The ABC program, Four Corners, recently ran an exposé regarding a major Retirement Village operator in Australia.  As background for those who have not seen the program, there was concern about the level of fees being charged to the residents of the Retirement Village in particular, when someone leaves the Village and sells their unit – often described as deferred management fees.

This is a good reminder of a very important concept to understand as there is a clear distinction between a Retirement Village and Residential Aged Care.

Retirement Village

• They are open to those over 55 years old, generally via a 99-year lease arrangement that can be on-sold under certain conditions.
• They are generally more of a “lifestyle” decision than a health care-based decision.
• You will often pay some type of weekly or monthly management fee for the maintenance of the facility as well as a provision of services they offer.
• Your contract with the Village will outline how, when and who you can sell your unit to when you exit the Village.  It’s not often you can use the local real estate agent as this is not a ‘normal’ property transaction.
• Your contract will also outline what fees the Retirement Village will charge you upon exit. We have seen contracts that take 50% of any capital gain on the property or perhaps 30% of the total sale price.
• The resident exiting the Retirement Village will often have to meet the refurbishment costs of the unit for the incoming resident.

Retirement Villages are not something you want to be in and out of quickly.  If it is reasonably foreseeable that you may need additional care in the near future, perhaps staying in your own home and accessing some home care may be a better option.

Residential Aged Care

• Is open to anyone of any age (typically the elderly though).  Importantly, you can only enter a facility if you have an assessment (known as an ACAT assessment) done that confirms you qualify to enter Residential Aged Care.
• You will either ‘buy’ or ‘rent’ your room and pay a daily fee for your care.  A large portion of your daily care fee is subsidised by the Government and how much you pay is determined by a formula, which takes into account your means to pay the fees.
• Depending on how you pay for your room, your deceased estate can receive 100% of what you paid for the room in the first place (this is very different to a Retirement Village).

There are now a number of ‘dual’ facilities on the market where they offer you a Retirement Village unit initially and as your level of care increases, you move into Residential Aged Care, all within the one facility.  On face value, this seems a good idea however, we find this can lead to a false sense of security as you will still be technically required to exit your Retirement Village agreement (incurring the deferred fees outlined above) before entering a Residential Aged Care agreement.

As the Four Corners program highlighted, this is an incredibly complicated area to navigate.  Retirement Villages are not all bad; they can be fantastic for the right person. It’s incredibly important you and those around you understand what you are purchasing because there’s more to it than just downsizing into a small unit.

If you or someone near to you is considering a move, we cannot stress enough the importance of getting professional legal and financial advice from people who know how the industry works, to ensure you and your family understand if this is the right decision.

Contact The Investment Collective today to set up an obligation free meeting to discuss the suitability of a retirement village or residential aged care with an adviser and which would be more suitable for you according to your personal circumstances and personal goals.

It has often been said that the difference between success and failure is having a plan in place.  As with many things in life, the earlier you get started on your plan, the more successful the future outcome will be.  This is particularly true with regards to building and protecting your wealth.  A vital aspect of long term financial planning regularly overlooked is the importance of obtaining adequate personal risk protection cover.

Adequate risk protection cover such as Death, Total & Permanent Disability, Trauma and Income Protection provides a foundation onto which you will build the structure for your accumulation of wealth into the future.

Now that the new financial year has ticked over again, it may be the time to ensure you have sufficient protection in place as a contingency plan for anything that may happen in the future.  A wealth protection strategy will reduce the risk of you and your family not achieving your financial goals.

Starting out in life, you may have very little in savings and debts to manage.  If a family comes along, you should also consider how you will provide for your family and clear your debts if the unexpected occurs, particularly if you rely on one income.

Taking out cover while you are young and healthy will pay off in the long run.  If you purchase cover earlier in life, you will have access to lower premiums and you are less likely to have your cover restricted due to health conditions which are more prevalent as we get older.

Relying on your default cover via your superannuation to provide comprehensive protection for your specific needs is an all too common trap which should be avoided.  You may have an automatic level of cover on joining your fund, and this will rarely provide the benefits required to pay off the average mortgage, and cover future expenses for your partner and/or kids if you die, or stop working because of an accident or illness.

A long term strategy to consider is obtaining cover under Level premiums, instead of the more popular and initially cheaper option of Stepped premiums.  Stepped premiums will increase annually based on the higher probability of you claiming as you get older.  Unfortunately, many people with stepped premium protection in their later years, have to reduce or consider cancelling their cover, due to premium increases at the time when they may need it most.

