Perth-based Affinity Capital Group has launched Affinity Funds Management, selecting Palmer to spearhead its ambitions to become Western Australia's leading fund manager.

Palmer recently called time on over a decade at GESB, most of which he spent as chief executive. He also worked in its investment team, overseeing the global portfolio and private equity investments.

Earlier in his career, Palmer worked for Schroders, including as head of portfolio management in the UK private wealth business.

Affinity plans to target opportunities across infrastructure, natural resources, energy transition, food and water security, and Indigenous engagement.

"He brings an exceptional track record, unmatched depth of institutional investment experience, and importantly, a genuine personal commitment to the values that underpin everything we do at Affinity," Affinity Capital Group founder and managing director Adam Santa Maria said of Palmer.

"Ben shares Affinity's vision: to build a funds management business that is deeply Western Australian in character, genuinely excellent in its investment approach, and built on relationships of trust with investors and partners alike.

"We are delighted to welcome Ben to the Affinity Group."

For his part, Palmer said: "Affinity has built something genuinely distinctive - a platform with a compelling investment philosophy, strong deal flow across infrastructure, sovereign capability, natural resources and the energy transition, and with a unique partnership approach to Indigenous engagement. Its reputation in the WA market is second to none."

"I am excited to join a highly credentialed, globally experienced team and help build a Perth-based funds management capability that Western Australians can be proud of for generations to come."

While leading GESB, the fund grew to have more than $46 billion in funds under management and 250,000 members. Palmer also led the One Fund reform, which saw Western Australian legislation amended to allow former public sector workers to continue contributing to GESB.

He has been replaced by GESB chief investment officer Paul Taylor on an interim basis while the WA Treasury hunts a permanent chief executive.

Evans, formerly Evertz, gave inside information about Big Un to a shareholder around 10 January 2017, knowing reasonably the shareholder would likely trade Big Un shares and options.

Evans could face a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment.

ASIC said the information concerned the number of customers who had already been onboarded to purchase Big Un's promotional television show package for $12,000, together with a $20 million funding arrangement with Finstro, a product of Sydney-based financier First Class Capital, which allowed customers to make this purchase on deferred payment terms.

In 2018, Big Un experienced a spectacular surge before allegations surfaced that it was paying commissions to a financial entity that was providing loans to shareholders purchasing its shares.

The company was liquidated in 2019 after internal audits revealed an unstainable loss-making operation with $50 million of hidden liabilities.

Evans' trial has been vacated with a sentencing hearing set down for August 21.

Former Big Un chief financial officer Andrew Corner has criminal proceedings against him for allegedly procuring two private companies in his control to sell 1.7 million Big Un shares for a total value of more than $5 million whilst in possession of inside information.

ASIC has also taken action against Big Un's auditor Graham Rothesay Swan, who was convicted for failing to conduct the 2017 audit of the firm in compliance with auditing standards.

Former investment analyst Michael Ming Jinn Ho was sentenced to three years imprisonment to be served by an intensive correction order. Ho was convicted on five counts of insider trading and one count of communicating inside information in respect of Big Un between 2016 and 2018.

Earlier this week ASIC applied to the Federal Court to have receivers appointed to investigate the validity of the sale of Interprac to Conquest Investment Management. In particular, the receivers will look into the Cross Deed of Guarantee to which Sequoia, Interprac and other related entities are party. ASIC wants to know that the sale is bona fide and that the consideration price - $50,000 - is fair and reasonable.

ASIC noted its application came on the back of concerns as to what the transaction would mean for Interprac's creditors, noting two lead determinations have been made against the licensee by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) regarding its involvement in the Shield and First Guardian collapses.

"Sequoia believes that concern is unfounded," it stated today.

"Interprac will remain a party to the ASIC Deed of Cross Guarantee immediately following the sale of Interprac to Conquest... [and] can only cease to apply to Interprac as a result of the sale to Conquest if the directors of Sequoia certify that the sale is a bona fide sale and the consideration for the sale is for a fair and reasonable consideration. The court action by ASIC prevents such a certificate from being given."

Sequoia added that outside of the two lead determinations made by AFCA, there are so far no other liabilities that have arisen from complaints made and noted its own proceedings against AFCA in relation to the lead determination is in train. There is currently more than 900 complaints that have been made against Interprac.

The group also confirmed it is in discussions with the ASX as to whether the sale of Interprac needs to be approved by Sequoia shareholders or not.

Under ASX Listing Rule 11.2, a listed entity must seek the approval of shareholders where it is making a significant change that involves disposing of its "main undertaking", referring to key assets or businesses.

Sequoia said it expected the ASX to reach a determination this week, however the bourse has delayed providing one as it seeks further information regarding ASIC's court application. It said it is supportive of shareholder oversight, as is Conquest.

"The company remains committed to progressing the transaction in an orderly and transparent manner, consistent with its contractual obligations and regulatory requirements," Sequoia said.

Separately, Sequoia confirmed via the ASX that it has issued a formal apology to industry publication Professional Planner after its managing director Garry Crole mistook the title for another in explaining how information of the sale was able to be published ahead of a formal market announcement.

Crole admitted to speaking with a journalist from a different publication on the afternoon of Friday, March 20 and said it was with the understanding that all information discussed was under embargo until an official statement was released by the company. Sequoia claims that announcement was sent to the ASX on the Friday afternoon but was not published by the bourse until the morning of Monday, March 23.

Crole said he cannot recall which publication he actually spoke with.

Quinbrook is a Queensland-based specialist investment manager exclusively focused on the infrastructure needed for the energy transition.

Rowan Digital Infrastructure was founded in 2020 by Quinbrook to develop sustainable data center campuses for hyperscale customers, offering solutions that enable rapid and cost-effective scaling.

Blackstone's investment will help drive Rowan Digital Infrastructure's future development pipeline and support ongoing capacity expansion for hyperscale customers across existing and new sites in the US.

Rowan Digital Infrastructure chief executive Charley Daitch said the investment positions the firm to continue delivering sustainable data center capacity for leading technology companies.

"Blackstone's investment is a strong vote of confidence in our differentiated approach and our ability to execute complex projects at scale - particularly where power availability, accelerated timelines, and community alignment are critical to success," Daitch said.

Quinbrook managing partner and Rowan Digital Infrastructure chair David Scaysbrook said Blackstone is ideally placed to help Rowan continue its growth as the world's leading investors in digital infrastructure and energy.

"We are delighted that Blackstone is investing in Rowan. We're focused on developing power and infrastructure solutions that solve hyperscale operators' urgent need for more compute capacity at scale," Scaysbrook said.

Quinbrook established Rowan as an early mover in gaining access to power, which would drive global data center development.

"This power focus leverages Quinbrook's specialist expertise in power project development tailored to the needs of energy intensive customers," Scaysbrook said.

Rowan is actively developing multiple 300 MW to over 1 GW campuses across the US to meet the capacity needs of hyperscale operators.

SAN's representatives were predominantly accountants who operated under a limited licence to provide advice on SMSF establishments and classes of product, but not specific products, under authorisation provided by the National Tax & Accountants' Association's (NTAA) Australian financial services licence (AFSL).

According to Padua WealthData, there was a net decline of 88 advisers this week, 85 of which had been tied to SAN. Of them, two moved to NTAA's less restrictive licence, Advice Assist Australia, making it now home to 15 advisers.

NTAA executive president Jack Stuk confirmed to Financial Standard the SAN business has been deregistered but declined to comment further.

SAN had seen a drastic reduction of adviser numbers over recent years, dwindling to 90 after the deadline for education requirements passed at the beginning of the year.

Speaking to Financial Standard, Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) general manager of policy, advocacy and standard Phil Anderson said the limited advice licence model has shrunk significantly in recent years for several reasons, including the education requirements and a lack of recruitment, as those operating under the limited licence, or looking to do so, were still caught by the exam and education requirements.

"SMSF Adviser Network was at one point the largest licensee as many accountants have jumped onto this limited licensing option, but they were impacted by the exam and education requirement," Anderson said.

"We've seen a significant reduction in advisers who operate on such an option. There are very few options now for people who want to operate on a limited licence mode, and those that still do have a limited licence are not particularly interested in recruiting additional advisers."

He thinks the model has become "uneconomical" for businesses to continue to operate, which will subsequently impact the SMSF advice sector.

"There were warning signs that the limited licence space was contracting... I can't talk for the specific factors that influenced this [SAN's] decision, but you could conclude that the continuation to operate with a lack of scale becomes very difficult," Anderson said.

"At an aggregate level, there will be less people providing SMSF advice as a result of the decline, more broadly, of limited licenses and this particular closure."

Walsh said the consultation focuses on "the 'switch' as the point of failure" while ignoring a "massive 'user journey' debt created by failing service levels, legacy data matching at the ATO, and a government-mandated performance test that is effectively ordering 12,400 victims and millions more to migrate".

Walsh said APRA's performance test actually forces many Australians to switch funds.

"The most glaring contradiction in the Treasury's proposal is the collision with APRA's Performance Test. Since 2021, APRA has been running a 'hard-coded' annual performance check. If a fund fails to meet a specific benchmark, the government mandates that the fund send a 'we suck' letter to every member," Walsh said.

"That letter is effectively a 'system failure' notification. It tells the member: 'Your fund is underperforming. You should consider moving your money.'

"The government is literally ordering millions of people to switch."

Walsh added Treasury has assumed super switching is a choice made under duress.

"It ignores the reality that for millions of Australians, a switch is a system cleanup," he said.

"We are currently hurtling toward July 1, 2026, the date Payday Super goes live. This moves the system from 'batch processing' to 'real-time streaming'. Employees will see their super hit their accounts alongside their salary. This is the ultimate engagement trigger."

Walsh said back-end systems have not caught up, and while stapling reforms and Single Touch Payroll have reduced duplicate accounts, the ATO's database is still a landscape of "dirty data".

"The April 2026 reforms are a pivot away from 'advice simplification' and toward 'system isolation'," he said.

"The government isn't misreading the data; they are just choosing the easiest story. 'Protecting grandma from greedy advisers' is a better news cycle than 'fixing the ATO's legacy database' or 'addressing the 30% surge in service complaints'."

Meanwhile, minister for financial services Daniel Mulino said the aim of restricting super switching is to "give consumers a bit more time to have a second thought".

Mulino said Treasury is focused on putting more regulatory scrutiny around lead generators to ensure Australians aren't being pressured to make a decision that isn't in their best interests.

"There's a real argument that we're going to look into in detail as to whether or not they should be covered by AFSL licences [sic] or the financial sector law in particular. And there's a good argument that given the quantum of the decisions that people are making, they're talking often about switching their entire life savings, that kind of regulatory arrangement is more appropriate," Mulino said.

"There's also potentially restrictions you might put on lead generators in relation to conflicted remuneration or other aspects of the way they operate."

Jansen held several roles throughout his tenure, mostly relating to AMP's superannuation offerings, including head of product - superannuation, director stronger super products and prudential standards, and most recently head of corporate pensions.

AMP chief executive Blair Vernon told Financial Standard Jansen made significant contributions to the company.

"Chris joined AMP in 1986 and has made an absolutely stellar contribution over four decades, guiding teams through significant transformation and regulatory change, always with a strong focus on customers, our people and disciplined execution," Vernon said.

"Most recently, as head of corporate pensions, Chris has played a pivotal role in supporting AMP's strategic partnerships in China. We thank Chris for his outstanding service, commitment and the lasting impact he's made across the organisation."

Speaking on his decision to retire, Jansen reflected on his nearly four decades with AMP.

"On 1 September 1986 as I walked into 10 Eagle Street, Brisbane (the Gold Tower) I had no idea how important AMP would become in my and my family's life. Over four decades many things have changed as AMP has evolved but there has always been two constants being the people and our unwavering commitment to help people have better lives," Jansen said.

"During my time at AMP there have been many, many good times and the occasional not so good time but I have always been very proud to say I work for AMP. AMP has given me so many opportunities over four decades including more than 90 trips to China working with our strategic partners."

Jansen thanked his colleagues and mentors within AMP who he said helped shape him and his career.

"Whilst there are far too many to people to name there are a few that I would like to pay a special thanks to for their unwavering support throughout my career, Peter Nicholson, Len Whelan, Steve Helmich and Greg Healy, thank you," he said.

"As I now embark on my next chapter, I wish AMP nothing but success and will forever be a part of the cheer squad going forward as I watch AMP continue to help our customers live their dreams."

AMP has not confirmed who will replace Jansen.

Meanwhile, Emma Chand has joined AMP has head of strategic partnerships and governance in the growth and customer solutions team.

AMP director, growth and customer solutions Julie Slapp said the newly created role will support AMP's growth strategy.

"The role is responsible for strengthening governance, performance and strategic management of our key partners across Superannuation & Investments and includes leading AMP Super's insurance strategy," Slapp said.

Chand joined AMP on April 1 and brings over 15 years' experience across superannuation, insurance and investments, with senior roles at Colonial First State, BT Funds Management and most recently leading super product at Mercer.

Slapp said Chand's depth of experience is a strong addition to the business.

At his first annual general meeting (AGM) at the helm, Vernon told shareholders the unprecedented volatility in share price movements of many ASX companies has been exacerbated by a range of factors not entirely related to company performance.

AMP's share price, since the release of its full-year results in mid-February, drastically dropped by 24% from about $1.76 to the current trading price of $1.33.

Vernon expressed a disconnect, given that in the full year to December 2025 AMP reported underlying NPAT of $285 million, an increase of 21% year on year.

Underlying NPAT for the platforms unit went up 9.3%, while the superannuation and investments unit reported a 15% rise to $62 million.

"This has been disappointing for all stakeholders, and, in the board's view, does not reflect the strong growth in financial performance that has been achieved over the last few years. Of course, share price movements reflect a wide range of factors, including sentiment, expectations of future performance and broader macro and geo-political conditions," Vernon said.

On the external factors, Vernon blamed the rise and influence of high frequency trading, passive investing and the increased emphasis on investment managers' quarterly performance that are "currently having an outsized impact on market prices - beyond company fundamentals."

"Nevertheless, at AMP we remain focused on those things we can control: effectively executing our strategy, driving growth in our wealth businesses, carefully managing capital and delivering sustainable long-term value," he said.

The firm is now undertaking a $150 million on-market share buyback to improve earnings per share.

Vernon said while the top priority is to grow earnings organically, the board is cognisant that with AMP's low franking credit balance, there is limited benefit to domestic shareholders in seeking to increase the dividend materially at the present time.

"Instead, the board considers on-market share buybacks to be the most efficient method of capital management - and increasing shareholder value," he said.

Vernon also outlined his broader vision for AMP at the AGM: to grow the wealth businesses, embrace artificial intelligence (AI), and improve capital allocation and organisational efficiency.

