Recently, I attended the Eureka Report Around the World of Investing Forum. The overwhelming impression was that global investing is very new to many Australians.

Only the most die-hard peak-oil proponents, or other gold-bugs, will fail to acknowledge that the commodity bubble has burst. Is it a positive, or negative, for financial markets?

Looking back over the last 40 years, it is clear that, in the next 20 years, successful asset owners and managers are going to listen to Einstein and stop making things too simple.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the "prudent person" approach to playing it as safe as possible in portfolio construction might undergo a significant shift.

This white paper serves up a retirement income planning "buffet" - reviewing the two main opposing philosophies and the range of strategies that span the divide.

Ten years ago, hardly anyone talked about low-volatility investing. Now there's growing concern it is becoming an overcrowded trade. There are four arguments against this.

PortfolioConstruction Forum Academy Spring Seminar 2014 features three sessions. This Resources Kit contains the materials for preparing for the Seminar. After the Seminar, it will also contain the presentations for each session.

Despite strong returns, it's still hard for investors to think positively about China A shares as an investment. The key is to envisage what the world will look like in 10 to 15 years.

In managing sequence of returns risk, we may not be giving simple rebalancing nearly the credit it deserves to accomplish similar or better than more complex approaches.

Gridlock may be perfectly acceptable in Washington these days - but Europe, like Japan, now badly needs strong political leadership.

The answer seems obvious. But more complicated forces are at work that have reduced real interest rates far below historic norms and may keep them very low for many years.

The media continues to obsess about IS - but the far more investment-relevant development in the Middle East is the sudden return of Libyan crude to the market.

I don't dispute low vol stocks outperform highly vol stocks. But volatility does not explain all of an asset's risk.

The taboo that savers have to be compensated for handing money to a financial institution has been broken, with the ECB's negative rates finally being passed on to retail clients.

It has been my contention for a while that capitalism is returning to its 19th century deflationary roots. Indeed, the evidence has become overwhelming.

Last week's volatility surprised many. How should portfolios be positioned? And what does this recent bout of volatility tell us about the economy and financial markets?

One of the originators of CAPM, Sharpe was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics. I sat down with him to discuss retirement income planning.

Perhaps the most crucial change in our retirement planning language is simply to rename "retirement".

Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty‐First Century" is certainly the economics book of the year. We have been asked numerous times to appraise his ideas.

This particularly relevant review of literature on sequencing risk considers the impact of Australia's age pension on retirement spending strategies.

Relying on Fed tightening to predict the next serious sharemarket weakness may be very dangerous. Perhaps this time really IS different.

The dynamic duo (Kitces and Pfau) are back in their search for the ultimate truth about retirement income planning and how to structure portfolios to minimise drawdowns.

Today is much less reminiscent of 2007, when global equity prices were at similar levels to today, than of 1987. But it seems too early for investors to panic, or even reduce risk.

This Resources Kit is a deluge of videos, podcasts, and papers for all sessions of the jam-packed Conference 2014 program so you can "attend" even if you weren't part of the 600 plus audience.

This paper argues that to make choices regarding smart betas we must first assess whether they're robust. Luckily, it concludes, most so-called factors can be ignored.

If Scotland does vote for independence, it's hard to come up with a positive scenario for British assets.

Robert Merton, 1997 Nobel Prize winner, has recently penned an article about his views on retirement planning. There are some interesting take aways for Australian practitioners.

Unconstrained debt strategies are flavour of the month, and likely to be very popular amongst investors for several reasons. But where do such funds fit in a portfolio?

What do Richard Nixon, novel "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", and Bridgewater Associates have to do with risk parity investing and Conference 2014?

Are Term Deposits the most boring subject in finance? Actually, they're anything but. The Australian TD market is an area where it is easy to add demonstrable value for clients.

As the first day of our annual Conference program, we hosted the Finology Forum. Our particular focus of finology was as it applies to the giving of investment advice.

The one-day Conference Finology Forum 2014 program (within the overall three-day Conference program) featured leading investment thinkers from around the world presenting on how to more effectively help investors manage their expectations and investment portfolios. This CPD Quiz is for delegates to complete, to receive CPD accreditation.