A Level premium will ‘future proof’ your wealth protection as the premium will increase annually based on CPI, rather than increasing age risk factors.  When you are older, you will be able to maintain your cover as the premium has been averaged over the life of the policy.  On face value, stepped premiums appear to be the cheaper option when you are young, but Level premiums provide the longer term security to hold your valuable cover into the future.

Remember, sometimes more is lost by inaction, rather than action.  Plan for the future today so you don’t regret your inaction tomorrow.

This advice is prepared as general advice only, not taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Please consider the appropriateness of the advice in light of your objective, financial situation and needs before following the advice. If you would like to know more and/or to hear about whether the above advice would apply to you, please contact one of our insurance advisers today.

The financial year has finished. September is commonly the month super fund statements will start arriving in your letterbox, and like many working Australians, you might be getting more than one.

Generally, superannuation is the second largest asset outside of the family home.

Your superannuation, no matter how big or small, is an investment and designed to fund your golden years. Do you spend the time reading through and understanding your annual superannuation statement?

The complexity of superannuation makes reading your statement confusing and stressful. Thus, ignoring and discarding the statement always seems easier.

Understanding your statement should be easy and here is what to look for:

Performance

Firstly, look at your account balance and the historical movement. The investment return is expressed as a percentage and gives the return on each of your investment options over a stated period, generally 1, 3 and 5 years.

Fees

The statement will list administrative and investment fees. The government also taxes employers’ a compulsory 9.5% (before tax) super contributions and earnings by 15%. Reviewing the total amount of fees you have paid will allow you to compare between different superannuation funds.

Contributions

Your superannuation statement will include a transaction history over the past 12 months, detailing contributions from your employers’ compulsory super guarantee. Make sure you are receiving what you are entitled to receive. If you are salary sacrificing or making co-contributions in addition of the super guarantee, check the accuracy of the deposits to your salary sacrifice agreement.

Insurance

Superannuation includes insurance cover, typically life insurance, total and permanent disability and income protection. The standard level of cover might not be adequate for your needs. Please talk to our insurance specialists to review the level of cover that is more suitable.

Beneficiary

Did you know that your superannuation falls outside of your will? For peace of mind, include in your super fund clear instructions as to whom you wish to inherit your superannuation. This can easily be achieved by completing a valid binding nomination, which lasts three years.

Familiarising yourselves with superannuation now, and creating a plan, could help you live a more comfortable and joyful retirement.

This advice is intended as general advice only, and is not meant to be interpreted as personal advice. It was prepared without taking into account your personal circumstances, objectives or personal situation. Please consider the appropriateness of the advice in light of your own circumstances. Should you wish to discuss further, to see if any of it might apply to you, contact us to speak to one of our friendly advisers today.

As a financial adviser for The Investment Collective, I need to know a lot of information about a client before being in a position to make appropriate recommendations. One of the key pieces of information I need to know is what cash inflows (or income), and what cash outflows (or expenses) they have.

What’s interesting is that pretty much everyone knows what their income is. They can easily identify their fortnightly or monthly income from their bank statements. However, a surprising number of people can only guess at their expenditures.

This information is fundamental to any recommendation, be it debt reduction or wealth accumulation.

For example, say you have $60,000 of income per year (after tax). Say, you make an educated ‘guess’ that your expenditures are about $48,000 per year. On paper at least, that would suggest that there is a cash flow surplus of $12,000 per year that can be ‘captured’ and applied to debt reduction or investment. However, what if actual expenditures are not $48,000 per year but more like $60,000 per year? You can see the problem here.

In the planning process, we need to do better than ‘guess’ at expenditures. We need to be pretty confident that cash inflow, as well as the cash outflow have been ‘road-tested’ and are reasonably close to reality.

How do you best get a handle on the amount of your expenditures? Well, there are plenty of online budget programs available. If you don’t feel the need to get down to that level of detail, a simple review of your credit card and bank account statements will give you a good sense of your cash outflows. Use a reasonable period, perhaps the last 12 months, and simply tally up all the cash outflows. Remember, in the planning process, cash flow is king!

If you would like to know more about what The Investment Collective can do to help you with your finances, contact one of our friendly advisers today.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, has been attributed as saying; “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

Whilst foresight is blind and the best-laid plans often go awry, it makes a lot of sense to have a plan, or at least some idea or intention on what you are going to do, or where you want to be in the future, and how you are going to get there.

An ‘Investment Plan’ lays down the pathway or strategy/ies for your finances to provide you with the greatest potential for getting you to your desired destination over the short, medium and long-term.