To drive organic growth, Vernon said this will be done via a "relentless focus on customer acquisition and retention, and importantly, by growing and deepening our adviser partnerships."

He plans to ramp up the use of AI across the business, such as contact centres and corporate functions.

"At the same time, we will continue to identify how we mitigate and minimise AI risks. That includes responding to how AI may disrupt the wealth sector and the tight regulatory frameworks that help to mitigate that risk for AMP," he said.

Vernon took over the top job from Alexis George, who left the wealth firm on March 30.

Head of investment governance Sarah Cornelius has been promoted to principal consultant.

She has over 15 years' experience at Frontier, having joined in 2010 as an administration assistant. She has worked her way up the ranks and took on the lead investment governance role in 2024 after serving as deputy head of investment governance for seven months.

Alexandra Veroude was also promoted to principal consultant.

Veroude works in the capital markets and asset allocation team and joined Frontier in 2024 from STX Group in Amsterdam. She's also previously held roles at the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bloomberg, and J.P. Morgan.

In her new role, Verouse will continue to expand her research and client engagement, including working more closely with the Sydney based investment team, Frontier said.

Anthony Luxford and Dan Manser are now senior consultants.

Luxford previously worked in financial advice, including as a paraplanner, before joining Frontier as an associate in 2021. He works in the emerging institutional investor team. Meantime, Manser has been with Frontier for two years and previously worked as an investment analyst at Aviva. He works on Frontier's portfolio holdings disclosure insights.

Kiryll Prakapenka is now a consultant. He is a former financial content writer, podcaster and analyst who joined Frontier in 2024.

"We congratulate Sarah, Alexandra, Anthony, Dan and Kiryll on their well-deserved promotions and look forward to their continued contribution to our clients and the firm," Frontier said.

The promotions add to several other recent appointments at Frontier, including senior consultant Martin Langham and Louise Hulley as chief operations officer.

ASIC suspended ISG's AFSL in July 2022 after it found it failed to meet statutory audit and financial reporting lodgement obligations. The license suspension was revoked in February 2023 when ISG lodged the outstanding reports.

However, September 2022, ISG ceased paying distributions and later froze investor redemptions.

In September 2024 the Queensland Supreme Court ordered ISG, as the responsible entity for the ISG Private Access Fund and the ISG Real Estate Equity Fund, to wind up the managed investment schemes.

Godfrey had attempted to appoint receivers to the schemes the month prior, but ASIC intervened because it held concerns about, amongst other things, ISG's financial, governance and compliance positions.

ASIC said from 2019, the schemes had received around $145 million from retail and wholesale investors before being wound up.

This latest move will see Godfrey banned from providing financial services, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business or performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business, under ss920A and 920B of the Corporations Act 2001, for a period of 10 years.

ASIC found Godfrey failed to comply with financial services laws; was involved in the contravention of a financial services law by another person; and was not a fit and proper person to provide financial services, perform functions as an officer of an entity that carries on a financial services business or control an entity that carries on a financial services business.

ASIC also determined Godfrey was not adequately trained or competent to provide financial services, perform functions as an officer of an entity that carries on a financial services business or control an entity that carries on a financial services business; may be likely to contravene a financial services law, or may become involved in the contravention of a financial services law by another person, and is an insolvent under administration.

Godfrey is prohibited from providing any financial services; controlling, whether alone or in concert with one or more other entities, an entity that carries on a financial services business, and performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business. This included as an officer, manager, employee, contractor or in some other capacity.

ASIC said Godfrey's banning will be in effect for 10 years from 31 March 2026.

He has the right to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision.

Aristotle Papapavlou is permanently banned from any involvement in the financial services and credit industries.

Papapavlou was authorised by Interprac Financial Planning as of September 2021 and worked for Venture Egg from October 2021 to July 2023. After leaving Venture Egg, he went on to be authorised by Hejaz Financial Advisers up until February this year.

Prior, Papapavlou was licensed through Dover Financial Advisers until its closure in July 2018, prompted by its extensive misconduct being publicised by the Royal Commission. He was then authorised under Consilium Advice, a group established by former Dover advisers.

In banning him, ASIC said Papapavlou lacked competence, adequate training and judgement as a financial adviser, and engaged in dishonest, misleading and unprofessional conduct.

The regulator said Papapavlou was actively involved in Venture Egg's high volume advice process, in which third party referrers undertook the client fact finds, and was complicit in a process in which he knew other advisers were signing his name, and the names of others, on their SOAs. The SOAs were then presented to clients Papapavlou and the other advisers had never even met.

Typically, this process resulted in the client being told to roll their super over into Shield and First Guardian.

Often, the SOAs were presented by the third-party referrers, and Papapavlou was aware of this and allowed it to happen as he was receiving remuneration for each client that was rolled into the now collapsed schemes, ASIC said.

The banning in relation to credit activities is the result of Papapavlou completing an assignment for and falsifying a reference for another person, ASIC added.

It raised concerns over the proposal to remove the 'but for test' from the Compensation Scheme of the Last Resort (CSLR), calling it 'deeply unfair'.

Treasury proposed a series of reforms yesterday to curb dubious lead generator and superannuation switching activities and make platforms more accountable for the products they offer members.

It also opened consultation on the sustainability of the CSLR and the best way for the industry to fund it.

These reforms are in response to the Shield and First Guardian collapses, which saw more than 11,000 Australians invest over $1 billion into high-risk and inappropriate products.

Super Consumers Australia chief executive Xavier O'Halloran said reforms need to focus on preventing harm before it occurs.

"Dodgy lead generation sales practices allowed the harm to spread at an industrial scale. Disrupting this business model should be the highest priority. The most effective way to do that is to target their revenue by banning switching fees being paid from super," O'Halloran said.

"This needs to be coupled with stronger trustee obligations, and requirements for trustees to fund compensation to victims when they fail to protect their members from harm."

O'Halloran added consumers expect trustees to act as gatekeepers and creating incentives for them to do their job will support a safer system.

In the CSLR reforms, Treasury proposes revising the treatment of counterfactual loss for CSLR-eligible financial advice complaints.

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) generally determines loss in financial advice complaints using a counterfactual ('but for') approach, comparing the consumer's actual position following the breach with the position they would reasonably have been in had the misconduct not occurred.

"The use of a counterfactual methodology can materially affect the amount ultimately payable by the CSLR," Treasury said.

"Depending on the nature of the investment, the relevant time horizon and the way the counterfactual is constructed, compensation may exceed capital loss alone, including where losses are assessed across individual products rather than by reference to the consumer's overall portfolio position."

Treasury poses a key policy question of if the 'but for' approach needs to be changed and if so, how to balance fair compensation for consumers with the longer-term sustainability and affordability of the scheme.

"The proposal to remove the 'but for test' is deeply unfair and undermines a basic tenet that people should be compensated for losses that flow from misconduct," O'Halloran said.

"The right way to address sustainability is to stop harm from occurring in the first place and make it easier to ensure those responsible pay. Cutting off compensation to victims who have seen their retirement savings destroyed is a counterproductive policy outcome."

While welcoming the proposals, Super Consumers Australia cautioned that not all measures will deliver the same level of protection.

"We'll engage constructively through the consultation, but it's important to be clear some of these proposals will make a real difference, and some risk taking us backwards," O'Halloran said.

"This is a critical opportunity to reset the system. Getting this right means shutting down predatory practices for good and rebuilding trust in super for millions of Australians."

Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) chief executive Sarah Abood welcomed the consultation papers and said the FAAA will carefully review the proposals in coming weeks and will engage with members on their responses.

"In the current system, a declining number of financial advisers are paying the largest share of the CSLR levy despite having nothing to do with the misconduct that gave rise to the need for consumer compensation," Abood said.

"Bi-partisan support for proportionate, effective reforms that help victims, prevent misconduct, and hold those responsible accountable, is crucial for investor confidence and market efficiency."

The Super Members Council (SMC) also welcomed the government's move to reset the compensation scheme by better reflecting where the biggest losses and risks are in the system.

"We strongly oppose pushing the bill for the compensation scheme's blow outs onto ordinary Australians who have chosen the safeguards of the highly regulated super system, but the proposed changes will make the scheme more sustainable," SMC acting chief executive Georgia Brumby said.

SMC added the government must ensure self-managed super funds (SMSFs) can only claim from CSLR if they help support it and make it fairer and more sustainable. Currently, SMC said SMSFs account for about 80% of existing claims on the CSLR scheme relating to advice in that sector.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) said the recommendations will go a long way in reducing CSLR claims in the first place.

"Unregulated lead generators, aggressive sales tactics, and conflicted financial advice have caused real consumer harm. Better licensing, more time for funds to check the safety of transactions, and stronger advertising frameworks will be much-needed guardrails," ASFA chief executive Mary Delahunty said.

"The vast majority of Australians have their super savings in a safe, tightly regulated system. But today's announcements address activity on the edges of this safety zone."

ASFA also welcomed the government's step to review CSLR's funding arrangements.

"ASFA welcomes this as a step towards a fairer outcome for the millions of super fund members who contribute to the scheme but cannot claim from it," it said.

Delahunty said the detail will matter, and ASFA looks forward to consulting with government on behalf of the superannuation sector over the coming months.

SMC said the government's proposal lacked detailed review on conflicted remuneration and refreshing official guidance to ensure there are no loopholes in this key protection.

"This is missing from the government's proposals and there is further work to be done," SMC said.

"The proposals are important steps towards protecting Australians from catastrophic financial collapses that destroy their retirement savings - but there is an opportunity to go further," Brumby said.

"If people are considering switching from a tightly regulated super fund into a potentially higher risk product, they deserve clear, like-for-like information that genuinely helps them understand the difference this will make to their retirement - so they're not left comparing apples with oranges."

UBS has provided the senior financing to the facility.

IDA is backed by Macquarie Asset Management via its Macquarie Real Estate Partners (MREP) fund.

IDA partner and chief financial officer Jeremy Urbach said the new facility will enhance IDA's flexibility to continue originating and underwriting quality senior credit facilities.

He added it will strengthen the financial infrastructure of the business and enhance the underlying quality and architecture of products for private wholesale investment clients by enabling optimised portfolio construction and diversification.

"Securing support from another global financial institution demonstrates the strength and quality of IDA's platform and our origination, execution and management processes," Urbach said.

IDA recently appointed Jeremy Townend as its national head of property finance, Anthony Greig as head of funds management and Shane Boyce as the Queensland state director of property finance.

It said the appointments reflect the increased depth, breath and flexibility of its financing capabilities with substantial investment in its private credit origination and management teams over the past 18 months.

When investing in IDA in late 2024, Macquarie Asset Management head of real estate Asia Pacific James Kemp said IDA is well positioned to grow its platform and capitalise on the increasing demand for flexible development financing solutions while offering compelling investment opportunities for its clients.

"IDA's long standing track record demonstrates the management team's ability to price and manage risk through cycles," Kemp said.

IDA has around 16 years of experience as a capital partner in real estate projects with aggregate end values exceeding $6 billion.

Michael Peters has been appointed to the newly created role and will accelerate its consolidation effort across the financial advice sector, while driving earnings growth through all initiatives, the group said.

He will also take leadership of WTL's existing finance function, with a mandate to strengthen capability, enhance discipline and support the next phase of growth, WTL said.

Peters' expertise revolves around mergers and acquisitions, capital management and scaling advice-led businesses, accumulated during his time as head of M&A and lending at ANZ and head of finance, corporate and structured finance at the Commonwealth Bank.

More recently, he was chief financial officer at ParagonCare for over five years.

The appointment also follows WTL company secretary Ian Morgan announcing his intent to retire, a role Peters is expected to also assume in the near future to oversee its financial governance and ASX reporting duties.

Commenting, WTL managing director Keith Cullen said Peters' appointment fulfilled all criteria required for the role.

"This is a high-impact appointment for WTL," Cullen said.

"We've been very deliberate in finding someone who can help us execute, not just report. Michael has operated at the centre of M&A and funding within advice for decades. He understands what makes M&A opportunities successful, how they're funded, and how to make them work post-completion."

Cullen also commended the extensive relationships Peters has established within the industry.

"That's critical to what we're building," he said.

"As we scale Investco and continue to help drive consolidation in the advice profession, execution discipline becomes everything, and Michael materially strengthens that capability."

Peters will receive fixed remuneration of $350,000 per annum (inclusive of superannuation), alongside some adjusted short-term and long-term incentive arrangements.

Moving forward, WTL continues to see a significant pipeline of consolidation opportunities across the advice sector, and the addition of Peters will help capitalise on the pipeline while delivering long-term value for shareholders, Cullen said.

"Charter Hall is pleased to be appointed to manage this $1.2 billion diversified direct property mandate," Charter Hall chief executive David Harrison said.

"The mandate continues the momentum in funds under management growth and equity flows announced during FY26 and demonstrates Charter Hall's cross-sector expertise and scale across Australia's core real estate sectors."

While the details of the portfolio are confidential, Charter Hall has several large institutional clients, including super funds.

In December 2024, Hostplus and Charter Hall teamed up to launch a takeover offer for Hotel Property Investments (HPI), and after a hostile bidding process Charter Hall and Hostplus took over HPI in early 2025 for around $760 million.

In June last year Charter Hall received a $2.1 billion mandate from Challenger Life to manage its direct Australian property assets.

The group also has some major security holders including HSBC, J P Morgan, Citi, BNP Paribas, First Sentier, Commonwealth Bank and State Street, according to its annual report to 29 July 2025.

Charter Hall currently has around $92.2 billion in funds under management, 1609 properties across four sectors and $17.9 billion in the development pipeline.

According to a Fund Manager Survey by industry associations ANREV, INREV, and NCREIF last year, Charter Hall was Australia's largest real estate fund manager, followed by Dexus and Lendlease.

Jamie Melville has joined as managing director and head of Merchant Australia, while Eli Glotzer was appointed managing director.

Merchant said the appointments reflect its focus on supporting the ongoing regulatory reform, succession pressures and operating complexity across the advice industry.

Melville brings more than 30 years' experience across wealth management, financial advice, and banking. He spent over 20 years at Macquarie Group, most recently leading the virtual adviser network within wealth solutions.

"The advice industry is at an important point in its development, with firms focused on sustainability, succession and long-term alignment," Melville said.

"Merchant's role is to support firms that want to grow with intention and keep what they've built."

Meanwhile, Glotzer brings more than 20 years' experience across business banking, structured lending and professional services, which includes senior roles at Macquarie Bank overseeing national portfolios between different industries.

In his new role, he will focus on structured capital solutions, partner firm lending, and deepening relationships across the Merchant Australia ecosystem, Merchant said.

MIM managing partner Matt Brinker said the appointments strengthen the firm's position in Australia.

"Australia is a critical market for Merchant. Jamie and Eli bring the depth of experience and alignment that firms need as the sector enters its next phase," Brinker said.