It is given that we all are wired to act foolishly sometimes, so how can we be better "choice architects" and "decision reassurers" for ourselves and our clients?

This presentation addresses the importance of developing improved and dynamic investment approaches that seek to better understand and manage total portfolio risk as well as identify sources of return.

Individuals are vulnerable to economic and financial risks as they approach and enter retirement. Insights from behavioural finance can be used to enhance risk communication and retirement outcomes.

Investors should be aware of the risks they are exposed to within a portfolio and when they're being paid to take risk (or not). A different approach is needed to build portfolios with better risk awareness.

Formal reports redolent with data and analysis fail to communicate risks as people actually feel them. Reports need to be replaced by rapports, by engaged conversations.

If geopolitics is far more important in considering investment markets today, how do we integrate geopolitics into portfolio construction?

In recent years, the risk parity approach to asset allocation has been gaining popularity. Evidence supports it but confidence in its efficacy requires a theoretical justification.

As we sit today with some unprecedented market conditions, it's probably more relevant than ever to understand both sides of the risk and return equation in the fixed income space.

Is risk parity's outperformance in the past decade sustainable or just a quirk of the unusual markets.

To flourish in the robo-advice era, portfolio construction practitioners must provide clients with a positive Return on Attention (ROA), Intimacy (ROI) and Empathy (ROE).

What return premia - if any - are attached to different types of investment risk? And just how reliable those premia are in practice? Can the risks be diversified?

For many Australians, their house is one of their biggest assets, if not the biggest. But a leveraged owner-occupied home is riskier than the sharemarket.

We need to relate to investors in such a way that they can once again know and trust that financial security is a fact, not a feeling.

The traditional approach to portfolio construction is to own a diversified portfolio, adjusting total risk up or down. An alternative is to take a bucket approach.

A sustained period of lower global growth, rich valuations from traditional assets and an eerie calm before the storm in asset price volatility require a different approach to asset allocation.

In managing a risk on/risk off world, investors can maintain or increase exposure to growth assets while experiencing a smoother ride.

To ensure risk is genuinely well diversified takes a forward-looking scenario-analysis process to combine quantitative rigor with qualitative insights of the plausible but unlikely extreme stresses we might face.

When looking to reconnect risk and return in portfolios, what better place to start than with the barometer of equity market risk itself?

If risk and return are imperfectly linked, there is opportunity to increase average return, without increasing risk - particularly in equity markets where risk is mispriced.

In many cases, fundamental risk and return characteristics have been shown the door as funds have flowed into ever lower yielding income asset classes.

The last decade has seen a distinct disconnect between investment risk and return, versus what we're taught should be the case.

Fixed income has changed, and is very different today versus what it was years ago. It makes sense to evolve your portfolios accordingly.

What are the questions that everyone is asking today? When will interest rates spike? And, what about the increased rate of inflation? One has to accept the changing nature of these two elements.

The constant challenge is to keep clients focused on their wealth goal when they are distracted by the many other factors that influence their perception of risk.

To improve client outcomes, financial practitioners must master six basic response skills.

A common belief amongst financial practitioners is that investors and clients understand the investment objective. But are our investment beliefs a reflection of reality or investment myths?

Needleman said, "Money has a way to bring reality to situations". If so, the challenge is to have more scientific clarity helping to expose what money (and therefore investing) represents in a client's world.

Finology is the emerging (and converging) research field covering the study of minds, customs and behaviours with respect to money. It incorporates behavioural finance, and much, much more.

There may be rocks ahead. Reconnecting risk and return must be the right focus - but thinking conventional tools will keep us out of trouble may be a mistake.

Alpha Potential is gaining traction as a tool to identify opportunities for active management, enhancing the value proposition afforded to active managers.

People often ask me about my outlook for the US housing market. The outlook is improving - and that's constructive for consumer spending, confidence and jobs.

The last decade has seen a disconnect between investment risk and return vs what we're taught should be the case. What is the long-term relationship? Can it be beaten?

A dynamic risk management approach can protect a portfolio again sequencing risk, providing reliable investment returns over the cycle.