Before the plan can be implemented, however, you need to:

• Understand your current finances: establish where and how much of your money comes from, and where it goes, thereby leaving you with an idea of what surplus cash you have at your disposal. You may also want to establish what you own and what you owe.
• Develop your objectives and goals: what do you hope to achieve over the next 1-3 years, 4-6 years and beyond that? This allows a strategy to be developed, that if it plays out as planned, gives you the greatest prospect of being where you want to be at the end of the short, medium and long-term timeframes.
• Understand the relationship between ‘risk vs return’: the two are directly correlated in that the lower the risk, the lower the potential return; and conversely, the greater the risk, the greater the potential return. It is crucial you understand this concept and that you are aware of your level of tolerance to risk, because this must align with your objectives and goals.  For instance, if you have no tolerance to risk, but have a high growth return objective on your investment portfolio, there is a mismatch in the ‘risk vs relationship’ which will need to be addressed.  You will need to either: trim your return expectations or take on more risk in order to achieve your desired objective.

Once the above concepts have been grasped and documented in writing, you have started your ‘investment plan’.

The next step in the process is developing the strategy/ies to be implemented over the respective time frames.  This will be driven by the goals you want to achieve for each timeframe.

The above advice is provided as general advice and is not intended to be taken as personal advice. It has not taken into account your personal circumstances, objectives, financial situation or needs. You should therefore discuss with your financial adviser before implementing them to your current financial position. If you would like to discuss options and get more personal advice that is tailored to your current financial situation, please contact us and make an appointment with an adviser at The Investment Collective today.

With the increasing popularity of DIY home improvements and gardening makeovers, there has also been a surge in the number of injuries due to falls from ladders, misuse of equipment and inexperience with power tools.

Long weekends and holiday periods see a rise in accidents as people seize the opportunity to complete that project that has been put aside due to other priorities.  Hospitals and medical clinics experience an increased number of emergency visits and admissions due to serious injuries from incorrect handling of machinery and lack of proper safety precautions.

According to data collected in 2013 by the Monash University Accident Research Centre, falls from ladders whilst doing roof repairs, cleaning gutters and pruning trees, accounted for most around-the-home injuries.  Head, neck, eye and limb damage caused by power tools also represented a large proportion of DIY related injuries.

The statistics show that the most common machinery related injuries were caused by chainsaws, circular saws, lawn mowers, nail guns and grinders.

Contributing factors for the accidents were removing safety measures, disregarding safety instructions, lack of protective equipment and consumption of alcohol.

Due to the popularity of TV shows like House Rules, The Block and Better Homes and Gardens, along with the widespread use of Google and YouTube tutorials, people are often more likely to try to do it themselves, whereas previously we’d get a tradesperson to do the job.

DIY has become more commonplace as people have seen it done on TV, and decide, “I can do that!”  Many will attempt to complete projects around the home to try to save money.  It can often be difficult to find a professional to do the job who is not booked out, on holidays, or can do the job cheaply.

Access to cheap off-the-shelf power tools and other equipment, without proper training, equipment or sufficient information, can also prove hazardous.

Statistics:

Up to 75% – of DIY injuries occur around the home while undertaking maintenance, gardening or vehicle repairs.

Top 3 – DIY activities that result in injury are grinding, lawn mowing and ladder use.

Homegrown – Evidence suggests that home injuries result in more lost days from work than workplace injuries.

5:1 – The ratio of men more likely to be injured undertaking DIY tasks than women. Adults aged 25-34 are in the highest risk group. Women are most often injured in gardening activities. Men are most often injured in non-gardening activities such as grinding, welding and motor vehicle maintenance.

Just remember, sometimes more is lost by inaction, rather than action.  Plan for the future today so you don’t regret your inaction tomorrow. Contact The Investment Collective to learn more about planning for your future.

Human beings, generally speaking, are creatures of habit. We like, and gravitate towards, things that we know (or think we know), and feel comfortable with. No surprise then that we can observe this in all sorts of areas.

Yale Hirsch, an American stock market analyst, observed this in the share market.  In 1968 he published the inaugural ‘Stock Trader’s Almanac & Record’ in which he noted many stock market patterns and cycles, including one that he observed which seemed to take place around Christmas time.

Specifically, he noted that in the days between Christmas and New Year the US share market seemed to rise more often than it fell. In last year’s publication, it was noted that the US share market rose 34 of the last 45 years by an average of 1.4%. Stretching back over 120 years, there was a rise in the market in 77% of years for an average rise of 1.7%. The popular press, always on the lookout for a ‘feel good’ story, has attributed what it dubbed the ‘Santa Claus Rally’, to pretty much any increase in the share market starting from late November.

Why is it so? Well, you could probably take your pick of reasons, including fund managers ‘window dressing’ their investment performance before the end of the year by bidding up shares or simply the reflection of a positive mood leading up to the festive season.

