By Connor Smith and Charli Grayson, Leeuwin Wealth, SIAA Young Professionals.
| Hear from the Minister |
| The Hon Daniel Mulino MP, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Financial Services |
| The Minister for Financial Services opened the conference with a defence of recent budget measures and a forward-looking agenda for capital formation. On housing, the Minister rejected suggestions that budget settings would worsen affordability, framing the problem as fundamentally structural rather than fiscal and pointing to supply, planning and construction capacity as the appropriate levers rather than tax adjustments to investor settings. On business and innovation, the focus shifted to early-stage capital formation, with venture capital settings and cash flow support for young businesses positioned as priorities to retain entrepreneurial activity onshore amid intensifying global competition for capital. The overarching message, captured in the closing line “support investment while strengthening the system”, signalled an attempt to balance growth incentives against the regulatory tightening already underway across superannuation, advice and private markets. The tone set expectations of continued reform momentum rather than pause. |
| Digital advice and the hybrid model |
| Will Trout, Director, Securities & Investments Practices, Datos Insights |
| Datos Insights presented research reframing hybrid advice as a quality-of-integration challenge rather than a tooling question. Client appetite for hybrid models is overwhelming: 93% want access to digital tools, 92% value combining digital with adviser input, 83% want to collaborate digitally, 81% believe digital tools improve engagement, and 72% want easy switching between channels. Yet only 32% of clients currently experience all five attributes, exposing a substantial execution gap. When integration breaks down, hybrid clients experience the most friction of any segment, frequently being forced to absorb work themselves or shunted to portals inappropriately, which risks the perception that the firm is cost-cutting rather than upgrading service. Forcing digital tools on digital avoiders actively reduces engagement, making client segmentation by digital comfort essential. The winning formula combines seamless channel integration with traditional advice fundamentals: regular meetings, personalised messaging, proactive outreach and active needs identification. Hybrid done poorly is worse than not hybrid at all. |
| Key macroeconomic trends: what to expect |
| Diana Mousina, Deputy Chief Economist, AMP |
| The macroeconomic briefing painted a backdrop the speaker described as “jungle times”, with rising geopolitical volatility paradoxically producing resilient equity markets rather than the sell-offs many anticipated. US markets continue to outpace Australia, supported by a profit growth boom that has lifted technology earnings 40% year-to-date, while tech sector capital expenditure has only just reached the share of GDP last seen at the peak of the dot-com bubble, with projections of trillion-dollar tech capex by 2027 raising legitimate questions about whether returns will justify the spend. Inflation expectations remain structurally elevated, driven by ageing demographics, entrenched consumer spending culture, and rising defence outlays. The RBA is expected to deliver more than two further rate hikes, with other central banks likely to follow, while the US Federal Reserve remains reluctant to lift rates given the implications for bond prices. The net implication for portfolios: heightened inflation protection, careful regional positioning and active monitoring of geopolitical catalysts are warranted. |
| Private markets, fixed income and alternative investments |
| Frank Danieli (Managing Director & Group Executive, Head of Global Credit Solutions, MA Financial Group), Jake Fisher (Managing Director, Cliffwater), Helen Mason (Head of Credit, Schroders Australia); Moderator: Te Okeroa (General Manager – Advised Broking Services, AUSIEX) |
| Private credit and alternative income strategies dominated discussion, reframed as fixed income substitutes rather than standalone alternatives. With traditional income sources stretched and senior debt occasionally yielding more than equity income, panellists urged advisers to use capital structure positioning as the primary lens for risk assessment. Due diligence is non-negotiable: some Australian private credit funds underperform public markets once substantially higher fees are stripped out. Manager selection should hinge on proprietary origination, workout experience, and genuine co-investment alignment, with diversification critical to avoid sector and single-name concentration. Public and private credit are best deployed as complementary holdings, calibrated to client liquidity needs. ASIC scrutiny on valuations, fees and disclosure is intensifying, and a higher-for-longer inflation and rates backdrop will pressure borrowers. Listed vehicles offering private credit exposure signal early public-private convergence, while the more mature US market sets the transparency benchmark Australia has yet to meet. |
