Create the life you want
It’s Spring! Fresh beginnings. When we wrote our last winter newsletter we were all just heading into lockdown in New South Wales and later Victoria. As we write this edition we are all hopefully getting ready to come out. We really hope that this is the beginning of a return to normality and life as we used to know it. We know so many of our clients have really struggled through these never ending lockdowns. Especially those Parents struggling through homeschooling and many others who have not been able to celebrate with or commemorate the life of their loved ones. But now that our vaccination rates are some of the highest in the world maybe that can all change. It needs to for the sake of our mental health.
As for economies and markets… it appears that they want to continue marching forward. Certainly the price of property continues to climb during a period when no one could attend auctions or open homes. Unbelievable. The investment markets are also driving forward despite border closures, broken supply chains, no tourism, inflation risks, strained trade relationships and political infighting and interference both here and around the world. Many of our client portfolios are returning around 20% over the past 12 months which is extremely strong. We do expect a correction at some point as the markets have had their strongest bull run pretty much in history since the pandemic started. As we write this newsletter, the reserve bank of Australia has just announced that there will be no interest rate hikes until 2024 at the earliest. That will certainly support more jobs, economic activity, property and investment growth.
Your Chrysalis investment committee is right now scanning the world and various asset classes for the many opportunities that are presenting as we all learn to live with COVID-19. We will be in touch over the coming weeks and months in this regard.
NSW Government going Digital
In case you are not aware, for those of our clients who own property in NSW, the NSW government plans to cancel the paper based certificate of title of your property on 11 October 2021 and instead replace this with a Digital entry on the Torrens Title Register. You can read more about this here.
Consent Forms now Law
The latest round of new compliance regulation all financial advisors must now adhere to is an annual enhanced fee disclosure statement and consent forms for each product a client holds. These must be signed each and every year according to strict date anniversaries. We very much appreciate your patience with yet more paperwork and your assistance in helping us comply with all of these new rules.
Petition to the federal government
The Commonwealth government has implemented a wide sweeping and impactful new compliance regime as a result of the banking royal commission. This has led to currently one third of the financial advisors in Australia having left the industry. Over 40 suicides. Over 5000 advisors now undergoing medical treatment for chronic anxiety and depression. The changes have been enormous, hurried and hugely expensive for clients as our compliance costs have almost tripled since the royal commission. The industry is trying desperately to bring the cost of advice down for every day Australians. Our major associations, advisors and stakeholder groups are appealing to the government to reconsider some of their new compliance requirements which do not improve outcomes for clients. A petition is currently before the Senate in Canberra for approval. We may be contacting you further to seek your support. If you would like to watch a short info video or a handout explaining more details please let us know.
Chrysalis News
Apart from Jasmin in reception, we all continue to still work from home. We hope that we have been able to meet all of your service requirements without much or any interruption given that significant change. We are all now looking forward to getting back together in the office! As is always the case, we are working on several projects at the moment to improve your experience with us which we will roll out soon. We are always keen for your feedback or ideas if you have any as to how we can make your Chrysalis experience more enjoyable and valuable to you.
We are pleased to announce that for a second year in a row, Chrysalis has been selected as a finalist in the category of ‘self licensed firm of the year’ in the Independent Financial Adviser excellence awards 2021. The winner will be announced at the awards function on 17 November. Fingers crossed!
We want to thank you for your partnership with us, your wonderful referrals to us, sharing your life‘s journey with us. It is a great honour and privilege to be able to advise and serve our clients in order to help you live the life you want. Chrysalis is strong, mature, effective and now has a sensational team dedicated to supporting you as we go forward together.
We are always there for you. Always just a phone call away if we can help or support you in any way. We would hope that you feel comfortable to call us with any need that you might need help with.
Enjoy this warmer weather and hopefully our new found freedoms as we get back to the priorities and lifestyles that matter most. Who knows, with a little luck we may even be able to celebrate the return of international air travel in the next newsletter edition. Until then stay safe and have fun.