So, do we here at Capricorn Investment Partners and the Pentad Group consider the ‘Santa Claus Rally’ when we review your investment portfolio? No, we do not. We consider a wide range of factors, including the quality of a company’s revenue, the dividends it pays and the competency and transparency of its management. If anything the ‘Santa Claus’ rally, while it exists, only underscores the notion that the market is comprised of human beings, who generally speaking, are creatures of habit.

It’s winter, the mornings are cold and day looks grim. Dark clouds are brewing and now it’s raining. Everyone around you has an umbrella and scarf and you are wearing a straw hat that makes everyone look as they walk past.

Is standing out from the crowd such a bad thing?

To be a successful investor, you cannot constantly be swayed by changing the opinions of outsiders. Our Investment Committee is not distracted by short-term trends in the financial markets or the constant headlines and negative press we are exposed to in mainstream media commentary. Being able to maintain a long-term focus and not overreact to optimism or pessimism is critical for investing success.

Warren Buffett once said,

“The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd.”

At The Investment Collective, we choose Australian companies that exhibit some form of “economic moat” to help protect the business against competitors.  This may include:

• Strong branding
• Efficiencies of scale
• High barriers to entry
• Switching costs

Our Investment Committee seeks out opportunistic investments where we view market pricing as not being representative of future predicted returns.

Markets will continue to rise and fall. Working alongside you to manage your investments, we help you make more informed decisions and seek to minimise your emotional burden.

If you would like to know more about how The Investment Collective can help you with your investment strategy, contact us to make an appointment today.

“Sell in May and go away” is a well-known saying in relation to share markets.  Does it have any validity?  Well, the first question that needs to be answered is “go away for how long?”  The phrase is likely a take on an old English saying “sell in May and go away, come back on St Leger’s Day”.

Horse racing buffs may know that the St Leger Stakes is run in September each year.  So, the rationale would be to sell shares in May and buy them back in September expecting the (buy) price in September to be less than the (sell) price in May.  Easy enough.  Let’s see how successful this would have been.  We’ll keep it simple and not include buying and selling costs or tax implications.
We’ll use the ASX top 200 index (the XJO) to back test the strategy.  We’ll compare the value of the XJO at the beginning of May to the value at the end of August for the last 20 years.  Here’s the table of results:

Summarising these back tested results for 1997 to 2016:

• The “sell in May and go away” strategy would have produced a beneficial outcome in 11 out of 20 years. The average beneficial percentage is 6.2%.
• The “sell in May and go away” strategy would have produced a detrimental outcome in 9 out of 20 years. The average detrimental percentage is 6.5%.

“Sell in May and go away” would have produced only a marginal benefit if applied as noted here over the last 20 years.  An interesting saying, but not a viable strategy.

Please note, this article is for general advice purposes only. It is not taking into account your particular circumstances or your personal finances. As mentioned above, this is a simplified analysis, and does not take into account certain financial implications (such as buying and selling costs and tax implications). If you wish to discuss the matter in further detail or wish to book an appointment to discuss your personal financial situation and future financial goals, please contact us to book an appointment with one of our advisers.

Women face unique challenges when it comes to retirement savings. Time out of the workforce to care for children is likely to affect your income and your ability to accumulate superannuation.

Here are some simple strategies that make it possible for women to overcome these hurdles.

Government Co-Contribution

• If you earn less than $36,021 during the 2016-17 financial year and contribute $1,000 of your own money to super, the government will put $500 in your fund shortly after you submit your tax return – a sweet 50% guaranteed return!
• In addition, if you earn less than $37,000 you will have your super contributions tax refunded to your fund to a maximum value of $500.

Spousal Contribution

• This is a fantastic and under-used strategy particularly for women working part-time which will provide your spouse with a handy tax break. It works like this… If you are earning less than $10,800 a year, get your partner to make a $3,000 contribution into your super and receive a $540 tax rebate.
  • Note: the spouse income threshold will rise to $37,000 from 1 July 2017 making this strategy more accessible and attractive.

Spouse Contribution Splitting

• Another underutilised strategy but a great one for rebalancing super accounts and topping up a low super balance. It is a simple process, allowing up to 85% of your spouse’s contributions made to their super fund being transferred into your account.

If you are not sure how to apply these strategies to your situation, it may be worth consulting an adviser to ensure your super keeps rolling in during periods of absence from the workforce.

Please note, this article is for general advice purposes only. It has not taken into account your personal circumstances or financial goals. If you wish to access more personalised advice tailored to your circumstances and financial objectives, please contact our friendly staff today.