| Emerging markets – Why accessing EM is now more attractive than ever |
| Cameron Robertson (Portfolio Manager – Asia strategies, Platinum), Alexander Treves (Managing Director, Asia Head of Investment Specialists for Emerging Markets and Asia-Pacific equities, J.P. Morgan Asset Management); Moderator: Andrew Bird (Head of Wealth Management, UBS) |
| Emerging markets were reframed as structurally underweighted in most portfolios, with panellists arguing that typical 1-2% allocations bear no relation to the region’s share of global population, GDP and growth. The investment case rests less on the old consumption narrative and more on innovation, brand emergence and companies with defensible moats, particularly across Asia. A weakening US dollar outlook and reassessment of dollar assets as safe havens are redirecting flows eastward, while index concentration in names like TSMC means passive exposure now skews heavily to technology. Vietnam stands out for its demographic dividend and FDI momentum, and China should be treated dispassionately as a cyclical opportunity rather than avoided outright. Governance concerns were challenged given the Western origin of most major scandals, though stock-by-stock analysis remains essential. Five-year-plus holding periods and meaningful allocations were recommended over tactical dabbling. |
| A critical supplier has gone down: what happens next? |
| Calissa Aldridge (Executive Director, Markets Group, ASIC), Ben Jackson (General Manager, Market Operations, ASX), Karl Jancar (National Head of Operations, Shaw and Partners), Andrew Jappy (Executive General Manager, APAC, Iress); Facilitator: James Dickson (Managing Director, Oceanic Consulting Group) |
| The session addressed operational resilience and business continuity, framed around a deceptively simple stress test: what happens if an IRESS (or other widespread supplier) goes down? The discussion underscored that for stockbroking firms, prolonged loss of access to order management, market data and execution capability would cascade rapidly across the business, but the panel was emphatic that the technology outage itself is not the unforgivable failure. The unforgivable failure is going silent. Having no communication with vendors, clients and other market participants during an incident was singled out as the breach of trust that does lasting reputational damage, regardless of the underlying cause. Discussion turned to business continuity planning and the increasing reliance on cloud infrastructure such as Amazon Web Services, which introduces concentration risk even as it improves resilience. The practical message: documented continuity plans, tested communication protocols, and pre-agreed escalation paths with vendors and clients are now baseline expectations, not differentiators. |
| Ask ASX |
| Helen Lofthouse (CEO, ASX), Andrew Jones (Acting Group Executive, Securities and Payments, ASX); Moderator: Maria Lykouras (CEO, SIAA) |
| The ASX leadership session centred on a market operator mid-transformation and mid-leadership-change, with Helen Lofthouse handing over to Anthony in September 2026. Chess Release One has landed in clearing, but settlement is not due until 2029, and ASX is recalibrating its Accelerate programme from July 2026 with closer regulator alignment, enhanced governance, and additional independent directors on the clearing and settlement boards. Settlement modernisation may proceed at different speeds for different customer cohorts rather than a uniform T+1. Cloud infrastructure was positioned as a resilience and latency win, while tokenisation and cross-border collateral mobility were flagged as the defining five to ten year opportunity. Leadership reaffirmed Australia’s outsized global standing, underpinned by superannuation flows, though potential CGT changes and TMX’s CBOE acquisition introduce fresh competitive and policy uncertainty. Industry pace constraints remain the binding limit on transformation speed. |
| Advice, authority and unintended harm |
| Catherine Fitzpatrick, Founder & CEO, Flequity Ventures |
| Financial abuse emerged as a fast-escalating compliance and conduct frontier, with the 2024 parliamentary inquiry generating 61 recommendations and three government election commitments. Individual losses estimated at $5.7 million annually dwarf scam and card-fraud impacts, yet industry awareness remains low, with most advisers unaware of client disclosures. Coercive control legislation is spreading, banking transaction records have already underpinned a successful prosecution, and energy and water sectors now carry explicit protective obligations, signalling where financial services is heading. Practical expectations are sharpening: firms should stress-test products for misuse, treat couples as two individuals with separate consents and private conversations, monitor high-risk life events and transactions like SMSF establishment and super rollovers, and embed anti-abuse clauses into terms and conditions. The banking sector’s million-plus blocked abusive payment messages set the precedent. The guiding principle, safety by design, will increasingly define both regulatory expectation and reputational risk. |