"The most successful advice firms over the decade ahead will be those that grow with discipline and true partnership. Our model is built for that, founder-aligned, not control-driven."

The business has been operating in Australia since 2022, taking a minority investment in a Brisbane-based advice group earlier this year, and partnering with ASX-listed financial advice network WT Financial Group to continue developing the Investco strategy.

Cbus said Hagan brings decades of executive leadership experience across healthcare, energy and financial services, with a keen focus on technology development and business transformation.

Cbus chief executive Kristian Fok said the appointment is a pivotal one as the fund looks to modernise its systems and processes.

"We're living in a period of really rapid technological advancement, and it's critically important for Cbus to adapt," he said.

"Amanda is the right person to lead and execute our technology strategy as we position the fund for long-term sustainable growth."

In the role, Hagan will lead the business unit responsible for technology, digital services and cyber security, as well as supporting strategic execution, innovation and member-focused experiences.

Prior to joining Cbus, Hagan was executive director of retail markets at Alinta Energy where she led a major re-platforming of the retail business. Before that she spent 15 years with Australian Unity as chief executive, healthcare and group executive of customer, digital and technology.

Hagan also has previously spent more than a decade spent with Perpetual Limited and the ASX.

Hagan said she is embracing the challenge ahead of her.

"It's never been more important for super funds to be digitally secure, but at the same time open and accessible for members," she said.

"I'm honoured to have the opportunity to work hard for more than 925,000 Australians who've put their trust in Cbus to help them build for the future."

Former Cbus chief information and technology officer Mirella Robinson left the super fund in February 2024 to take on the chief technology officer role at MLC Life Insurance.

The bill passed the Parliament last month, and was followed by a consultation to seek feedback on the taxation regulation for Division 296.

Contributing to the consultation, the Institute of Financial Professionals Australia (IFPA) said it is concerned about the treatment of deceased estates, the lack of clarity around actuarial certification, and the attribution formula for small super funds where reserves exist.

IFPA said the proposed deceased estate rules are "impractical" and may delay estate administration, causing a deceased member's final Division 296 position to remain unfinalised longer after death, subsequently encouraging executors to keep estates open for longer and delay final distributions to beneficiaries due to the delayed assessment.

Hence, it is recommending replacing the current "single final assessment" approach with an annual assessment model for post-death periods to allow the Div 296 liability to be assessed progressively.

Meanwhile, the regulations failed to clearly state whether the actuary is expected to certify a final dollar amount, a percentage, or an attribution methodology, IFPA said, advising Treasury should clarify that the actuary may certify an apportionment percentage or methodology once the fund's Division 296 fund earnings are known for more consistent actuarial processes.

In addition, IFPA warns the small fund attribution formula may produce distorted outcomes where reserves exist, because reserves do not have a total super balance (TSB) value but may still contribute to fund earnings.

"For example, where a fund has one member and a reserve, the reserve may contribute to fund earnings but not to the denominator, because it is not itself a superannuation interest with a TSB value," the submission explained.

"This could result in the member being attributed earnings economically associated with the reserve, even though the member may have no entitlement to it.

"That is an unfair outcome."

IFPA senior technical services specialist Stuart Sheary said the current form of the regulation raises several practical and fairness concerns.

"Treasury should revisit these rules, so the tax outcome is more timely, workable and aligned with the person who ultimately receives the benefit," Sheary said.

"Our submission outlines sensible amendments that would improve fairness, reduce compliance friction and make the regime more workable in practice.

"In our view, the proposed rules dealing with deceased members, actuarial certification and small fund attribution risk creating unnecessary complexity, higher compliance costs and inequitable outcomes."

Meantime, the SMSF Association also worries the current design may pose risks that can create "unworkable" outcomes for self-managed super fund (SMSF) members.

SMSF Association chief executive Peter Burgess has met with Treasury to push changes on the regulation on separate topics.

Burgess said the treatment of post-death earnings represents a material expansion of the regime that has not been subject to appropriate scrutiny.

"By extending tax liabilities beyond death you create a scenario where liabilities can arise years later, after an estate has been finalised, leaving executors and beneficiaries exposed without access to the underlying superannuation assets," Burgess said.

He also warned that the proposed attribution rules risk producing arbitrary and unfair outcomes for SMSF members.

"Members could be taxed on earnings they have never received - and may never receive," Burgess said.

"That includes situations where earnings are attributed from reserves or from periods where an individual was no longer even a member of the fund.

"These are not marginal cases - they are real, foreseeable scenarios that undermine the integrity of the regime as a personal tax."

Overall, Burgess said the discussion with Treasury was constructive, with a shared focus on ensuring the rules are workable in practice. It said it will continue to work and push for workable solutions.

That was the message from Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei at the World Economic Forum in Davos, as the race for global dominance in artificial intelligence (AI) gains historic pace.

Anthropic is building the large language model Claude, designed to automate complex cognitive tasks and business workflows. It competes directly with OpenAI and Google to develop increasingly capable models, pushing the limits of reasoning, automation and machine cognition.

Yet building a powerful model is only one part of the equation. At Davos, Amodei spoke about a central dilemma: how much computing capacity must Anthropic lock in today to meet demand in 2027 - long before revenue visibility, customer adoption and pricing power are certain.

The fact that data centres - the backbone of AI computing - take one to two years to build, only makes Amodei's decision more consequential.

It is a narrow path. Buy too little compute and Anthropic may be unable to meet customer demand in 2027, effectively conceding ground in the race to its competitors.

Buy too much and it risks committing billions to capacity that revenue cannot support. In an extreme scenario, if demand for the models doesn't scale to expectation, Amodei spoke of the risk of going bankrupt.

Describing it as the "cone of uncertainty", he called the race to the top one filled with uncertainty.

"There is an inherent risk of overextension," he said.

The models built by OpenAI and Anthropic sit atop a broader ecosystem of companies supplying the chips, data centres and cloud infrastructure that power them.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang describes the AI value chain as a five-layered cake. At its base is energy, the electricity required to power vast data centres. Above that sit chip designers and manufacturers, including Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), who design and produce the advanced processors that train and run AI models.

The next layer is infrastructure, dominated by hyperscale cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, which provide the computing capacity, storage and networking required to deploy AI at scale.

On top of that sit the foundational model developers like OpenAI and Anthropic, and finally the application layer, where those models are used to build products and services tailored to specific industries and end users.

Not a simple cake, this one. Nor is it cheap to make. But the tech giants are ready for the splurge. Based on prior guidance issued, capital expenditure (capex) by the large tech cohort on AI infrastructure is expected to rise to as much as US$650 billion in 2026.

Individual commitments are even more striking. Alphabet plans to spend roughly US$175 - US$185 billion as it expands compute capacity, while Amazon recently committed close to US$200 billion in expenditure tied to infrastructure and cloud expansion.

Nvidia says AI capex could grow to as much as US$4 trillion by the end of the decade.

Everyone wants a slice of this cake. Capital from pension funds and global asset managers to retail investors is flowing into every layer, lifting valuations across the stack.

The tech sector in the US now accounts for more than a third of the S&P500's market capitalisation, around US$21 trillion in dollar terms. Nvidia alone has a market capitalisation of over US$4 trillion.

The scale of spending and the surge in valuations have raised concerns about the formation of a tech bubble as investors worry expectations may be running ahead of reality.

This is also not the first time markets have priced a technological revolution at speed. During the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s, valuations plunged and many companies once hailed as the future of the internet disappeared.

Some, such as Amazon and Microsoft, endured and went on to dominate. Yet the majority failed to justify the capital poured into them.

The uncertainty Amodei described remains central to the AI trade: will demand from the AI buildout ultimately justify the scale of the investments underway?

As money continues to flood into the sector, the next question also becomes unavoidable: what companies will turn out victorious in the race?

Pullback on pullback

Markets have endured extreme volatility in the past year. US President Donald Trump's trade policies, geopolitical tensions and shifting interest rate expectations have all unsettled sentiment, while the tech sector faces its own pressures.

The first pullback in the sector came in November last year as investors questioned the scale of capital being committed to AI data centres.

Munro Partners portfolio manager Kieran Moore says it was sentiment-driven, with investors worried that limited near-term revenue would not be sufficient to fund the surge in compute capacity being built over the next few years.

The second pullback came more recently in early February this year, when on average US software companies lost about 20% of their market value as of mid-month.

"It seems to me that every few weeks, a new AI tool is announced that threatens to revolutionise an industry," UniSuper chief investment officer John Pearce said in a recent investment update.

This time around, the sell-off followed concerns that Anthropic's latest model could encroach on traditional software businesses, with investors reassessing growth assumptions across the sector.

Pearce thinks the first big casualty of this tech revolution is the tech industry.

"There is an old adage that software is eating the world," he said.

"Now, it's AI's turn to eat software. That's of course before AI potentially eats itself. There is an irony here, isn't there?"

Opportunity and threats

Moore says the Melbourne-based investment manager doesn't think the trade is a bubble but a bull market opportunity that will endure for the next five to 10 years.

"We expect small DeepSeek-type moments and corrections along the way, but fundamentally we can see a path to some pretty meaningful upside for many of the beneficiary stocks over the next multi-year period," he adds.

China's DeepSeek rattled markets last year by being able to train its model at a fraction of the cost to its peers, casting doubts on the need for the infrastructure spend.

BlackRock Investment Institute chief investment strategist for APAC Ben Powell also sees the ongoing buildout as one of the defining forces shaping markets in 2026.

"This shift marks a move from a capital-light tech regime to a capital-intensive investment-led regime, creating opportunities for active investors to identify winners in the supply chain rather than relying solely on headline tech names," Powell says.

While the Magnificent 7 stocks will continue to play an important role, Powell notes there will be growing opportunities in the infrastructure behind AI including semiconductors, power systems and critical enablers.

Moore sees the power sector as an interesting bottleneck to find opportunities. He gives the example of Munro Partners' investment in Constellation Energy, which is a nuclear operator in the US with a long-term commitment to supply nuclear power to companies like Microsoft and Meta.

BlackRock is focused on 'picks and shovels' of AI where the spending is mostly front-loaded, demand is surging, constraints are likely to bite and barriers to entry are high. This includes players in chipmakers, grid operators, critical minerals and data centres.

ECP Asset Management principal, investments Annabelle Miller says the fund manager is being selective with its stocks, sticking to those it sees as long-term beneficiaries of deploying AI across product suites.

For example, ECP is increasing exposure to TSMC, calling it the "highest quality AI infrastructure beneficiary".

"TSMC is a pick due to its deepening moat and its monopoly on the advanced node technology required for all modern AI chips," Miller says.

"The company is very cautious about overbuilding capacity, and this supply tightness is driving prices up, allowing TSMC to command much higher margins from its customers, including Nvidia and AMD, as they guide toward a 50% compound annual growth rate for their AI semiconductors."

However, GQG Partners client portfolio manager David Jenkins says even though some existing businesses may be long-term AI winners, the fund manager views many of these businesses showing signs of deterioration.

"For us instead of picking a winner from a group of companies with declining earnings visibility, we believe the best way to compound capital is to focus on businesses where we feel earnings growth is more probable," Jenkins says.

Alvia Asset Partners is also treading carefully, as it sees a lot of capital chasing ideas bandied together under the AI thematic.

"We are overly cautious especially in the newer ventures into AI," Alvia portfolio manager Chris Scarpato says, adding that while Alvia embraces tech, valuations of some of the Magnificent 7 stocks are too "punchy" for them at the moment.

Alvia is backing established businesses adopting AI in their existing operations, where they have the free cash flow to make existing softwares effective for current users. Scarpato sees Booking Holdings and Constellation Software as some firms doing that.

Miller also sees ASX-listed Block as a firm unlocking AI efficiencies by automating workflows across engineering, customer service and operations. Block recently reduced its workforce by 40%, swapping human employees for AI.

However, even with the punchy valuations, State Street Investment Management senior strategist Clive Maguchu says the fundamentals of the Magnificent 7 are mostly very solid.

"They have generated a huge amount of free cash flows. They're very profitable businesses. They are well run. They don't have a huge amount of debt on their balance sheets yet," Maguchu says.

While he notes the free cash flow of Magnificent 7 stocks would just about cover the capex in 2026, he adds some firms will increasingly lean on external debt financing to supplement internal cash to continue the investment.

Miller agrees, highlighting Alphabet's recent issuance of a 100-year bond denominated in British pounds to fund its expenditures.

"But we do see strong investor support and demand for that kind of financing, because there is pretty good consensus around the value add that people are expecting from AI in the long term," he says.

Moore says when it comes to AI, the 'value add' needs to be thought of in more than just a "user times price equation".

"You've got to think about things like efficiency gains and productivity gains, time savings and customer satisfaction improvements," Moore says, noting globally every boardroom is talking about how they can deploy AI in their businesses to remain competitive.

He gives the example of Axon to showcase the productivity gains taking place in real time. Axon makes tasers and body cams for police officers to wear. Moore highlights how AI has started effectively taking the data during a police officer's shift and creating an automated report at the end of it.

"It's not a revenue generation opportunity for the police department, but it's an improvement in the ability to resource and allocate those resources," he says.

Jenkins, however, raises concerns over the revenue generation potential through the value chain in the trade.

Startups are the starting point.

"The AI startups have to be making money in order for the growth in cloud... that has to be real money for the growth to be real in order for the cloud providers to keep investing in the infrastructure," he says.

OpenAI and Anthropic are both unprofitable at the moment as they spend more than they earn to fund future growth.

Jenkins adds these startups lean on advertising for monetisation, which often draws from the same market share of incumbents that are investing in them.

"There's only so much advertising dollar to go around," he says.

And for the cloud side of the value chain, he says the quality and earnings growth of most businesses appears to be getting worse.

A new wave of neo-cloud providers optimised specifically to handle AI workload have entered markets, competing with hyperscalers that provide general-purpose cloud services along with catering to the AI market.

"Very simply, there's more competitors and the margins are declining; this isn't the same set up that cloud has seen in the past," Jenkins says.

Miller adds that lower input costs associated with running AI services will be important in driving return on investment. This includes expanding the supply of memory and power to drive down operating costs while improving the efficiency of custom silicon used in hyperscaler data centres, she says.

Scarpato also raises concerns on the circularity of the money being spent across the value chain forming a closed loop between investor, supplier and customer all at once.

"Nvidia might invest $100 million in a data center business, but then that data center company needs to buy Nvidia's chips, so it's just to basically prop up Nvidia's revenue," he says.

Jenkins mentions how companies will crack deals where neither the first company would have the actual compute capacity and the company buying it wouldn't have the money to pay for it.

"We've observed instances where without any money changing hands or potentially even the capacity to provide the services promised, revenue projections increase, and then their valuations go up. That then flows through the entire ecosystem," he adds.