This paper reviews the principles, practices, risk management requirements and implementation steps needed to build absolute return focused portfolios.

To ensure risk is genuinely well diversified takes a sophisticated forward-looking scenario-analysis process to combine quantitative rigor with qualitative insights of extreme stresses it might face.

This paper explores the thesis that capturing the traditional relationship of fixed income in the total client portfolio will require more untraditional approaches going forward.

Six stocks make up just under half of the Australian equity market. This research paper examines the impact of this on investors' returns, and whether it is responsible investing.

This paper explores a different approach to asset allocation and alternative returns sources to reduce the reliance on traditional asset classes and drive returns.

This research paper discusses (in simple terms) how to reconnect the concept of Risk and Return via the practical application of volatility derivatives to portfolios.

This paper explores the opportunities within private equity and private debt and examines their role in providing downside protection for investors.

Over the past 40 years, the high-yield landscape has grown exponentially. Knowing the key risks and emerging opportunities can help map a path forward.

Uncertainty about the timing of future interest rate rises poses challenges to fixed income investors. This paper identifies options available in managing portfolios in such an environment.

After two decades of elevated earnings and PEs - and two bear markets but also three bull markets - many are questioning whether Shiller CAPE is all that predictive.

Risk assets are grinding higher and volatility is extraordinarily low - and monetary stimulus is still plentiful. What does life after zero (rates) look like?

We've come to accept a world where the US drives what happens in the global economy and markets. But that's changing - with significant implications for portfolios.

Going forward, instead of 5% real, traditional stocks and bonds will offer about 2.5%. But there are many things you can do to bridge the gap.

Investing can and often is intellectually compelling. But it should not be driven by excitement, as it is for many individuals.

Are equities at the end of a five-year cyclical bounce or the start of a 15-year structural breakout? History suggests two contradictory answers.

It is not surprising that bond managers have significant difficulty in outperforming a market cap-weighted benchmark.

This paper is a great introduction to why behavioural finance is quickly becoming recognised as a field that can add real value to the wealth management industry.

As investment professionals, we live investing every day. We spend excessive time reporting and not enough 'rapporting.'

The GFC was the first crisis where good risk profiling tools were in place for a wide range of investors. Two papers look at whether risk tolerances altered materially through it.

Do geopolitical events involving potential or actual military conflict really matter in the constructing of investment portfolios?

Are we at the start of a long-term bond bear market? Here are three factors that I expect to keep bond yields lower for longer, and five important implications for investors.

Symposium NZ 2014 facilitated debate on the three pillars of portfolio construction – markets, strategies and investing - to help delegates build better quality portfolios. This CPD Quiz is for delegates to complete, to receive Structured CPD Hours.

This paper examines the oft-considered subject of hedge fund returns, finding far greater dispersion than for traditional fund managers.

The staple of retirement planning - save a percentage of income - makes it surprisingly difficult to ever reach retirement. The alternative is much easier and more successful.

Everyone knows bond rates are going up - so why would you buy fixed interest? Actually, there are three really good reasons.

PortfolioConstruction Forum Academy Winter Seminar 2014 featured four sessions: Risk, return & relating; Statistics, lies, and investment performance analysis; How safe are safe withdrawal rates in retirement?; and, Communicating and learning with and from clients.

The Islamist surge through central Iraq has the potential to upset the plans of investors who've convinced themselves that volatility is in the past.

What we are witnessing in Iraq is a war within Islam. Will it mutate into a broader regional war thereby threatening oil supplies?

Here are some brief thoughts on four issues that matter a lot, in our view. Two have been poorly discussed in the financial press, and the other two have been ignored completely.

Moving to a twenty-first-century currency system would make it far simpler to move to a twenty-first-century central-banking regime as well.

Investing differently gives no certainty of great results (increasing the odds of being wrong as well as right). But it is a necessary but not sufficient ingredient for great performance.

Are we any good at estimating the values of our homes? Surprisingly, on average we are, according to a RBA study. It also found a link to weightings of risky assets in portfolios.