| The future of platforms |
| Jason Entwistle (Director – Strategic Development, HUB24), Crystal Hanna (General Manager – Financial Products, Netwealth), Recep Peker (Managing Director, SuitabilityHub); Moderator: Olivia Grace-Curran (Senior Wealth Journalist, Investor Daily) |
| Platforms are repositioning from investment administration utilities into integrated advice infrastructure, with the centre of gravity shifting to workflow, data and AI rather than feature competition. Three decades of fee compression, from 1.2% to 0.3%, continue to drive consolidation, yet panellists expect more entrants over the next decade as specialised segments emerge, particularly in high net worth and private client advice where non-custodial services and private market access matter. Open architecture is displacing lock-in strategies, and data normalisation is now treated as the prerequisite for any credible AI deployment. Australian advisers lead globally on AI adoption at 76%, but only 30% of users have governance policies in place, exposing material compliance risk from consumer-grade tools handling client data. Targeted efficiency gains are striking: Hub24 is aiming to cut onboarding from 25 hours to 25 minutes. Platform selection should now hinge on fit and workflow integration rather than feature parity. |
| Technology-enabled advice |
| Matt Esler (Managing Director & CEO, Padua Solutions), Chantal Giles (Head of APAC Strategic Clients & Business Development, BlackRock), Steven Goh (Co-founder, Fabyl), James Hammond (Vice President of Business Development, Flextrade); Moderator: Amanda Boyce (Head of Advice, Euroz Hartleys) |
| Technology-enabled advice was framed as still embryonic, with the industry described as just 1% into the AI cycle and current productivity gains of 10-20% well below the 10x ceiling considered achievable. Data fragmentation across custodial, managed fund and equity systems remains the binding constraint, and panellists were unanimous that data infrastructure must be resolved before meaningful AI deployment. Compliance is the most visibly transformed function, with quality assurance shifting from post-advice checking to real-time, front-end strategy input, freeing senior staff for higher-value work. Australian conservatism and legacy tech lag global peers, with Singapore’s DBS cited as a benchmark for AI-augmented “superhuman” advisers. Robo-advice continues to disappoint, with 90% client abandonment reinforcing that AI should scale human advisers rather than replace them. Practical priorities: redesign daily workflows, build muscle memory for tool use, integrate AI-native graduates, and engage regulators early. Industry capacity could realistically triple without job losses. |
| Is the market efficient and competitive? |
| Richard Carleton (CEO, Canada Securities Exchange), Marco Chung (Director, Sales & Relationship Management, NYSE), Andrew Jones (Acting Group Executive, Securities and Payments, ASX), Warwick Schneller (Head of Investment Solutions, Scientific Beta); Moderator: Hannah Oakhill (Executive nabtrade, NAB Private Wealth) |
| Market structure and competition surfaced as a pressing strategic concern, anchored by NYSE’s filing to move to 24/7 trading and the implications for Australia. Panellists were sceptical that round-the-clock trading would deepen liquidity for most ASX names beyond a handful of mega caps, with the genuine risk being competitive displacement rather than investor benefit. Tokenisation was floated as a pragmatic middle path, preserving conventional exchange hours while enabling after-hours bilateral matching. Settlement disparities are widening: the US is progressing toward T+15 minute clearing while Australia holds at T+2, though daily netting that compresses $10 billion of transactions into $3 billion of settlement remains a structural strength. Liquidity thins materially down the market cap curve, private equity continues taking out listed companies at 35-50% premiums, and public listings keep declining as cheaper capital sits elsewhere. Retail flows from younger investors via fintech brokers and ETFs are rising sharply. Industry conventions for disclosure, closing prices and halts will need redesign for any 24/7 future. |
| The impact of Shield and First Guardian |
| Hamish Dee (Director, Morgans Financial), David Hutchison (General Manager – Managed Portfolios & Investments, North, AMP), Michael Mavromatis (Partner, Holley Nethercote Lawyers); Moderator: Michelle Huckel (Policy Manager, SIAA) |