Powell, however, says talk of a bubble is not a practical lens for investing as they tend to grow for some time and only become clear after bursting.

"Framing the debate that way also focuses only on the unprecedented level of spending, while ignoring the possibility that AI could be unprecedented in terms of the revenue it ultimately generates," he says.

While he notes that the buildout creates challenges around cash flows and returns in near term, he adds that investment plans are never on autopilot.

"They can adjust as constraints - especially around power and infrastructure - and revenue visibility evolve," he adds.

Pearce notes the current broadening outside the tech sector as healthy.

"You have to bear in mind one company's spending is another company's revenue, so everyone benefits," he says.

"That is indeed why we are seeing a broadening of the market rally outside tech. This is a very healthy development and once again demonstrates the benefits of diversification."

However, Scarpato notes that it won't take much for sentiments to turn sour considering how myopic and short-term the market has become.

"It won't take much and it's amazing how that capital can flow really quickly," he says.

He says Alvia will look out for any external shocks in macro environment which might impact flow of capital. Any pullback on spending by the big players could be another trigger.

Jenkins says it is closer than not for earnings to start to matter, and this can be seen in the sell-off over the last month. He adds the rate of spending should decelerate with businesses already exhausting free cash flow.

"The ramp up in capex has been incredibly fast, a lot faster than it was in the dot-com bubble.... there's no real dry powder left for [capex] growth to continue increasing," he says.

The higher risk portion of the market will be hit the hardest, Scarpato predicts, while the "big guys" will consolidate.

Race to glory

In its 2026 macroeconomic outlook, AustralianSuper said innovation waves almost always sponsor extraordinary gains in stocks - some of which prove durable and some don't.

"Innovations almost always bring benefits, but we don't know precisely when the benefits will come or how large the benefits will be," AustralianSuper said.

"We do know one thing, however: betting against innovation as an economic and market phenomenon is rarely, if ever, profitable over the long term."

Amodei agrees. With the inherent risk of overextension, he says it is important to separate the economic side from the technology itself.

"I am one of the most bullish people around [when it comes to AI]," he said.

And like Amodei trying to tip the economic odds in his favour, investors can only work to do the same.

The WAM Leaders investment portfolio decreased during the month, while Magellan saw assets under management drop from $39.9 billion to $37.5 billion.

"The broader market sell-off was driven by escalating Middle East tensions and the resulting oil shock," WAM said.

"This shifted the domestic inflation and interest rate outlook, with the Reserve Bank of Australia minutes signaling further tightening."

Magellan's drop in AUM was a result of net outflows and market movements from the Iran conflict.

Investors may be hopeful market volatility will calm down going forward after US President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire has been agreed. In return Iran said safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz "will be possible".

Trump said the Iranian government sent through a 10-point proposal which the US has deemed "workable".

"We received a 10-point proposal from Iran, and we believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period will allow the Agreement to be finalised and consummated," Trump said in a Truth Social post.

"On behalf of the United States of America, as President, and also representing the countries of the Middle East, it is an honour to have this long-term problem close to resolution."

The news of the two-week ceasefire comes just 12 hours after Trump declared "a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again", as his rhetoric on Iran escalated after issuing yet another ultimatum.

The regulator has applied to the Federal Court to have Sarah Seeckts and Gayle Dickinson of KPMG appointed to investigate the proposed sale of Interprac Financial Planning.

The sale was announced on March 23, with Sequoia Financial Group offloading the licensee for just $50,000 to Sydney-based private equity outfit Conquest Investment Partners. Under the deal, Conquest would take on Interprac's $6 million investment portfolio and $1.5 million in cash reserves.

ASIC said it is concerned the sale could adversely affect Interprac's creditors, including its liabilities in relation to complaints sitting with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) regarding the collapse of the Shield and First Guardian Master Funds.

There are currently more than 900 open complaints with AFCA in relation to advice provided by Interprac representatives, and the complaints body has published two lead determinations that would influence their outcomes. About $677 million is owed to investors who were advised by Interprac representatives to invest in the failed funds.

ASIC said a receiver must be appointed to investigate and report on whether the deal made between Sequoia and Conquest is "bona fide, fair and reasonable", and report on Interprac's financial position and solvency.

In 2022, Sequoia Financial, Sequoia Wealth and Interprac entered a Deed of Cross Guarantee under which each of the entities guarantees the debts of the other. If the receivers deem the sale to be legitimate, then all other signatories to the deed are released from their obligations.

When Sequoia announced the sale of Interprac, it said if the sale were to go through, the new owner "may elect to withdraw or accelerate the AFCA determinations and seek to mediate with ASIC regarding its separate actions as Sequoia had planned to do."

Further to ASIC's action, Sequoia has been forced to reply to a compliance letter from the ASX questioning how industry publication Professional Planner was able to publicise the proposed sale before it was announced via the ASX. The article was published around 5pm on Friday, March 20 while Sequoia's announcement to the market didn't come until around 9.30am the following Monday.

Sequoia managing director Garry Crole stated that he provided the information to the publication with assurances that no article would be published until the transaction had been announced to the market. Sequoia was in a trading halt at the time. However, Crole has since conceded he confused Professional Planner with another publication and that no such discussion occurred with a journalist from the title, with Sequoia Financial Group issuing a formal apology to Professional Planner and its editorial team; the article published by Professional Planner was based on documentation leaked to the outlet.

Further in its response to the ASX, Sequoia said the breach of listing rule 15.7 - which mandates that a listed entity must not disclose confidential information intended for the market to any party prior to providing it to the ASX - was "regrettable" and "unintentional" but said that at no point between the article's publication and Sequoia's announcement was the market trading uninformed.

Sequoia is once again in a trading halt, having requested it pending the release of an announcement.

Editor's note: This article was updated on 10 April 2026 to reflect Sequoia Financial Group's amended statements regarding Professional Planner.

The agreement arrived a day after an ultimatum, issued by US President Donald Trump, threatening to wipe out Iran's critical infrastructure should it fail to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by the deadline.

Commenting, Ten Cap chief investment officer Jason Todd said the ceasefire builds on the "significant positive developments" in other aspects of the conflict such as back-channel diplomacy, elective and regional powers intervening in a positive way.

"Today's extension of the prior ceasefire which now involves further conditionality around opening the Strait is just another continuation of these developments and the gradual creep higher in the equity market (outside of today's rally) is indicative of this," Todd said.

"We think incremental developments around the Iran conflict will continue to be treated as positive for the market but the ASX200 which fell 9% peak to trough has already recovered 7% of this decline and given there are still risks associated with the flow of oil, we have probably seen a lot of the rebound simply as a result of a decline in the risk premium and uncertainty."

He believes there will be a wave of earnings downgrades in the coming weeks but shouldn't vary too much away from the average stock that is down about 15%.

However, Betashares chief economist David Bassanese said, despite Trump's ultimatum on Iran, the market reaction was more "muted" than previously seen, adding the pattern is becoming familiar with the "boy who cried wolf", exacerbated by the TACO principle - the concept that "Trump Always Chickens Out".

"Yet while it may be tempting for investors to look through Trump's threats - the ultimate endgame remains very uncertain," Bassanese said.

"Trump is likely still looking for a face-saving exit, but Iran does not want to oblige so easily. One thing is certain: events in Iran will remain centre-stage for investors for at least the next two weeks and uncertainty will continue to buffet markets.

"At this stage, moreover, Iran appears to remain intransient to threats. And given Trump's repeated backdowns, these threats are starting to ring hollow. Indeed, it's notable that market reaction to Trump's latest ultimatum was more muted than seen previously."

Meanwhile, deVere Group chief executive Nigel Green said a relief rally of this magnitude reflects how stretched sentiment had become.

"Investors were bracing for escalation that could have choked off a fifth of global oil supply. Remove even part of that threat and capital flows back into equities at speed," he said.

"Consumer discretionary will also benefit. Lower oil feeds through to gasoline prices, which supports spending.

"Airlines, travel, and retail are also going to be immediate winners from cheaper fuel and improved sentiment."

KC took over the role for an interim term in July last year following the departure of VFMC's head of portfolio strategy and asset allocation Leanne Taylor. He has been working as a senior portfolio manager at VFMC since April 2024.

"Very grateful to all the support and guidance from within VFMC and beyond. I look forward to continuing to contribute positively to VFMC's investment performance," Low said in a LinkedIn post.

Prior to joining VFMC, KC had a 12-year career at Frontier Advisors, where he most recently held the position of principal consultant in the capital markets and asset allocation team.

His responsibilities at Frontier included providing analytical support to clients, asset allocation advice, and investment research.

Prior to Frontier Advisors, he was with Fairfax Media conducting research and valuation of asset classes and high-net-worth individuals.

VFMC recently also appointed Maree Squillacioti as the head of people, acting in the role for close to 12 months before taking over it permanently.

It also named Jeff Phillips as its chief finance and risk officer, who served in the chief financial officer role at Bennelong Funds Management for close to 14 years.

ASIC said Lofthouse gave six clients inappropriate advice which was not in their best interests.

The ban took effect from March 30.

"The Shield Master Fund was a new financial product, with no meaningful track record, was not intended to be a complete investment program and had conflicts of interest tainting its governance," ASIC said.

Lofthouse was authorised by MWL from 10 August 2022 to 25 November 2022.

After leaving MWL, Lofthouse was licensed by Industry Fund Services up until the ban was put in place. He's also previously been licensed through Arthur J. Gallagher, and My Dedicated Advisory with almost year-long breaks between authorisations.

ASIC has banned several former MWL financial advisers for inappropriate advice provided by them in relation to Shield. This includes Isaac McQueen for four years, Matthew Bradley for eight years, Wade Spooner for eight years, Jovan Videkanic for seven years, Louis Van Coppenhagen for seven years and Neil McPherson for four years.

In August 2025, ASIC cancelled MWL's Australian Financial Services licence, banning one of the firm's directors and its responsible manager.

ASIC has also sought to commence proceedings against MWL former director Nicholas Maikousis and Imperial Capital Group over alleged Shield advice failures.

ASIC said Lofthouse has the right to appeal the decision to the Administrative Review Tribunal.

Shortly after the passage of the Digital Assets Framework Bill, which requires crypto exchanges to obtain AFSLs, Coinbase Australia has received its AFSL. It's also become the first to be granted a retail derivatives authorisation, which permits the business to issue over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives products - including crypto derivatives - to retail clients.

Moving forward, Coinbase will launch crypto and equity perpetuals in the local market, followed by futures and options, with plans to expand into stock trading, payments, and other traditional financial products on its platform.

Coinbase managing director, APAC John O'Loghlen said the AFSL allows the exchange to offer competitive products to everyday Australians.

"With this licence, we can bring the first products of the everything exchange to Australian customers, crypto and equity perpetuals. And we have plans to soon be competing with traditional financial services on products like stock trading, foreign exchange, and structured products, all with the speed and transparency that crypto-native infrastructure enables," O'Loghlen said.

"Today's announcement reflects years of investment in Australia and our commitment to operating at the highest standards of consumer protection and regulatory compliance."

He added Coinbase is well-prepared for the regulatory change, welcoming former ASIC supervisor Adam Judd as chief operating officer in December 2025. Judd will also be the responsible manager for the AFSL moving forward.

"We have long believed that thoughtful regulation is good for customers, good for the industry, and good for Australia's ambition to be a leading digital economy in the Asia-Pacific region," O'Loghlen said.

"We look forward to continuing to work alongside ASIC and Treasury to help shape a regulatory environment that protects consumers, fosters innovation, and positions Australia for leadership in the global digital economy."

CEFC's commitment to the fund comes alongside $500 million in seed investment from Australian Ethical for its new Growth Opportunities Fund, a scaled, diversified portfolio of renewable energy, infrastructure, natural capital and climate tech assets.

The fund aims to deliver 11-13% in returns per annum after fees and expenses over a seven-year period whilst providing quarterly liquidity, the ethical investment manager said.

It is an open-ended fund that blends investments alongside like-minded institutional capital, delivering purposeful, long-term exposure to unlisted real assets.

The fund also has an impact advisory forum that is separate to the fund's investment team, who review and monitor the impact reporting across the portfolio.

Australian Ethical head of private markets Adam Roberts explained the characteristics of the fund.

"The Growth Opportunities Fund gives wholesale investors access to a wide range of impactful private investments providing immediate diversity without having to commit and tie-up large amounts of capital in a single private equity or venture capital investment," he said.

"Drawing on two decades of impact investing experience, we apply institutional rigour and active industry engagement to identify solutions to global challenges. We invest where we see enduring tailwinds and the potential for attractive long-term, risk adjusted returns."

Meanwhile, CEFC executive director Heechung Sung said its commitment, which is being made by transferring existing investments it holds into the fund, highlights the evolution of Australia's sustainable finance market.

"This investment demonstrates how the CEFC can use its existing assets to help catalyse new market offerings and support the next phase of growth for sustainable finance," Sung said.

"By backing a new institutional vehicle with CEFC investments, we are helping to establish a scalable platform for climate-focused assets, crowding in capital and expanding the reach of sustainable finance to a broader audience to accelerate Australia's decarbonisation."

Australian Ethical chief investment officer Ludovic Theau echoed Sung's sentiment, stating that the most significant opportunity to support Australia's net zero transition lies within the private sector.

"We're leveraging our expertise, capability and networks to partner with some of the best specialists and managers to democratise access to these opportunities for wholesale channels, and we're co-investing capital to take advantage of and support these opportunities together," Theau said.

"With the road to net-zero before us, this fund allows investors to capitalise on the long-term growth opportunity this presents and feel good about where their money is invested.

"We're pleased to receive the support of the Australian government through the partnership with the CEFC on this fund."

The Enhancing member protections in the superannuation system consultation covers four key issues: making switching superannuation safer, strengthening trustee governance, limiting or better protecting advice-fee deductions from super and requiring platforms to compensate members for some investment failures on their platforms.

Treasury proposes applying a waiting period to all inter-fund superannuation switches. Members will be required to confirm the switch request for a mandatory period. If confirmation of a rollover request is not received by the transferring fund after the yet-to-be-designated period, the request will lapse after a further three business days.

Treasury also wants to limit fee deductions for switching-related financial advice and introduce codification obligations for receiving super funds to review advice fee deductions.

"The collapses of Shield and First Guardian have highlighted conduct where switching advice was provided at scale, facilitated by the availability of superannuation balances as a funding source for advice fees," Treasury said, adding that advice fee deductions also create risks for members by creating a pool of funds which bad actors may seek to target.

For platform trustees, Treasury is planning potential changes that include imposing mandatory holding limits for certain investment options and tougher due diligence when onboarding a financial product to the platform.

The initial due diligence would be focused on ensuring all products on a platform investment menu are of a high quality and are subject to active trustee scrutiny and approval, Treasury said, noting this will set out clearer minimum requirements through a legal obligation.

