Client eNewsletter - June 2014 (a 3-minute read – allow extra for ‘explore’ time)
June already! The end of another tax year – time to review the expenses against budget (or more importantly, against income).
If there isn’t a budget to compare against, now would be as good a time as any to set one up for the coming financial year.
Before moving to a couple of feature topics, a quick reminder about some year-end strategies (limited to superannuation matters now because of the timing):-
- can you top up your concessional (tax deductible) contributions to the capped maximum?
- should you make a $500 non-concessional contribution to try for the government co-contribution?
- should you amalgamate your various funds into one (ensuring no insurance or other features are lost in the process)?
We have linked an end-of-year alert from last year for a checklist of some other ideas, but time may be against achieving some of them at this stage.
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ASGARD eStatements – and Apple iPads
eCommunications are creeping into all aspects of our lives, reducing our reliance on paper records to know where our finances are up to: and ASGARD has recently announced their next step on this journey. For clients who sign up to receive their statements this way will be eligible to go in the draw to win one of five (5) Apple iPads – provided they sign up by 30 September 2014.
You can read more on the matter on Investor Online if you have that facility; or, provided you have an email address, you can contact our office to set this up for you – or phone 1800 998 185 to have ASGARD set it up for you.
Diversification smoothes the journey
In our economic and markets outlook for 2014 (published in December 2013) we anticipated various moves in equities, fixed income (bonds) and property assets for the year: so far the movements haven’t been as frequent, nor as extreme as we anticipated. Nevertheless, some of our clients are seeing lacklustre performance in their portfolios and are asking why, when they see the sharemarket reports telling of impressive growth over the past couple of months, their portfolios have declined slightly?
The answer is complex as a general proposition, but relatively easily explained in each of their circumstances. Diversified asset allocations within portfolios ensure that when one or other assets within the portfolio have a particularly bad time, the others will not be negatively impacted and so ‘limit the damage’: the extent to which this is successful depends amongst other factors, on the proportional allocation to the different asset classes. (We have attached an article published on our website Library that explains diversification and its benefits.)
In recent weeks, fixed income assets have been a drag on portfolio values, whilst equities (shares) have been on something of a tear.
Binding Death Benefit Nominations
Have you made a Binding Death Benefit Nomination to your superannuation trustee (in each of your superannuation accounts)? You should be aware that in most cases, these nominations are only effective for a period of three years; and in the absence of a renewal, the trustee will treat any death benefits as discretionary – which may not suit your intentions and may disrupt your Estate Planning.
Members of self-managed superannuation funds should be aware of the provisions of their controlling Deeds, but ensure that all arrangements are maintained, reflecting current intentions. Members of public offer funds will in most cases as we understand it, receive a notification from the trustees when the nomination is nearing expiration – and they usually facilitate a convenient way of extending the term.
An article we published in our website Library some time ago explains this aspect of superannuation and estate planning is attached for your convenience.
The ContinuumFP Team
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DISCLAIMER:The information contained in this newsletter is general in nature and does not take into account personal circumstances, financial needs or objectives. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of it and the relevant product having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs. In particular, you should seek appropriate financial advice and read relevant Product Disclosure Statements or other offer documents prior to acquiring any financial product.
ntative & Credit Representative of Securitor Financial Group Limited ABN 48 009 189 495 | AFSL & ACL 240687 Level 8, 260 Queen Street, Brisbane Queensland 4000