| Industry failures, principally Shield and First Guardian, were the lens for examining proposed regulatory reform, with over 11,000 investors and $1 billion in losses driving Treasury consultation. The panel pushed back hard on several proposals, arguing that codified platform holding limits, five-day super switching delays, and bans on adviser fee deductions from super for switching advice would compound rather than solve the underlying problems and worsen Australia’s existing advice shortage. Existing trustee obligations and DDO frameworks, properly applied, were seen as the more effective path. Making platforms liable for third-party fraud risks moral hazard and further menu restrictions, with mainstream managers overseeing $300 billion already removed from some platforms, disrupting portfolio construction industry-wide. Support coalesced around CSLR reform that limits compensation to actual capital losses, excluding counterfactual gains. Reputational damage extends well beyond directly affected investors, threatening the engagement of 20 million Australian adults. Coordinated industry submissions and direct political engagement were urged. |
| Keeping up with trends in trading |
| James Giarratano (Head of Sales, Cboe), Chris Hill (National Director, Strategic Relationships, AUSIEX), Gopala Subramanium (CEO, NOVA CMX); Moderator: Michael McCarthy (CEO, moomoo ANZ) |
| Equities trading is being reshaped by structural shifts that demand strategic response. ETF assets have reached roughly $350 billion across 481 listed funds, with advised channel ETF usage climbing from 22% to nearly 47% in three years and actively managed listed fund inflows surging 600% over twelve months. International trading account openings have tripled, signalling sustained client demand for offshore access. Close auction volumes have moved from 20% to over 30% of daily turnover since 2020, materially altering intraday liquidity. Australia’s turnover-to-market-cap ratio of 0.3% trails Asian peers at 5% and direct competitors at 0.7 to 1.5%, while overnight US trading already exceeds Australia’s entire daily equity turnover. Options markets remain strikingly underdeveloped at around 20 actively traded names. Resourcing is the universal bottleneck, regulators demand human endpoints on all AI decision-making, and platforms must hit cybersecurity and compliance milestones by January 2027. Architectural investment, not patching, is the prevailing message. |
| Managing the great wealth transfer |
| Blake Indian (Director Tax, KPMG), Kaajal Prasad (Head of Family Advisory, LGT Wealth Management), Kim Venter (Director – Family Advisory, JBWere); Moderator: Arnie Selvarajah (Group Co-Chief Executive Officer, Bell Financial Group) |
| The great wealth transfer was framed as both a retention threat and a service-model opportunity, with advisers urged to apply family office disciplines well beyond traditional ultra-wealthy clientele. With the average advised client at 67 and around 65% of next-generation wealth set to be controlled by women, failure to engage spouses and adult children early is a direct client-loss risk. Existing entity structures, largely built for historical tax optimisation, are now constraining succession planning, making early multidisciplinary engagement across legal, tax, governance and investment essential. The recommended starting point is intent rather than mechanics: clarify the purpose of wealth and the intended beneficiaries before optimising structures. Several panellists insisted on both partners attending initial meetings as standard practice. Recent budget proposals affecting CGT discounts and trust taxation create planning uncertainty, though panellists counselled measured response, expecting material dilution through consultation and parliamentary process rather than reactive restructuring. |
| Global small caps vs domestic small caps – where to invest? |
| James Rodda (Portfolio Manager, Antipodes), Eleanor Swanson (Portfolio Manager, Firetrail); Moderator: Karren Vergara (Senior Journalist, Financial Standard) |
| Antipodes and Firetrail made the case for small caps as the most compelling relative value trade currently available, with PE spreads versus large caps at GFC-era lows and underlying business quality materially higher than during that earlier dislocation. The structural advantage of small cap mandates was also emphasised: with no index constituent above 2%, managers can conduct genuine bottom-up research rather than benchmark-hugging. Antipodes positioning leans heavily into infrastructure as an inflation hedge, with mining and infrastructure also framed as anti-AI-disruption plays insulated from rapid technological displacement. The manager has added Amazon in adjacent funds, taken a position in Viva Energy, and is deliberately underweight retail given global consumption headwinds while seeking to neutralise interest rate sensitivity. Firetrail’s Australian focus highlighted Regis Healthcare, capitalising on a structural aged care bed deficit, and Channel Infrastructure, a New Zealand fuel storage and distribution asset expected to list on the ASX this year. Both books reflect concentrated thematic conviction. |
| Meet the Shadow Minister |
| The Hon. Kevin Hogan MP, Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Shadow Minister for Financial Services; Interviewer: Michelle Huckel (Policy Manager, SIAA) |