Treasury also wants platform trustees to compensate members for eligible losses incurred on their platform. It defines losses as "financial losses arising from external fraud or theft that result in the collapse of an investment product and would exclude losses attributable to ordinary investment performance or market volatility."

"Limiting the platform trustee's compensation obligation to 'eligible losses' would help clarify that the obligation is not intended to eliminate ordinary investment risk for members. Instead, it would draw a clearer boundary between losses attributable to the actions of bad actors, and losses that arise from normal market volatility or product underperformance," Treasury said.

Lead generation under the spotlight

Treasury proposes several areas of reforms under the Curbing lead generation activity consultation: making lead generators more accountable for their conduct, strengthening the rules on unsolicited selling, addressing conflicted payment structures and disrupting harmful or misleading advertising.

Part of the changes include imposing ongoing regulatory supervision over lead generation conduct and remuneration flows.

Treasury would also target specific actions of lead generators that are problematic, being the advertising to attract consumers and cold calling.

At present, Treasury believes there is some uncertainty about whether lead generation activities constitute "dealing or financial product advice" and this is dependent on the facts and circumstances of the individual case.

Lead generation activities that occur at the early stages of consumer engagement, such as ones related to superannuation, may not be captured by these protections where the activity does not clearly amount to dealing in a financial product or financial product advice or does not otherwise fit within the definition of financial services.

The government, therefore, wants feedback on prescribing certain lead generation activities as a type of financial service, where those activities influence consumer decision making in relation to financial products or services.

Ultimately, this will require lead generators to hold an AFSL and comply with the additional regulatory obligations under the licensing regime.

Anit-hawking prohibitions in the Corporations Act aim to protect consumers from uninvited real-time contact.

Treasury is now considering a broad-based ban on non-consumer initiated real-time contact and to "tighten the conditions that must be met for a consumer to consent to contact, and to add additional protections to ensure the consumer is aware of what they are consenting to".

It also wants to limit the scope of the financial advice exemption so that hawking cannot be "cleansed through subsequent financial advice."

This could be done via removing the personal advice exemption, restricting the exemption so that it only applies for advisers where they are offering products to existing clients or products other than superannuation products.

Furthermore, changes to capture lead generators under conflicted remuneration ban is up for consideration. These are typically third-party lead generators and their representatives that are not licensees providing financial advice or product issuers/seller whose actions could reasonably influence advice that is ultimately given to a retail client.

"This option seeks to explicitly capture lead generators in the conflicted remuneration framework, alongside the other obligations of licensees," Treasury explained.

"However, potential ambiguities around the scope of benefits captured by the conflicted remuneration provisions may still be exploited to circumvent these protections, when lead generators provide intangible non-monetary benefits to advisers."

The curbing lead generation and enhancing member protections in the superannuation system consultations are carried out in lockstep with the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) consultation.

Feedback from stakeholders for all three consultations is due on May 22.

The collapses of the Shield and First Guardian Master Funds have exposed industry-wide issues and misconduct that until recently have been left unchecked. These have ultimately exposed members to higher-risk products and inadequate diversification, resulting in significant losses that peaked at about $1 billion.

Many of the victims were contacted by lead generators to switch their superannuation fund to Shield and First Guardian.

Minister for financial services Daniel Mulino has subsequently released the three consultations to give consumers greater protection and realised "the need for a comprehensive reform package which responds to the ecosystem of alleged misconduct surrounding these failures."

"The Albanese Government will consider the outcomes of these consultations and progress a series of targeted, proportionate reforms which appropriately balance consumer protection, the risk of future collapses and the right of individuals to exercise choice in the superannuation system," he said.

Minister for financial services Daniel Mulino is seeking options on how the CSLR can remain sustainable and effective, floating reforms that will potentially change its structure and how it is funded.

"The proposals are intended to improve the predictability and structure of funding arrangements, better align the scheme with its role as a mechanism of last resort, mitigate unnecessary cross-subsidisation and enhance recoveries," the newly published Reform options to support ongoing sustainability paper shows.

To address the incessant funding shortfall, Treasury is asking for stakeholder feedback on implementing "a rules-based special levy 'waterfall' framework to respond more predictably to large-scale, investment-related losses arising from personal financial advice misconduct where costs exceed the annual sub-sector levy caps."

This means that any funding shortfall would be allocated sequentially across up to three tiers, reflecting the relative connection of sub-sectors to the underlying losses.

The three tiers comprise the primary sub-sector or the first payer, a sub-sector whose annual levy cap has been exceeded and pays up to $20 million in special levies on top of the annual levy.

The connected sub-sector or second payer whose products and/or services are identified as being connected to the losses and pays up to $40 million per sub-sector in special levies.

The retail facing sub-sectors or final payers are the remaining sub-sectors that operate as a defined backstop if any shortfall remains and can pay up to $30 million per sub-sector in special levies.

The financial advice industry is expected to pay the $126.9 million CSLR levy for FY27. This amount does not account for First Guardian and Shield. The total amount for the wider industry, however, comes to $137.5 million.

The levy has jumped from an estimated $75.7 million, including $67.3 million attributable to the personal financial advice sub-sector, in FY26.

The scheme has been criticised for its constant depletion of funding. Last December, then shadow financial services minister Pat Conaghan slammed the CSLR, saying that a scheme designed to compensate victims must be sustainable.

"Right now, the CSLR is constantly running out of money, and almost a year after the government announced a post-implementation review, it still has no credible plan to stabilise the scheme. Once again Labor's solution is a bigger tax," he said at the time.

Mulino said the three-tier waterfall would provide a consistent and repeatable mechanism for allocating funding shortfalls.

"It would support the sustainability of CSLR funding and improve certainty for levy payers by providing clearer expectations about how future shortfalls would be managed, while continuing to support the timely payment of compensation," he said.

The proposed special levy caps, he added, are designed to provide clear limits on potential levy liability and support a sustainable and repeatable funding response that does not undermine sub-sector viability, while still ensuring the CSLR can raise sufficient funds in a timely manner to provide redress to consumers suffering from misconduct.

Other proposed reforms included enabling the CSLR to deduct payments from compensation and for SMSFs to potentially be included as a subset within the CSLR special levy framework as a connected sub-sector.

The other option is to exclude SMSFs from CSLR eligibility entirely but still be able to make a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

For the next steps, Mulino said: "I will convene a second CSLR and consumer protection roundtable in the coming weeks, to hear directly from stakeholders on the reform options."

The CSLR consultation is one pillar of a three-part consultation in response to the fallout from the Shield and First Guardian master fund collapses that impacted 11,000 super members and put more than $1 billion of their savings at stake.

Running in parallel are the enhancing member protections in the superannuation system consumers and lead generation consultations.

All three consultations conclude on May 22.

"We've always been clear that growth is an objective of ours. And if you look historically, we've delivered a growth rate not far off 20% year on year," Shahien said.

"Naturally as a business grows, it becomes more challenging to grow at those sorts of rates without M&A, but we're not shying away from having a huge internal, organic opportunity."

Shahien said while the firm is still actively chasing the right M&A opportunities, the focus has also shifted to adding advisers, with around 13 advisers already having joined this year, eight of which were external hires.

"From an adviser size point we'll go from 96 to 109 this year. So that's giving an indication in terms of our seriousness around the growth story. We don't see that just being an M&A piece. We do think we can continue to deliver double digit growth rates purely just from our organic growth, let alone what the M&A opportunity looks like," he said.

Shahien said Viridian's investment offering through Infinity will also continue to expand. It now has more than $6 billion in funds under management.

"We're seeing increasing demand from advisers for businesses to take greater responsibility for investment outcomes, particularly as the industry responds to recent disruption and a sharper focus on governance and accountability," Shahien said.

Shahien said as the advice sector faces scrutiny, now is the time for advisers to be proactive.

"The industry has had lots of different evolutions in terms of being bashed and being really successful, right? It's been quite a roller coaster. I think the public is becoming more attuned to the fact that there are concentrated issues as opposed to being industry-wide," he said.

"But we still have a responsibility to do something about that, and so our focus, or the best way to we see that happening, is actually enabling our advisers more effectively from a tech perspective, or simplifying processes to try to make the client experience not as complex as what it is today."

He said it's also important for the advice industry to shift mindset and move from being a reactive relationship to a proactive relationship.

"I think that's the biggest change that we can all make as an industry that will impact people's confidence in the execution delivery of advice," he said.

"So rather than seeing your clients once, twice or four times a year depending on an arrangement, actually turning that around and being really proactive on an engagement level, we think will shift confidence in our industry."

In his annual letter to shareholders, Dimon pitted the size of the US$1.8 trillion private credit market in the US against the US$1.5 trillion US high-yield bond market, and the bank syndicated leveraged loan market of US$1.7 trillion.

"Taking a wider view, the total market size of investment-grade bonds is US$13 trillion. And the total market value of all residential mortgage securities and loans is also US$13 trillion. In the great scheme of things, private credit probably does not present a systemic risk," he wrote.

Dimon pointed out it will be retail investors exposed to private credit that will likely be hit harder than institutional investors.

While they would have been told about the risks, retail investors will seek remedy in the courts "if anything ever goes wrong."

"Additionally, anything that gets sold to retail investors as opposed to institutional investors requires greater transparency, higher standards and fewer potential conflicts," he said.

However, Dimon argued the private credit sector tends not to have great transparency or rigorous valuation marks of their loans, thus increasing the chance investors will sell if they think the environment will get worse - even if actual realised losses barely change.

"Additionally, actual losses right now are already a little higher than they should be, relative to the environment," he said.

If interest rates or credit spreads ever go up, he said, the companies that borrowed will have to borrow at even higher rates, putting them under even greater stress.

"However this plays out, it should be expected that at some point insurance regulators will insist on more rigorous ratings or markdowns, which will likely lead to demands for more capital," Dimon said.

He warned asset management firms to abide by their fiduciary responsibility to make sure the loans are suitable for that specific fund.

"Those who do not do this properly are likely to get into trouble," he said.

Dimon added that it "has always been true that not everyone providing credit is necessarily good at it."

"There are many players who are late to this game, and it should be expected that some credit providers will do a far worse job than others. We have not had a credit recession in a long time, and it seems that some people assume it will never happen," he said.

In his annual letter to investors, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink doubled down on private markets opportunities, saying the fund manager aims to raise US$400 billion from infrastructure, private credit and alternatives by 2030.

SGH has begun rolling out the AQR Wholesale Managed Futures Fund to sophisticated investors.

The actively managed fund invests in futures contracts and derivatives across commodities, currencies, fixed income, equities and alternative markets. It seeks to produce attractive risk-adjusted returns while targeting a low long-term average correlation to traditional markets.

AQR managing director and head of Australia and New Zealand Simon Wills said: "AQR offers a wide range of investment strategies, spanning traditional global equity and liquid alternative strategies, and we will actively seek to expand our fund offerings in the coming period. In the meantime, our focus will be on communicating the benefits of managed futures, a diversifying strategy that may help bolster investor portfolios - especially in times of market volatility."

The fund returned 28% p.a. in the last year versus the Bloomberg AusBond Bank Bill Index's 3.8% p.a.

Over a 10-year period, it made 4.6% p.a. in net returns against the benchmark's 2.1% p.a.

The fund had more than $1 billion in assets under management at the end of February.

Some of the fund's investments include fixed income Eurodollar futures and the Norwegian 2 Yr Interest Rate Swap, as well as commodities futures in coffee, gas and gold.

SG Hiscock head of distribution Anthony Cochran commented the collaboration with AQR will allow SG Hiscock to broaden its offerings to its clients, and to complement the strategies it currently has available to provide a well-rounded offering to clients seeking diversified portfolio construction.

"AQR has a long track-record of applying empirical research to investing in order to better understand what drives markets, which can then be applied to client portfolios," Cochran said.

The $3.7 billion will be used to reduce BOQ's debt funding by about $3.4 billion and return $300 million to its shareholders.

BOQ said it will use the money to originate and service equipment finance facilities, while underlying direct credit risk exposure will be held by Challenger for facilities originated through the partnership.

"This off-balance sheet capital partnership will enable BOQ to scale its equipment finance business and support more customers. There will be no impact on existing customers from the partnership, and all new customer relationships will be managed by BOQ," the bank said.

In its 2026 half-year results, Challenger flagged it would scale its private credit origination capabilities, establishing a platform to help originate and service large scalable pools of whole loans for Challenger Life and institutional investors.

"Whole loans, encompassing mortgages, personal loans and asset finance, represent a substantial and growing asset class in Australia and globally," Challenger said.

"Investment-grade private credit is emerging as a compelling alternative to public fixed income, offering enhanced yields and access to high-quality cash flows outside traditional bond markets. Challenger Investment Management continues to expand its capabilities, partnering with high-quality counterparties to deliver tailored funding solutions."

Last December, Challenger helped finance ASX-listed Spark New Zealand's NZ$240 million of interest-free payment receivables, extending its presence in the country following the acquisition of a NZ$560 million residential mortgage portfolio from Bluestone in December 2024.

Challenger's bid to acquire ASX-listed non-bank lender Pepper Money fell through on March 25.

Pepper Money rejected the "best and final" takeover offer of $2.25 per share after Challenger slashed the offer price from $2.60.

On the new deal, Challenger Group chief investment officer Damian Graham said: "The transaction establishes a strategic partnership with BOQ and provides Challenger with access to a high-quality, seasoned and highly diversified loan portfolio that will deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns for Challenger and institutional investors."

"It also reflects Challenger's continued expansion in whole loan investing, as we partner with leading counterparties to provide tailored funding solutions and further position whole loan investments as a core pillar of our portfolio strategy."

The bank announced last August that it was exploring a whole-of-loan sale process for up to $3.8 billion of its equipment finance portfolio.

The business unit loans to SMEs and commercial customers operating in industries that include building and construction, transport and agriculture. It currently has $4 billion in loans under management.

BOQ managing director and chief executive Rod Finch commented: "This innovative partnership with Challenger is an evolution of our strategy to think differently about how we support our customers' growth ambitions and generate value for our shareholders. We are harnessing our recognised capability in originating and servicing customers, particularly in the SME sector, to generate capital-efficient growth. Our ability to return capital to shareholders demonstrates the strength of BOQ's balance sheet."

The super fund is introducing an administration cost of 0.015% per annum of super fund assets. This cost, it said, will be paid from the fund's assets and not deducted from member accounts.

"As part of our continuous review of our operations, Prime Super is reducing its administration fees and costs for members. In making these decisions, the trustee believes it is acting in the best financial interests of Prime Super members," it said.

The accumulation and pension account members will pay $1 per week from June 1, down from the current rate of $1.50 per week. Member accounts will also be charged 0.25% of their account balance per annum, a drop from the current rate of 0.33%.

Prime Super is also raising its estimated investment fees and costs from June 1.

