Financial Planning, Investment & Insurance Solutions

  • No Country for Old Stock Pickers

    No Country for Old Stock Pickers

    Towards the end of the film “No Country for Old Men”, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell played by Tommy Lee Jones, goes to visit his wheelchair bound cousin, Ellis, played by Barry Corbin. Ellis informs Sheriff Bell he’s been recently corresponding with his wife by letter. “Loretta tells me you’re quittin’. How come’re you doin’ that? “I don’t know. I feel overmatched.” Replies Sheriff Bell. Sheriff Bell is despondent. He’s seen the aftermath of a violent chase across Texas for a stolen $2 million and believes things have changed for the worse. Customs, beliefs, and behaviours of people aren’t what they…

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  • Where There’s a Will, but Not a Way: Part 2

    Where There’s a Will, but Not a Way: Part 2

    Time can be a funny thing depending on your perspective. When you’re experiencing an event, or a saga, time may seem to slow down. Nothing can expedite the issue to its conclusion, the clock just has to continue ticking. When you’re merely an observer to said saga, you might marvel how quickly time passes. Learning of updates can only prompt a “Wow! Is that still going on?” We say this because a few years back we wrote a story about a client who was tied up in a seemingly never-ending estate battle with their sibling. We received an update recently.…

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  • John Hussman: Man who Predicted

    John Hussman: Man who Predicted

    There’s a never-ending cast of characters out in the world who have big opinions on the direction of financial markets. They might run their own newsletters or even their own funds. A number of them are permanently bearish. It’s a way of life and they can’t see things any other way (or their wallets don’t allow them to). They do fill a niche, milking unfortunate souls of their cash or delivering them returns that can only be defended if those souls exist in a permanently dark headspace where the end is always around the corner. It would be fine if…

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  • Don’t panic – your starting fee may only be temporary

    Don’t panic – your starting fee may only be temporary

    Cashflow planning is important when moving into aged care, but plans can be thrown into chaos if your first invoice shows much higher fees than expected. This article sheds light on interim fees.  The first statement you receive when you move into residential aged care can be a shock, as fees might be far higher than expected – possibly even hundreds of dollars a day higher. This might not be an error but rather be just a matter of understanding how “interim fees” are applied. If you are required to pay a means-tested fee as a contribution towards the cost…

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  • Financial Control

    Financial Control

    The term financial control generally evokes a weaker party being controlled by a stronger one. This might be in a relationship where one partner controls the finances and all financial decisions despite the other one wanting to be involved. There’s also the instance of control where it overlaps with elder abuse. Here a stronger party, be it physically or mentally, exerts control over an elderly person because they have designs on the elderly person’s financial resources. While these are the most common and obvious instances of financial control, with the bank of mum and dad wielding more and more power…

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