The 2017 Budget included proposals intended to reduce pressure on housing affordability Two of them use the superannuation system to do so the First Home Super Saver Scheme and the Reducing Barriers to Downsizing proposal Partner Michelle Levy examines the schemes in more detail ...

With the release of an ASFA Best Practice Paper on insourcing investment management we look at some of the challenges and opportunities for in-house legal teams that come with the seemingly inexorable move in the superannuation industry towards insourcing investment management functions ...

The new Life Insurance Code of Practice has much to recommend it The paragraphs concerning policy design are a case in point But is the Code indeed just a code or does it purport to go further ...

As you read this the Melbourne-based makers of LazerBlade the affordable laser cutter engraver are probably exchanging high-fives Their Kickstarter project seeking 45000 has raised almost ten times that much Soon the projects backers hope to receive their LazerBlades ndash their pledges were ...

Have you been wondering what the Royal Commission will make of the numerous witness statements and vast amounts of other information collected from superannuation trustees in recent times You will find out soon enough But first there are some curiosities from the Round Four hearings to consider - ...

In its second decision on predictive coding this year the English High Court has again accepted the use of this innovative technology in discovery this time in a contested application Partner Duncan Travis Managing Associate Kate Austin and Law Graduate Yi-Ling Ng examine the case and its ...

ASIC has released a consultation paper on proposals to facilitate innovation in the financial services sector The proposals include details of the long-awaited regulatory sandbox It will be of interest to both emerging companies who may rely on the relief as well as investors in this space Senior ...

The Government has recently made changes to superannuation law that helps clear the way for trustees of regulated superannuation funds to charge fund assets in order to enter into a broad range of exchange-traded and Over-The-Counter derivative transactions The changes are intended to make it easier ...

The idea that the UK could on leaving the EU simply walk away from a significant amount of EU financial services regulation seems fantastical It is likely that the UK will instead have to adopt on exit vast amounts of EU financial services regulation However the UK will have no say on the future ...

The Reserve Bank has now released a Standard which sets out what payment surcharges will be permitted for the purposes of the new Part IVC of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 Cth The aim of the Standard is to improve competition and efficiency by providing to consumers price signals associated ...