The MySuper/Balanced, Managed Growth, Alternatives, Conservative and Income Focused options will see a rise of two percentage points. Australian Shares, International Shares, Property and Cash will see a rise of one percentage point.

A Balanced account member with $50,000 balance in accumulation and pension phases will be charged $399.50 when the changes come in place. Currently, an accumulation member pays $448 and pension member pays $437.60.

All investment options will see a drop in fees relative to current rates.

Separately, Prime Super recently announced the closing of its Fixed Interest option for members from May 1. The Income Focused option will close for accumulation members from May 16.

It also announced Frontier Advisors as its new asset consultant as of June 1, replacing PATRIZIA, which had partnered with the fund for more than a decade.

Over the course of the long weekend Trump took to Truth Social to issue a fresh ultimatum to the Iranian government, threatening to wipe out the nation's energy infrastructure and bridges.

"Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped into one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F***** Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be in living Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah," Trump wrote.

The threats have experts questioning whether markets can rely on the TACO principle - the concept that "Trump Always Chickens Out".

deVere group chief executive Nigel Green said the fixation on whether "TACO" materialises misses the broader danger building beneath the surface.

"Traders are debating whether there will be a tactical pause or escalation, but positioning around that binary outcome is creating instability," he said.

"Either scenario carries risk, and both can trigger aggressive repricing. The right question is not whether there's a last-minute climbdown. It should be: what happens to markets if the risk of disruption to the Strait of Hormuz is now permanently higher?"

Roughly a fifth of global oil supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making it one of the most sensitive pressure points in the global economy.

VanEck Asia Pacific chief executive Arian Neiron said investors are becoming increasingly concerned about the broader effects of the conflict on the global economy.

"Global markets are beginning to look more like a game of Jenga, with the tower increasingly unstable as more supports are removed rather than reinforced. The era of low inflation, strong growth and abundant conviction is behind us, at least for now," Neiron said.

"What is emerging instead is a far less comfortable regime, where inflation remains sticky, growth is uneven. Stagflation appears as the base case, a Goldilocks scenario of low inflation and high growth is not on the cards, with the best case being an awkward middle in which growth is uneven and conviction is low.

Neiron said the longer the Iran conflict drags on, the greater the risk that central banks are forced to react negative supply shocks with "few good options available".

"No central bank wants to relive the stagflation of the 1970s, yet that risk is becoming harder to dismiss. At the same time, the US faces a growing fiscal burden, with debt servicing becoming materially more expensive as older debt is refinanced at higher rates," he said.

"That leaves developed markets looking increasingly vulnerable to a prolonged period of weaker growth, persistent inflation and rising funding pressure."

Meanwhile, HESTA chief executive Debby Blakey has urged its members to stay focused on their long-term retirement goals as global markets reel from the ongoing volatility.

Following the start of the Iran conflict, the super fund said it has seen a rise in average daily investment switching activity, while the number of visits to HESTA's investment pages have also risen sharply.

HESTA said switching activity peaked on March 9 when oil prices jumped through US$110 per barrel and the ASX200 fell 2.8% in its worst day since US trade tariffs were announced in April 2025.

Daily switching numbers have since eased, the super fund said but remain above typical levels. Members who switched investments options predominantly moved their retirement savings into very defensive options, such as Cash and Term Deposits.

Blakey said it was natural to feel concerned during periods of market uncertainty, however making snap decisions based on short-term market fluctuations could harm retirement outcomes in the long run.

"We understand news of the conflict in Iran and the impact on global markets can feel unsettling, but history shows staying invested through market ups and downs typically delivers stronger long-term returns for our members," Blakey said.

"Super is a long-term investment. While it's important to stay informed, knee-jerk reactions to short-term market movements can crystallise losses and risk missing out on a market bounce back. This could potentially cost tens of thousands of dollars at retirement."

Blakey added the super fund began the year with a cautious outlook, saying it has a well-diversified portfolio was built for resilience during periods of market volatility.

"We actively manage members' savings, and our well-diversified core portfolio is built to weather periods of significant volatility," Blakey said.

"Our highly experienced and skilled investment team is closely monitoring developments and updating scenario planning to help ensure our ongoing activities manage emerging risks and take advantage of new opportunities."

The hybrid notes will have a non-call period of five years and a maturity of 100 years.

The Data Centre-as-a-Service provider intends to continue pursuing subordinated notes issue in the Australian wholesale debt market to strengthen its long-term capital position and diversify the pool of funding.

It operates 17 data centres and reported capital expenditure of around $1.3 billion in the first half of the financial year in the development of centres across Sydney, Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur.

NEXTDC said backing by La Caisse reflected the confidence on its strategically located asset base, development pipeline and delivery capabilities.

It added the hybrid securities will provide it with flexible, long-term capital to support development of key data centre assets and advancing future capacity expansions.

NEXTDC chief executive and managing director Craig Scroggie said the commitment will help it to deliver its contracted forward order book across FY29 and make further investments across new projects.

"We are delighted with this binding commitment from La Caisse, a long-term investor with deep experience in infrastructure, as further validation of our growth strategy," Scroggie said.

La Caisse executive vice-president and head of infrastructure and sustainability Emmanuel Jaclot said the investor sees this as a promising first step towards a long-term partnership with NEXTDC.

"This commitment will help underpin NEXTDC's construction program, supporting growing demand for digital infrastructure in Australia and adding to La Caisse's long track record in partnering with high-quality infrastructure operators through their growth phase," Jaclot said.

NEXTDC said the hybrid notes are deeply subordinated instruments, ranking junior to all existing and future debt obligations of the group.

Both firms are headquartered in Mosman, NSW, and will maintain a close working relationship, providing clients with access to a broader range of services and advice across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and regional NSW.

Edney Ryan Group will remain a separate business specialising in accounting, legal and mortgage services, it said.

Notably, the announcement follows Minchin Moore's merger with Queensland-based Brand Financial in August 2024.

Minchin Moore managing partner Mark Minchin (pictured) said the combination reflects a natural alignment between the two teams, with similar values, advice philosophies and client relationships at the core of each business.

"This is about bringing together two businesses that already think in very similar ways about advice and client relationships," he said.

"We've each built firms we're proud of, with a strong focus on doing the right thing for clients over the long term. By coming together, we can build on that foundation and continue to deliver consistent, high-quality advice for the families and organisations we serve.

"The team at Edney Ryan Wealth share our values, professional ethos and advice philosophy, and our client bases are very well aligned. This is an exciting partnership for our clients, people and business."

Minchin said it is now aiming to build a generational advice practice that provides continuity for clients across generations.

Edney Ryan Wealth Management managing director Kate O'Brien, who will transition into the role of principal adviser for Minchin Moore upon the completion of the merger, said it will strengthen both businesses on what they already excel on.

"We've always placed a strong emphasis on relationships, trust and thoughtful advice," she said.

"Minchin Moore shares that same approach, which made this a natural fit. The merger allows us to combine our experience and depth; while staying true to the way we've always worked with clients."

Meanwhile, Integro Private Wealth has also announced that it is merging with Lighthouse Capital Southwest located in Bunbury, opening a new office at the region.

The partnership will support Integro's focus on expanding the firm's presence across the nation and deepens capability through integrated advice solutions.

Integro Private Wealth managing partner Justin Gilmour said the firm will continue to look at opportunities to grow the business, through both referral partnerships and the further acquisition of existing advice practices nationwide.

"As part of our growth journey, we are always looking at opportunities to broaden our reach across Australia, including along the east coast. By welcoming the team, we are also strengthening our adviser capability and extending our reach into a key agricultural and regional hub," Gilmour said.

As part of the merger, Lighthouse Capital Southwest financial adviser Travis Edwards joins Integro as partner and private wealth adviser after nine years at the business. He has over 17 years of experience across the financial services industry, including with NAB and Geographe Financial Group.

The presence of Edwards in the Southwest will play a key role in delivering integrated financial advice solutions to farming clients through the Aviso WA network, Gilmour said.

He added Integro's current partnership with AMD Chartered Accountants will be key to enhancing locally delivered financial advice in the region.

"Our expansion of the Integro team in Bunbury strengthens our shared commitment to supporting regional businesses, families and farming communities," he continued.

"Clients in the broader Southwest region will benefit from greater access to dedicated local advisers who understand the unique needs of regional communities, supported by seamless collaboration.

"This integrated approach enables better coordinated wealth management, retirement planning and financial protection strategies, helping to deliver better long-term outcomes."

Last year, Integro appointed a head of advice to support and explore opportunities for its East Coast expansion.

In the March exam cycle, 292 sat the exam and 209, or 71.6%, passed the exam. Some 227 (77.7%) sat the exam for the first time.

Unsuccessful candidates will receive general feedback on areas they underperformed, ASIC said.

The pass rate has improved from the previous seatings in November 2025 (68%) and August 2025 (69%). At the same time last year, 73.4% have passed the exam out of the 241 candidates who attended.

The next exam will be held on 4 June 2026. The booking period for this exam opens 24 April 2026 and will close on 15 May 2026.

To date, 22,611 individuals have sat the exam and 92% (20,963) have passed, ASIC said.

This comes after the Financial Advice Association of Australia (FAAA) made a submission to the Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) consultation urging the inclusion of financial advisers on the occupational shortage list.

FAAA chief executive Sarah Abood said there is "substantial evidence" of the skills shortage in financial advice, which has "plagued our profession since 2019".

In the submission, Abood said the number of financial advisers and paraplanners continues to fall well short of demand at a time when Australians are increasingly seeking financial advice to improve household financial wellbeing, retirement outcomes, and broader economic stability.

"We welcome our ongoing engagement with JSA and other government agencies on workforce planning issues. However, we are concerned that the Stakeholder Survey methodology is heavily reliant upon advertised job vacancies and, in our view, does not allow for data on other factors to be adequately captured and considered in context," Abood said.

Abood said the advice industry is struggling with a decline in adviser numbers which is not being offset by new entrants; a long training gap and legislated professional year requirements which create a four-year structural lag in workforce supply; and the rising demand for advice with millions of Australians unable to gain access.

A recent review of the PSSap lifePLUS offering, underwritten by AIA Australia, found insurance premiums needed to be adjusted to reflect the rising cost of providing cover, Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation (CSC) told PSSap members.

From May 1, the premiums for Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) cover are rising a whopping 43.5%.

In a statement to Financial Standard, a CSC spokesperson said the superannuation sector as a whole is seeing an increase in TPD claims, driven by a rise in mental health conditions.

"In response to this, working with our insurer, AIA, CSC has implemented a mix of premium changes which includes an increase to TPD and five-year income protection premiums," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also stated that the rises in mental health conditions are being seen across all member cohorts.

At the end of 2025, PSSap had about 175,000 members. According to APRA data, in FY25 PSSap members paid about $124 million in total premiums and had about $56 million paid out in claims. Of these, 162 were TPD claims amounting to $32.5 million.

In the previous year, 143 TPD claims were accepted and $25.2 million was paid out to members.

While increasing the premiums it charges, CSC is changing the definition for 'mental illness' in its lifePLUS policies.

Previously an insured member must be diagnosed by a psychiatrist who qualifies as a medical practitioner by the American Psychiatric Association's standards. From May 1, the member needs to have been diagnosed by a 'specialist medical professional', which is someone who must have a fellowship qualification related to the illness or injury being claimed for and is currently practicing in a speciality practice related to the injury or illness.

The fund said this doesn't actually change anything when it comes to assessing claims, but was done to ensure the doctor a claimant sees has appropriate qualifications and registrations.

Meanwhile, CSC's spokesperson also noted that premiums for some other cover types are reducing from May 1, which should offset some of the impact of the increase.

"We've also reduced death and two-year income protection premiums... These changes have been informed by our claims experience over recent years," the spokesperson added.

Death cover premiums will drop 16.4%, while two-year income protection cover will reduce by 25%.

Premiums for members who hold five-year income protection cover but are under 62 years of age will rise by 20.8%. Those over 62 years of age with the same cover will either see a 36% decrease in premiums payable or a 3% increase, depending on their individual waiting periods.

The hike in TPD premiums for PSSap members comes around the same time as a similar increase is to be rolled out for AustralianSuper's insured members.

On average, members within the AustralianSuper plan, Super Options and Personal Plan will pay 40% more for TPD cover from June 1.

In FY25, AustralianSuper paid out $272.3 million across 2821 TPD claims. The year before, it paid 2690 claims to the tune of $276.8 million.

The nation's largest super fund is also increasing the cost of Death cover by 20%, and income protection by up to 38% depending on the benefit payment period.

The increases have not gone down well among members, with some taking to Reddit and LinkedIn to vent their frustrations, labelling the fund tone deaf to the current economic climate. Some even claim to have switched super funds already as a result.

AustralianSuper, whose group insurance is provided by TAL, did not respond to requests for comment.

Aura Group names Jamie Burgmann as director within its wealth management division, supporting high-net-worth individuals and families with complex and cross-border investment profiles.

Burgmann has over 15 years of experience advising private clients across both Australia and Singapore, with a particular focus on multi-jurisdictional financial structures and internationally diversified investment portfolios.

"Many high-net-worth investors today have increasingly international lives and portfolios. Navigating different jurisdictions, regulatory frameworks, and investment opportunities requires advice that is both globally informed and structurally robust," said Burgmann in a company release.

What attracted him to Aura is the firm's ability to provide clients with "access to institutional-quality alternative investments that are typically difficult to access through traditional wealth channels".

Commenting on his appointment, Aura's managing director Tong Hoe Sng said, "Jamie's experience advising clients across both Australia and Singapore adds a valuable perspective to our wealth management platform."

Aura Group has offices in Singapore and Australia, and manages more than $1 billion in funds under management and advice. It offers investment strategies in private credit, private equity, venture capital and real estate credit.

Prior to the move, Savas was an investment director and key spokesperson for the global equities team at Antipodes. In the role, she represented portfolio managers, developed strategic content and hosted the Antipodes Good Value podcast.

"Alison brings a rare combination of deep global equities expertise and the ability to turn complex ideas into practical insights advisers can use with clients when discussing markets, exposures and the role Orbis can play in client portfolios. The understanding of this differentiated role is exactly what we're focused on building in Australia," said Jason Ciccolallo, managing director of Orbis Investments Australia.

"Our approach is deliberately contrarian. We look where others are not, to identify mispriced opportunities, it is often in these overlooked areas that we find our best ideas. In today's market environment, that's not just additive, it's becoming essential for diversification and long-term outcomes."

Savas has more than 20 years' experience across Sydney, Singapore and London, with a host of roles across global equity research, portfolio construction and client services.

Prior to Antipodes, she was deputy portfolio manager at Kingfisher Investments in Singapore and early in her career, a senior investment analyst at Platinum Asset Management, covering Asian equity markets.