Across the industry, portfolio rebalancing is the norm - with little agreement on the optimal frequency. So I experimented to find out which frequency is best.

This Resources Kit is a deluge of videos, podcasts, and papers for all sessions of the jam-packed Symposium 2014 program so you can "attend" even if you weren't part of the 200-strong audience.

Markets are pricing in expectations that the ECB will have to be very aggressive next week if it is to turn back the tide of European deceleration. It's reminiscent of October 1987.

Most research assumes retirees maintain a consistent standard of living. A new study disproves this, implying we may be overestimating funds needed to retire by up to 20%.

Three interrelated aspects of practically managing client portfolios - constructing portfolios using buckets, diversifying human capital, and the Withdrawal Policy Statement.

Our Symposium NZ 2014 faculty debated that the best way for practitioners to manage a client's primary risk of not meeting their objectives is to manage the long-term uncertainty of returns.

This paper and presentation argue that understanding what is going on under the bonnet at central banks is key to understanding what will drive markets, and how best to position portfolios.

Are the human and organisational barriers to being better investors insurmountable, or can we learn and improve our decision-making?

Typically, MPT has focused solely on how to invest within classes, not amongst them. But MPT continues to evolve.

This paper and presentation provide an introduction to the risk tolerance paradox, exploring the main reason it exists, and introducing risk management strategies that seek to solve the problem.

This paper and presentation argue that the bond market can offer compensation against rising rates through roll down and active management of forwards.

Central banks must complete the Great Unwind – removing ultra-easy monetary policies. The critical period for markets will come when the Fed lifts short-term rates (probably, but not necessarily, after tapering ends).

Graham Rich opened Symposium 2014 in his usual thought-provoking (and entertaining) way, highlighting key issues to consider over the jam-packed, marathon program.

If you were lending somebody money, would you lend them more money just because they had more debt? If you are investing according to a debt-weighted benchmark, that is exactly what you are doing.

Faced with the prospect of rising yields, some investors are cutting bond allocations. But the bond market can offer compensation against rising rates.

Understanding what is going on under the bonnet at central banks is key to understanding what will drive markets – and therefore how to best position portfolios.

While it is well established that equity valuations impact medium-term equity returns. It is less well known that starting period equity valuations also impact medium-term equity volatility and bond-equity correlations.

There is huge variety in retirement income strategies. This paper introduces "longevity risk aversion" and its impact on safe withdrawal rates.

Often, the true dangers reside where investors are most comfortable going and the best opportunities are where investors fear to tread.

Whatever return forecasts you make will be wrong - so you better have a portfolio that has the opportunity to make money in a very broad spectrum of investment outcomes.

It is time to start looking at alternative assets. Not because there is any pressing need to invest today, but because thorough analysis takes time and mistakes can be expensive.

Valuation is not just an important driver of investment returns but also of investment volatility.

Towers Watson's compendium of insights into global equity investing contains useful insights about issues many portfolio construction practitioners face every day.

Divorcing your debt benchmark and adopting more unconstrained approach to debt investing and offering degrees of freedom to the portfolio manager is the new "core".

The Academy Autumn Seminar 2014 featured four sessions: 10 golden rules for portfolio construction; Reassessing the global debt spectrum; Currency revisited - to hedge or not to hedge; Volatility investing - the next frontier.

Against a backdrop of currency slides, yield spikes and chronic equity underperformance, we invited our EM experts to defend their asset class against three charges.

Target date funds are becoming the workhorse for DC plans but there are problems with the approach. This paper offers a portfolio construction framework to overcome them.

The active versus passive debate was recently given a boost when Warren Buffet suggested in his annual letter that most investors are better off investing passively.

In recent months, we've highlighted one school of research on funding retirement income, being the sustainable withdrawal rate approach. This paper takes a different approach.

The challenge for investors over the past several years is that diversification did not work as expected. The dynamic nature of correlation must be factored into portfolio modeling.

So the US budget deficit is contracting because government consumption is falling? It is really just an accounting illusion. Financial repression is still the order of the day.

Does Fama and French's latest work, A Five-Factor Asset Pricing Model, provide any information that can be of practical value to advisers or investors? The answer is no.

