’ve seen everything; except the future!