Globally, Orbis Investments $80 billion in assets.

Balanian is disqualified until at least 31 March 2031.

ASIC found Balanian engaged in "serious misconduct" and failed to meet his obligations as a director for Digital Commodity Assets, DCA Capital and Polychain between May 2017 and May 2024.

Digital Commodity and DCA Capital acted as trustee for a cryptocurrency fund called the Digital Commodity Assets Fund, which was a wholesale investment fund that exploited price differences between exchanges for a certain cryptocurrency.

As director, Balanian failed to lodge reports and provide assistance to liquidators of Digital Commodity and DCA Capital when requested to do so; failed to provide assistance and documents to the liquidators of Digital Commodity and DCA Capital; and showed an unwillingness to assist the liquidators in understanding the affairs of Digital Commodity and DCA Capital.

He also failed to ensure that DCA Capital held an Australian financial services licence (AFSL) and exercise due care and diligence for both entities. Similarly, he did not complete the report on company activities and property with liquidator Polychain and failed to ensure that it kept adequate books and records.

Polychain became investment manager of the fund on 12 November 2022.

ASIC believes Balanian's conduct was deliberate, allowing these companies to operate without complying with their obligations and was aware that a failure to comply would put investors at risk.

The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025, which amends the Corporations Act 2001 and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001, passed the Senate on Wednesday.

It requires digital asset platforms (DAPs) and tokenised custody platforms (TCPs) to acquire AFSL and oblige with consumer protection requirements.

The government proposed the law in September last year, arguing that the legislation in this measure will close the regulatory gap, improve consumer protection, and ensure businesses meet standards like those in the broader financial system.

This move was welcomed by the industry.

Under the amendment, ASIC is also granted enforcement power over related DAPs and TCPs, and any breaches may attract civil penalties, it said.

Businesses are also given an 18-month period to comply with the new licensing and operational standards.

However, Digital Economy Council of Australia chair Paul Derham told Financial Standard said while the DAP authorisation is "pretty well" understood, the authorisation for TCP may require greater clarity with the mechanics around the tokenisation of real-world assets.

"A TCP authorisation introduces a legal framework for Australian licensed businesses to tokenise real-world asset. This new AFSL authorisation is a big deal - providing a framework for businesses to unlock liquidity across an unimaginably wide range of real-world assets," Derham said.

Regardless, Derham believes the new standard sets a "clear pathway" to a digital economy for both businesses and consumers.

"It lifts the sector into a regulated environment, which it has been calling for, for a long time. It is also likely to have a positive impact on the sector's ability to access normal banking rails," Derham said.

He said the council will continuously work with its members, Treasury and ASIC to develop rules and guidelines that are appropriate and fit-for-purpose.

Coinbase Australia managing director APAC John O'Loghlen echoed Derham's sentiment, stating that the passage is a recognition of digital assets' increasing roles in the domestic financial system.

"For years, Australia has needed clear rules to support innovation, protect consumers, and attract long-term investment in the sector," O'Loghlen said.

"This legislation and the foundational regulatory framework it creates is an important step, holding digital asset exchanges to the same operating standards as other financial services providers and giving consumers greater confidence to buy, hold, and sell crypto assets.

"While this strengthens Australia's standing in the global digital economy, we urge the government to prioritise the development of its broader reforms for digital assets and tokenisation, especially the development of the stablecoin framework."

CloudTech Group also supports the Bill, which it said focuses on regulating platforms and custodians rather than the underlying technology, supporting not only consumers but institutional investors and financial advisers that are keen to participate.

"This approach helps ensure that businesses are accountable for their actions, while keeping consumer protection front and centre," CloudTech Group chief financial officer Mandy Jiang said.

"Clear standards for safeguarding assets, reconciliation and operational controls will be critical not only for protecting consumers, but also for supporting participation from institutional investors and financial advisers.

"Effective custody is the backbone of a mature digital asset ecosystem. As the regulatory regime goes live, firms that invest early in compliant custody infrastructure and governance will be best placed to meet expectations and support the sector's long-term development."

Peck brings more than 40 years' experience across superannuation, insurance and financial services, with expertise in governance, strategy, distribution and member engagement. He has served as deputy chair of REI Super and chair of the risk committee since 2022.

In his executive career, Peck served as the head of superannuation solutions at BT Financial for around 13 years, as well as a managing director of Russell Investments across corporate superannuation, government and institutions and individual customers for four years.

"I'm honoured to be appointed as the chair of REI Super. REI Super has a strong purpose and proud history of serving people working in the real estate industry, and I look forward to working with the board and management team to continue delivering strong outcomes for members, both now and into retirement," Peck said.

"It is terrific to be coming into the chair position knowing the fund, the executive and its people so well."

Higgins served as the chair of the REI Super board since 2014 and her term concluded in line with the board's tenure requirements.

REI Super said Higgins oversaw a period of consistent growth and development of capability within the fund including a successful custody and administration transition.

"The fund delivered personalised service, good consistent outcomes for members and passed the APRA performance test comfortably each year," REI Super said.

"Claire's leadership has been instrumental in guiding REI Super through an evolving superannuation landscape. Her commitment to strong governance and member-first decision-making has left a lasting legacy for the fund and its members," REI Super chief executive Jarrod Coysh said.

"On behalf of the board, management and our members, I sincerely thank Claire for her dedication and leadership. On a personal level, she has been a great mentor and valuable sounding board to me as chief executive."

"The market is now priced for a meaningful hit to growth and weaker earnings, but I don't think it's priced for recession," he said.

"There's plenty of room for even more adverse scenarios to play out. It does take time for oil shortages to make their way through the system."

Colosimo noted the disruption in oil supply is more than just price increases. It is about quantity and if there is enough fuel to keep the economy ticking along.

"If not, how do we decide who misses out? How much impact does that have on economic growth?" he questioned.

He said Australia remains as much at risk as any other country in the world due to the supply shock.

"Australia is particularly vulnerable here because we don't have a lot of inventory to begin with. We're very dependent on Middle Eastern oil that comes via refineries in Asia. Not only are we dependent on the oil coming through the strait, we depend on the refiners agreeing to send it to us when they might be facing shortages themselves," Colosimo said.

While the Australian markets were down 8% in March, the US was down 5%. Europe fell by 8%, while Japan and India were down by more than 11%.

"I think a big part of it is the market's differentiating between winners and losers from higher oil prices. Over the last decade, the US has become a big energy exporter, so yes, consumers will suffer with higher prices, but the energy companies themselves benefit," Colosimo said.

"If you look at Europe and countries like Japan and India, they are energy importers, so they're seen as the biggest losers."

While Colosimo thinks the oil prices have been relatively well behaved despite all the tensions, he was surprised by the markets' reaction to bond yields and gold.

Historically big oil price shocks would mean a fall in bond yields, he said, showing an increased demand for safe-haven assets.

"Instead, markets have been more focused on the risk of inflation from higher oil prices. Bond yields have actually surged between 0.3% and 0.4% across the world over the month," Colosimo said.

He added that gold has been an even bigger surprise, been down nearly 14% in March.

"I really think it just comes down to the fact it had run really hard over the last year or so. A lot of investors were crowded into that trade," he said.

Albanese said the government is focused on creating stability and security for the nation but said this will not happen "standing still while the world changes around us".

"It means anticipating and creating change, true to Australian values and in Australia's interests. Because if people feel like the economy is not working for them, if they're putting in the effort but not seeing the reward, if planning for the future feels like a luxury, then government cannot provide stability, just by keeping things as they are," he said.

"There is no security in maintaining a status quo that doesn't work for people. Economic reform that drives growth, boosts productivity, tackles inflation and lifts living standards is always necessary.

"And in times of uncertainty such as this, it is urgent. We all know the mindset that left Australia exposed to this global shock."

Albanese laid blame on pervious governments for cutting TAFE training, pressuring manufacturing and industry to go offshore, and putting multinational firms ahead of Australian gas users.

Albanese accused former governments of thinking "Australia could get away with this, because there would always be someone else, somewhere else, who would sell us what we needed cheaper than we could make it ourselves."

He said this put Australia in a position of vulnerability and "will not take us out of it."

"We were investing in Australia's economic resilience well before this crisis began. And for our government, international uncertainty is not an excuse to delay or hold back reform - it is the reason we must press ahead," Albanese said.

"Because we will not generate the same prosperity or create the same opportunities, if we continue to rely on an economic model designed in a different time and built for a more predictable world. Nor can we go back to those days.

"And any party or leader who promises otherwise, anyone who pretends that the solution to housing or jobs or wages or health is to somehow to recreate the 1950s or 60s, or whatever time they imagine everything was hunky dory, is simply not being fair dinkum."

Albanese said Australia will not be able to "find our future security in the past", or by copying the approaches other nations.

"We have to invest in it, build it and create it for ourselves. We can, we must - and we will," he said.

"And even as we plan and build for this stronger, more resilient future, our number one priority remains helping people with the cost of living. That is the balance we will strike in next month's Budget. It is our government's most important Budget to date - and it will be our most ambitious. It has to be."

Albanese stressed that the scale of the challenge facing the nation is not lost on the government, but that the breadth of opportunities ahead "demands ambition and urgency".

"And our Australian character demands that ambition too. That's what I mean when I talk about progressive patriotism. Uniting to celebrate what we have - and working together to make it better," he said.

"Recognising that because we live in the best country in the world, we have a responsibility to build for the best. And to empower every Australian with the opportunity to be their best. As a matter of national pride - and in order to realise our national potential.

"These Australian values are the right ones to guide us through this crisis - and to shape what comes next."

Albanese said the government will assist businesses being squeezed by the conflict with interest-free loans, through the $1 billion Economic Resilience Program. He said this should help truck drivers, freight companies and fuel and fertiliser producers continue their critical work.

This program will be a sub-fund under the government's $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund (NRFC). The NRFC will partner with banks to begin rolling out the loans in the next fortnight.

"These firms are not just being affected by this crisis, they are essential to Australia getting through this crisis," Albanese said.

"So, our government will extend their credit to help them, and the farmers and producers who rely on these supply chains, to weather the storm. This is just another way we are acting to get ahead of issues.

"No government can promise to eliminate the pressures this crisis will impose. But we can be a buffer against the worst of it. A shock absorber, in a time of global shocks. We will do everything we can to protect the Australian people from what the world throws at us."

The panel conducted more than 140 stakeholder interviews, reviewed submissions and an expert technical report of the CHESS system, undertook international benchmarking, held focus groups with ASX staff and reviewed over 10,000 documents.

The key observations of the Final Report were consistent with the Interim report, and include that resilience of critical market infrastructure has been compromised to deliver high shareholder returns; governance arrangements fail to provide the necessary focus on critical market infrastructure; the ASX lacks the aspiration to be a steward of critical market infrastructure; and capability and cultural barriers are hindering transformational change.

In addition to the Interim Report's findings, the panel also observed that ASX's risk management and compliance practices need to mature to become fit-for-purpose and embedded in business processes.

The report determined this contributed to ASX being overly reactive and tactical in its response to incidents and identified gaps.

It added an area that requires more reflection is the execution of ASX's own market supervision responsibilities to monitor, supervise and enforce compliance with Operating and Listing Rules by participants and listed entities.

The report comes after ASIC took the unprecedented step in June 2025 of commissioning the Inquiry into ASX after years of persistent issues and operational failings.

ASIC chair Joe Longo said the ASX Inquiry's Final Report reinforced the strategic package of reforms ASIC announced in December was the urgent reset required.

"This report confirms that ASIC's decision to commission this unprecedented Inquiry was the right call," Longo said.

"The further evidence and key observations in this Final Report support the scale of transformational change required at ASX to deliver on its stewardship of critical market infrastructure."

Longo thanked the Inquiry Panel for its work, which he said provided a circuit breaker for ASX and "a clear path forward to rebuilding trust and confidence in this operator of critical markets infrastructure."

In December 2025, ASX made commitments to ASIC on a package of reforms, and in February 2026 submitted its Commitments Plan outlining how it would deliver those reforms.

ASIC said it will continue to work closely with ASX on its delivery of the plan.

The reforms include the reset of ASX's Accelerate, of which ASX has committed to deliver the plan by June 30. This will define clear target states for ASX to fulfill its stewardship role; the development of a revised technology strategy that is aligned with the refreshed business strategy; and a capital charge of $150 million in net tangible assets to be implemented by 30 June 2027.

Additionally, ASX said it was committed to strengthening its governance and independence of its Clearing and Settlement Facility (CS) Boards.

As part of ASX's transformation, ASIC also noted its progress on leadership as ASX transitions to its new chief executive after Helen Lofthouse announced she would step down in May.

ASIC and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) have progressed their revised regulatory approach to ASX and are in the process of uplifting their joint supervisory model for the CS facilities. This includes establishing a joint working group, focused on a forward-looking, outcomes-based approach to ASX supervision.

"The market and the Australian public need resilient and reliable market infrastructure," Longo said.

"It is now firmly for ASX to ensure its transformation is successful and enduring. This will take time and will require sustained focus on leadership, accountability, investment and stewardship to deliver."

ASIC commissioner Simone Constant added: "What sets this Inquiry apart is that, alongside the release of the Final Report, there is already an update on ASX's early progress, and the concrete steps taken to meet its agreed commitments."

"ASIC determined early intervention was necessary during the Inquiry process, and we acted decisively.

"We will continue to drive the sustained change required to restore trust and confidence in ASX, and we will hold ASX to account to ensure these commitments are delivered in full."

ASIC said while the work is underway, it is critical ASX continues to prioritise the safe and efficient operation of its infrastructure, meeting the day-to-day needs of the market.

It is the first major move following the appointment of Nathan Jacobsen as chief operating officer in February this year.

The partnership supports AZ NGA's plans for a financial advice hub in the area to service key locations like Young, Wagga Wagga and Orange, where many individuals and families have complex advice and succession planning needs but are underserved, it said.

The announcement follows the acquisition of a partial stake in Oreon Partners in Adelaide and the partnership with Sydney Financial Planning late last year, as the firm continues to expand its network.

Established in 1990, Back to Back is led by financial adviser Justine Back, with 24 employees including three other advisers. The business has a strong referral network in Sydney and across the greater NSW region and primarily looks after retirees and pre-retirees, professionals, small business owners and farmers.

Commenting, AZ NGA chief growth officer Chesne Stafford commended Back to Back's consistent performance since its inception.

"Back to Back is an exceptional business with a robust operating model, solid financial performance and consistently strong growth, and we are excited to partner with Justine and the team to continue delivering quality advice," Stafford said.

"Over the past 35 years, the business has earned a reputation in their community, and beyond, for trusted advice. We see an opportunity to build on Back to Back's reputation and infrastructure to establish a regional hub that connects with other key areas."

Meanwhile, Back said the group's motivation for partnering with AZ NGA was for growth and to support the development of the next generation of advisers in the practice.