The nature of target date funds - encompassing multiple objectives and changing asset allocations over time - raises challenges for performance reporting.

2014 is likely to be a year of genuine improvement in the global economy, and one where uncertainty is rather low.

As the logic goes, retired clients deplete their portfolios, and more pass away as the years go by, so a firm with aging clients is akin to a rapidly depreciating asset. But is this true?

It's the eternal debate - can active management outperform? Two recent reports offer some interesting insights into the issue.

If you believe the US State Department has the Crimean situation under control, plan for a bullish scenario for risk assets. Plan for the opposite, if you believe Putin will prevail.

Australians are waking up to the fact that they have not had enough global (mainly equity) exposure. Why the case for more global exposure now?

A new research paper looks specifically at withdrawal rates in the Australian context, confirming the legislated minimums for account-based pensions are much too high.

This Resources Kit is a deluge of videos, podcasts, and papers for all 18 sessions of the jam-packed Markets Summit 2014 program - The Great Escape (what will markets be like in the QE runout?) so you can "attend" even if you weren't part of the 500-strong audience.

In rapid-fire presentations, 18 experts from various parts of the world debated the biggest issue facing the financial world.

In a new format for Markets Summit 2014, delegates took the role of CIO for the day, as the 18 strong presenter faculty made the case for their highest conviction insights.

Normal is not our experience - today's world is different from anything in the history of human capitalism. The Aquarium Theory of Investing is one way to gain perspective.

Our Markets Summit faculty debated two critical issues arising from Unconventional Monetary Policy; for the coming two to three years, to substantially overweight DM vs EM Equities in portfolios and substantially overweight Short vs Long Duration Bonds.

We must challenge common assumptions about the US and emerging markets to ensure we are focusing on the best routes to the right destination.

Emerging Markets were a focal point in 2013, repricing as US stimulus, commodity prices and China's boom subsided. In future, EM performance will depend on individual merit.

The US is the critical market of the global economy - and there are sign-posts that clearly suggest it is ready to surprise on the upside, with significant implications for portfolios.

Think about bonds as an insurance policy for portfolios. With higher yields available, very cheap insurance is even better able to pay for hurdles facing portfolios.

To achieve the Great Escape, central banks must first complete the Great Unwind – the removal of ultra-easy monetary policies. So what is the roadmap for the Great Unwind?

Ultra-low interest rates and QE have offset the deflationary forces of debt deleveraging. The challenge policy makers face is when to withdraw the stimulus to avert inflation.

Breaking Unconventional Monetary Policy (B.U.M.P.) and it's impact on global financial stability is the key risk for the foreseeable future.

In a Great Escape world, ignoring the index and actively seeking growth investments regardless of size or weightings is more important than ever.

The ability to pick inflection points in markets as well as deploying TAA across credit will be the key ingredient going forward.

Short-term rates are likely to remain low for a prolonged period of time. Investors will still need to source yield, they'll simply have to be more creative to find it.

Most of the world will see an improvement in economic growth this year. Equities are by far the most attractive asset class - but they will be much more volatile.

Today's long period of very easy money and very low yields has distorted the financial system. This will cause unintended consequences in the near future as QE ends.

William Bengen established the 4% rule - and showed a higher exposure to equities was better for retirement portfolios.

The Academy Summer Seminar 2013 featured four sessions: The paradox of wealth (& what can be done); Don't concentrate too hard; Developing your investment philosophy; and, Financial literacy and cognitive functioning.

As we entered 2014, the consensus on the best and worst areas to invest could be described very simply: momentum investing ruled, contrarian investing was dead.

The bullish mood suddenly changed in early January. Here is a structure for thinking about recent market events that may be helpful in assessing new evidence as it comes along.

A report on asset allocation intentions of financial planners set the voice in my head singing "How many times..."

The majority of the world will see an improvement in economic growth this year. But, after a lengthy and linear rise, equity markets will see much greater volatility this year.

Breaking Unconventional Monetary Policy is not an asymmetric outcome - it is like 50 shades of grey, whips included, particularly for emerging markets.