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PracticeTreasury draft bill could reshape restraints in advice businesses
The proposed limits on non-compete and related restraints would apply by reference to the worker and the restraint, not by reference to the financial advice sector. Practices should establish where their contracts rely on those protections before the legislation is settled.
NewsASIC calls time on transitional relief for relevant digital asset facilities
The 30 September 2026 deadline does not apply to every crypto-related activity. Advisers and licensees need to establish whether they provide a digital asset facility that is a financial product, and whether they can continue after transitional relief ends.
MarketsTreasury’s CGT and negative-gearing proposal puts tax-sensitive advice under review
The second-tranche exposure draft targets the tax treatment of investment losses and capital gains. It is not yet law, so practices should separate the draft settings from current-law advice and scenario modelling.
PracticeWhen Spending More Early in Retirement May Improve Usable Resources
For some retirees, a carefully modelled increase in early spending may improve lifetime consumption without producing a proportionate reduction in later income. The result depends on Age Pension rules, household circumstances, investment outcomes and future spending needs.
EditorialThe First Six Months of Retirement: Managing Client Identity and Income Expectations
The early months of retirement can test assumptions about income, time and purpose. A structured review process can help advisers identify what has changed, what has not and when further advice is appropriate.
NewsNext adviser exam less than a fortnight away as cumulative pass mark holds at 92.8%
The 34th exam cycle runs on 20 August with bookings now closed, after June results took the number of individuals to have passed the profession's entry exam past 21,000.
NewsPayday super's first month done, but the June quarter tail carries a contributions cap sting
The seven-business-day regime is live, the ATO's transitional guidance is in force, and advisers are being warned that deferred June quarter contributions could push higher-income clients over their concessional caps.
EditorialA decade of tax
Treasury opened consultation on the second tranche of the CGT and negative gearing reforms on 4 August. Submissions closed on 21 August. There are further tranches to come.
EditorialThe register is recovering. The profession is not.
Adviser numbers have risen for five straight weeks. That is the least useful number in financial advice, and the industry keeps reporting it as though it were the most.
EditorialThe scheme is working. The funding model is not.
Advisers are about to pay for a third round of failures they had no part in. Defending the levy's design has become indefensible, and defending compensation itself remains essential.
EditorialTwelve years late, but welcome: the SMSF residential borrowing ban
The prohibition on new residential LRBAs commences Monday. The policy is right. The process that delivered it, and the drafting it left behind, deserve less applause.
EditorialGive AI the Job Nobody Wants
I bet two years of my life companies would let AI do the work they value. They did not. Here's why I think advice will be the last job AI takes.