"AZ NGA stood out because we like their people and philosophy and share their views on where the financial advice profession is going," Back said.

"We're setting the business up for its next phase of growth and creating an opportunity for future leaders to step up and assist us in continuing to expand the business.

"I'm passionate about my work and taking care of my clients and this partnership allows our team to continue to grow well into the future."

Minister for financial services Daniel Mulino said Australians should not feel discouraged from undertaking genetic testing out of fear it may have an impact on their ability to get insurance or make that insurance unaffordable.

"The ban will not prevent individuals from volunteering genetic test results with written consent, and the use of these volunteered results in underwriting where this would not adversely impact the insurance offer or policy terms, or limit the existing ability to access and use certain information for underwriting life insurance including the existence of signs, symptoms or diagnosed diseases," he said.

"There are civil penalties and criminal offences for non-compliance which will be regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. This legislation will make a meaningful difference to people's lives."

Australian life insurers welcomed the passage, saying the new law will give Australians more confidence about getting a genetic test, knowing it can't be used in insurance underwriting.

The legislation, passed in the Senate yesterday, bans the use of predictive genetic test results when assessing a person's application for cover.

The Council of Australian Life Insurers (CALI) said it has long supported the responsible use of genetic test results to empower people to better manage their health in a preventative way.

"Our industry is incredibly proud to play such an important role in giving Australians certainty about their future," CALI chief executive Christine Cupitt said.

"For years, we have been clear that no one should be deterred from taking a genetic test that gives them more information about their overall health. As life insurers, we want people to access the information they need to make informed choices about their health and to manage it proactively."

CALI added that in 2019 the life insurance industry took voluntary action to introduce a mandatory standard to restrict the use of predictive genetic test results in underwriting.

CALI said the rapid evolution of genetic science has since made the legislative action both timely and necessary. CALI also welcomed the inclusion of a five-year review of the legislation, which it said will be essential to ensure the law keeps up to date with the ever-evolving predictive genetic testing landscape.

"All of CALI's members recognise that predictive genetic testing can play an important role in giving people peace of mind and supporting them to reduce potential health risks," it said.

This is one of the most quotable quotes from the award-winning television show Succession, and while it is somewhat outdated for parents to leave behind their money, or legacy, to one child due solely to birth order or gender, there remains plenty families must consider when it comes to planning what will happen once they're gone.

An estimated 13.7 million people expect to leave an inheritance over the coming decades, according to new research from Finder. As much as $5.4 trillion in assets is expected to shift from Baby Boomers to younger generations by 2050.

Finder personal finance expert Sarah Megginson said wealth transfers are large and growing.

"For some, it could be life changing money. Australia is on the cusp of the largest intergenerational wealth transfer we've ever seen," Megginson said.

"The decisions families make now will shape financial outcomes for decades."

Not only is there a significant amount of money changing hands, but family dynamics have never been more complicated.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the divorce rate in Australia is a little over two people per 1000. Meanwhile, as of the 2021 Census, approximately 2.17 million people, or about 11.5% of Australians aged 16 and over, were in a de facto relationship.

Then, when you consider that more than 25% of new brides and grooms in 2021 were celebrating a second, or subsequent, marriage, things start to get even more complicated, especially if children are involved.

Blending families

Arrow Private Wealth chair and chief investment officer Peter Leggett says the Baby Boomer generation has vastly different values from their parents before them.

As he explains, Baby Boomers' parents lived through the Great Depression and lived in a world of uncertainty, where wealth wasn't "extravagantly thrown around".

"The Baby Boomers, post-Second World War born, have lived in this extraordinary time for Australia to build wealth, and it's the following generations who have benefitted with great education, food and a high-quality lifestyle," Leggett says.

"The values of the custodians of this great wealth at this point in time are also living significantly longer, and so many of their parents are now in their 80s and in their 90s, and they're still here."

Leggett says when people previously passed away, the family would gather around and find out what was left behind and to whom, but this is not how things are done nowadays - which is why many financial advisers have moved away from the phrase "estate planning" and towards "succession planning", finding it a more fitting descriptor.

"They're vastly different conversations being held today. It's around private wealth family succession planning. Now, that conversation starts way before you bring in the lawyers for estate planning," he explains.

"There is a distinct differentiation between family succession planning and the conversations that need to take place within families, and estate planning when you bring in the lawyers to draft the documentation. There's a big difference."

Leggett says those taking part in this planning process see themselves as stewards of family wealth, and it is important to manage that money appropriately and ensure it is going where they want it to go.

"I'm just a steward of my previous generations' wealth, and I'm the custodian of that, and I've got to steward it well for my children and my grandchildren, and then teach and educate them as well," he says.

"This is what we call living legacy, where people will be handing over this wealth to the younger generations while they are still alive."

While the idea of "giving while living" sounds very nice, when there are complicated family dynamics at play, things can get a little awkward. This is something Leggett says can be avoided by having open, honest and frank conversations.

"We're seeing a breaking down of family structure. People are asking, what even constitutes a family today? We're seeing more families that are not married. We're seeing second and third marriages. We're seeing stepchildren, half brothers and sisters, ex-partners, same sex marriages. So, there's a whole heap of complexities," Leggett says.

"And this is happening as we're seeing more assets in dollar value than we've ever dealt with before. That brings out the positives and negatives in people and conversations as well."

Leggett says because of how complex these structures can be, it's important for advisers to enter these conversations without any preconceived ideas.

"You cannot walk in and say, 'well, this is how I did it yesterday'. And importantly, very important, you really shouldn't walk in with solutions at all. Our role is to set a comfortable scene, what we call an aeroponic, a discovery meeting, where they can talk about what's in their hearts and minds and what they value," Leggett says.

He says for genuine wealth advisers who are willing and wanting to work in this space, there is an extraordinary opportunity over the next 30-plus years.

"... but they need to be vastly different than just superannuation and investment specialists," he warns.

"If that's all they know, they will struggle with the EQ conversations, the empathy, the passionate questions that enable clients to feel comfortable enough, to start to open up about what's in their heart and mind."

Principal Edge senior financial adviser and partner Dwayne Fernandes says allowing the parents to explain to their family why they have made the choices they have with their succession plans - while at times awkward - is key to avoiding further trouble down the road.

"I think what we're trying to do is clearly show what happens if somebody passes away today. What do the asset looks like? Who owns these assets? Where are they going to end up? Is it actually your Will that decides these things or are there other documents that you need to look at to really get them to think about personal succession," Fernandes says.

Fernandes says he works with clients to get them to think about the whole asset base, not just their Will, superannuation or other assets - the whole picture.

He adds that for wealthy families with family trusts and/or companies, it's important to understand how these all work together.

"Then we want them to think about, 'what are your objectives?' What are you trying to achieve? And that might be different for mum and dad; if there's blended families, that level of detail with the client and understanding what they're trying to achieve is the first step," he says.

The taboo

So, while families seem more broken, blended or something else entirely, there's also a need to examine why this may be the case, or what factors may be adding to the complexity. One example that came up time and time again in interviews for this feature was the fact that younger people - Generation X and Millennials - are more likely to have used illicit substances than older generations.

According to the 2022-2023 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, an estimated 10.2 million (47%) people aged 14 and over in Australia had used an illicit drug at some point in their lifetime, and an estimated 3.9 million (18%) had done so in the previous 12 months.

In 2022-2023, among people aged 14 and over, the most common illicit drug used was cannabis (11.5%), followed by cocaine (4.5%) and hallucinogens (2.4%).

Generation X also faces the highest risk of death from methamphetamine-related causes. When it comes to alcohol consumption, Baby Boomers have reported drinking more frequently, but the younger generations are far more likely to binge drink.

All these factors combined have made estate planning far more complex, according to W & A Williamson & Associates principal solicitor Jennifer Williamson.

Williamson says she has noticed more families coming to her with grave concerns about what would happen to their child if they were to be left a large sum of money while struggling with addiction.

However, she says it's not as simple as excluding that child from a Will, because most courts will side with the child should they choose to contest.

"It's a disease. Drug addiction is a disease. So, while parents think their child could have done or should have done better, and is a 'disappointment', you still have to look at public policy and see whether or not a court will award that child money if you completely exclude them," Williamson says.

Public policy in law refers to the principle that courts may invalidate contracts, transactions, or actions that harm the public good, safety or morals.

"The courts don't want to see people on the street, homeless or on government benefits," Williamson explains.

"If their parent had money and it goes to court, they want to see that money spent getting that homeless person off the street, whether they have a disease, which is drug addiction, or some other sort of disability."

Williamson says the best thing for parents to do is set up a disability trust. This works for both mental and physical disabilities and can be used for those with addiction issues, and some can include a ceiling to ensure the individual doesn't lose government and other entitlements, like National Disability Insurance Scheme funding.

For the 2025-26 financial year, the Special Disability Trust (SDT) asset value limit - often referred to as the trust "ceiling" - is $832,750. This means parents can leave that amount for their child in the trust without impacting government entitlements.

And while it is also possible to create trustsrusts with certain provisions - such as what the money can be used for - families tend to refrain from making things too complicated for those left behind to manage them, Williamson says.

"The trustees and executives don't necessarily want to be hamstrung for the rest of their lives because they're a trustee and executor. Once again, there's a lot of pressure on them to act at all times in accordance with the Trust Act, and they have to act appropriately," she explains.

"So, if it's siblings that have to be the trustees and executors, you've got to keep in mind that you don't want to be tying them up in expensive knots forever and a day too, because that's a lot of pressure."

Setting the rules

While trusts are popular vehicles, many advisers are also looking towards investment bonds as an option for more complex matters because of the rules that can be set around their use.

KeyInvest chief executive Craig Brooke says investment bonds' comeback over recent years has in large part been spurred by shifting family dynamics.

"With more complex family structures at play, I've seen so many examples even in the last few weeks, talking to investors and advisers around what they want to achieve," Brooke says.

"Other than the fact that estate planning through an investment bond is excluded from and can't be challenged through the Will, in general investment bonds allow very bespoke settings to be applied."

Brooke says for many families, the main concerns arise when one child may prove to be less financially responsible than others. Parents end up rightfully concerned about how they might manage a large sum of money - or assets - should they be thrust upon them.

"It's really limitless when you start thinking about the ways in which you can set up those bespoke estate planning features," he says.

KeyInvest expects an uptick in business as more Australians seek solutions to individual problems, and is focusing on building the capability to meet the growing demand.

"We've been preparing probably for the last 18 to 24 months. We've been building technology that allows those sorts of bespoke instructions to be automated in a particular way and then controls to be put around it. That technology we started to release into the adviser market and into the funeral director market in and then direct customer market in September last year," he says.

"That's been lucky from a timing perspective, but we know there's so much compliance required with investment bonds that as the manager, there's a lot of manual processes in the industry to make sure we're seeing through and making good on those wishes. It is quite important."

While the current focus is on being able to accommodate these bespoke needs, Brooke does believe more "off-the-shelf" products are coming.

"Where does innovation come from? In the future, innovation is going to be technology related, which we got started on early. It'll be in the underlying products, and it'll be in acknowledging that once you've got enough volume you can cookie-cutter them," he says.

"People can select them, and they can be automated into the wishes of the policy, and then ultimately the estate. The innovation, I think, will come with getting more of that off-the-shelf."

Brooke says he wants to see the advice industry get behind the need for better, more efficient and automated estate planning. He encourages advisers to get behind co-designing the innovation so the entire ecosystem can work together to provide the solutions Australians need.

"You've got an underlying fund manager, you've got the tax wrap, which is the investment bond, and you get the adviser that's providing the advice. And you've also got the managed account providers that are floating around the place as well," he says.

"So, how do you get the ecosystem working together? Co-design what these things look like, to make sure there's plenty of innovation out there in the future.

"That's the exciting part, because I think the industry can afford to be nimble and even to a point, seek regulatory support to collaborate - because it's in the best interests of Australians and the investors and the intergenerational wealth transfer that these solutions are there."

Generation Life chief executive Felipe Araujo agrees, saying working closely with advisers to push for more collaboration to ensure bonds can be used to the best of their ability is a focus.

But he also wants to see more advisers having early conversations with their clients about succession planning, and not waiting for an unfortunate situation to arise.

"My humble observation is that we're still at the early stages of that conversation. People work so hard to build these assets, so naturally, the conversation should go, 'How are you going to distribute those assets for the next generations? What are the challenges? How do you preserve that capital? How are you going to make it last for future generations as well?' But that's definitely not the case across every single practice and every single adviser," he says.

Araujo believes it's the advisers who are best placed to manage estate planning because, unlike accountants or lawyers, they tend to know their clients more intimately. They know about their clients' families, their desires and their hopes for the future.

"More often than not, they've got a long-term relationship with their clients. I think advisers more than ever are understanding the perils of not having strong estate planning in place. They understand the need to have a more open conversation with clients," he says.

However, there's still a learning curve that needs to be overcome to help clients truly understand the structures available to them.

"... to not rely solely on one structure for all the assets to be transferred, to understand when superannuation should be used, when a family trust should be used, when a non-estate asset can be used," Araujo says.

"But more importantly, to recognise that there is no such a thing as a silver bullet for the transfer of assets."

Lill was most recently chief investment officer at legalsuper, but it was announced earlier this week he was departing to take on a role outside of superannuation.

Tattarang chief executive John Hartman announced Lill has been selected to run investments at Minderoo Foundation, part of the Forrest Family Office, bringing "deep experience and a fresh perspective."

Minderoo is the largest family office foundation in Australia and New Zealand by assets.

"We look forward to welcoming him as we continue to advance Minderoo's mission and approach to responsible investing," Hartman said.

Lill will replace Bruce Tomlinson, who served as investment director since July 2022. It was a role he took on after nearly 15 years at Sunsuper and then Australian Retirement Trust looking after alternative investments.

Tomlinson will remain on the Minderoo investment committee in a voluntary capacity, Hartman said.

Hartman added that during Tomlinson's tenure, the Minderoo endowment grew significantly, and the investment approach evolved.

"We look forward to welcoming Andrew to Minderoo and thank you to Bruce for his contribution and continued support," he said.

Before legalsuper, Lill spent five years as chief investment officer at Rest.

Commenting on his new role, Lill said the opportunity at Minderoo was too good to pass up.

"I loved creating a full-service operating model as part of the internalisation strategy at Rest and equally, I've been passionate to be a key driver of top ranked member outcomes within a smaller fund at legalsuper," he said.

"Working to create great outcomes for my colleagues and, particularly, for our super fund members, has engaged my drive and enthusiasm, and given me the opportunity to do good, purposeful work. I'm grateful for all these experiences as my career has evolved."

He added the influence of family offices and foundations is growing across the world, as is the positive impact they're having.

"There's lots of great work to do and I can't wait to get started," Lill said.