Category: Financial Consulting

Financial Planning
Insights & Advice

Expert insights, practical strategies, and market updates to help you make informed financial decisions for your future.

Investment Scams in Australia

AI Deepfake and Investment Scams in Australia: What to Watch For in 2026

Australians lost $2.18 billion to scams in 2025, according to the National Anti-Scam Centre’s latest Targeting Scams report, and investment scams alone accounted for $837.7 million of it. Those are the reported numbers. The real figure is higher, because plenty of people feel too embarrassed to report it and never tell anyone.

We recorded a full episode of the Wealthlab podcast on this, partly because scams keep getting more sophisticated and partly because it has happened to us. Someone cloned our Instagram account, copied every photo we had ever posted, called it a community page and started inviting our own followers to join. Scott’s wife spotted it before we did. If it can happen to two advisers in Melbourne, it can happen to anyone.

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SMSF Rule Changes

The SMSF Residential Property Ban Explained: What Changed in 2026

On 23 June 2026, the federal government agreed to ban self-managed super funds from using new limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBAs) to buy residential property. The Bill passed both houses of Parliament in under 48 hours, received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026, and the ban commences on 10 August 2026.

If your SMSF already holds residential property under an LRBA, nothing changes. If you were planning to set one up, the window has effectively closed. And if you were relying on this strategy as a core part of your retirement plan, it is worth understanding what happened, what the numbers actually show, and what still works.

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Can an SMSF Still Borrow to Buy Property?

New SMSF loans for residential property are banned from 10 August 2026, the price of a Labor-Greens deal on the budget tax package. Existing arrangements are grandfathered, commercial property borrowing is untouched, and Scott and Phil’s read of the ATO data shows the market impact is close to nil.

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SMSF Rule Changes

The SMSF Residential Property Ban Explained: What Changed in 2026

On 23 June 2026, the federal government agreed to ban self-managed super funds from using new limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBAs) to buy residential property. The Bill passed both houses of Parliament in under 48 hours, received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026, and the ban commences on 10 August 2026.

If your SMSF already holds residential property under an LRBA, nothing changes. If you were planning to set one up, the window has effectively closed. And if you were relying on this strategy as a core part of your retirement plan, it is worth understanding what happened, what the numbers actually show, and what still works.

Read More »
time beat gigger wallet

Compounding Explained Properly

A $30,000 super contribution that beat an $81,000 one. The Rule of 72. The Aussie super advantage. This is compounding explained properly, with the maths most Australians have never sat with long enough to feel.

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Super Taxed in Australia

How Is Super Taxed in Australia?

The same dollar loses up to 47 cents as salary or 15 cents inside super. That gap is the whole deal. The 2026-27 caps and rules explained, plus the case study where timing and catch-up contributions turned a $98,000 CGT bill into $11,000.

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ai

Can You Trust AI With Your Super Questions?

In 2026 alone, super caps rose, deeming changed twice, Division 296 started and SMSF borrowing was banned. An AI trained last year missed all of it, and it won’t tell you. Where chatbots genuinely help with retirement research, and where the confident answers go wrong.

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Legal Loopholes for Super & Age Pension

Phil and I explored effective “legal loopholes” from clarifying deeming rates to explaining why drawings from an account-based pension are generally not assessed as income by Centrelink, and including practical options such as structured gifting to avoid the five-year deprivation rule.

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Retirement in Australia the truth about super & age pension

Superannuation Secrets No One Tells You (2025 Rules)

A “boring” super video just changed everything. In under two weeks: 53K views, 6.2K watch hours, and 1,100 new subscribers. Turns out Aussies love learning how to retire smarter. This month: gold’s record climb, the ASX’s quiet optimism, and what rising living costs mean for your super plan.

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