| The Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Financial Services used the address to position the opposition as an active channel for industry concerns and to sharpen critique of current government policy. The collapse in adviser numbers from 29,000 to 15,000 was cited as evidence of regulatory overreach materially constraining the industry’s capacity to meet rising advice demand. Recent budget capital gains tax changes were described as “very damaging”, and the broader trajectory of regulatory expansion was characterised as “a disease of the Western world”. The Shadow Minister framed the current environment as an “ideological war between Labour workers and workers in our industry”, while also flagging concern that Australian financial literacy levels remain “atrocious and abominable”, a problem worsened by shrinking advice access. The practical takeaway for attendees was an open invitation: the Shadow Minister explicitly requested direct industry feedback on regulatory pain points and policy suggestions, signalling the opposition’s intent to position itself as the more industry-aligned alternative. |
| The road ahead: A national study on the stockbroking landscape |
| Andrew Inwood (CEO, Coredata), Denis Orrock (Head of Strategy, Praemium) |
| The national survey reframed industry conditions as a once-in-a-generation demand shock meeting constrained supply. Advice penetration sits at 22-27%, yet 90% of surveyed Australians now feel they need to talk to someone, driven by recent budget complexity, demographic peaks in the 55-year-old cohort, and a $5.4 trillion intergenerational transfer ahead. High net worth clients hold $3.2 trillion of $4.5 trillion in total wealth, and Price’s Law suggests that roughly 140 of 16,000 advisers will capture half the work. Only 20% of firms are actively leaning in. Strategic prescriptions were unambiguous: articulated one, three and five-year plans, deliberate client segmentation toward 200 clients with $2 million each, hybrid execution-plus-advisory revenue models, managed accounts to scale, ruthless back-office elimination, and fast-follower rather than first-mover AI adoption given audit requirements. Industry fund outflows into retail and accelerating platform alternatives growth of 26-27% reinforce that service quality, not price, is now the decisive battleground. |
| Challenges running an advice business |
| Amanda Boyce (Head of Advice, Euroz Hartleys), James Macaulay (CEO/Managing Director, Morgans Financial), Karl Morris AO (CEO, Ord Minnett); Moderator: Maria Lykouras (CEO, SIAA) |
| The panel on running an advice business distilled into a few durable principles rather than tactical playbooks. Continuing education on a one-to-two-year cycle was framed as non-negotiable regardless of seniority, reflecting both regulatory expectations and the pace at which products, technology and client needs are evolving. On AI, panellists confirmed the prevailing posture among established firms is fast-follower rather than first-mover, with firmwide deployment deferred until governance, audit-readiness and explainability concerns are properly resolved, a stance consistent with messaging across other conference sessions. Opportunity capture was a recurring theme: advisers and principals were urged to actively identify and act on emerging opportunities rather than waiting for certainty, particularly given the structural demand surge flagged elsewhere in the conference. Underpinning everything was a call for genuine long-term thinking, applied equally to personal career trajectory and business strategy, recognising that the firms positioning now for the wealth transfer, demographic shift and platform evolution will dominate the next decade. |
| Market Perspectives – Ms. Perception: Women and Investing |
| Nicole Dunn (Executive Director, Market Team Head, UBS Global Wealth Management), Carolyn O’Reilly (Partner, Perpetual Private), Deon Cavarra (Director, Wealth Advice, JBWere); Moderator: Frank Hegerty OLY (Head of Private Wealth, Ord Minnett) |
| The session on women and investing surfaced both a service gap and a workforce gap, with 45% of women reporting they feel underserved by financial advisers. A central reframing was the distinction between risk averse and risk aware: female clients are routinely mischaracterised as the former when they are typically the latter, leading to systematically inappropriate advice recommendations and conservative positioning that may not reflect actual preferences. Practical meeting conduct emerged as the most actionable lever, with emphasis on engaging both partners directly, drawing in quieter participants who often hold significant decision-making influence, and stripping unexplained jargon from conversations. On workforce composition, female adviser representation varies materially across firms, with UBS at 20%, JB Were at 30%, and Perpetual Private notably lagging. Structural barriers include education pathway gaps, negative industry perceptions and limited flexibility for those with family responsibilities. Recommended responses include targeted recruitment of capable but less self-promoting candidates and lateral hires from adjacent professions to broaden the talent pipeline. |