Aquis Park was once again the venue of choice for hosting our 27th Annual Client Awards on the 21st of October. We were privileged to be the first group to utilise the newly renovated Sky Lounge, where over 100 guests thoroughly enjoyed a day of fabulous food, good wine, and great company.

Founder & CEO Eric McCay shared the stories of two life-long associations he has been fortunate to be involved with during his financial planning career – the Ngawaka family, who were the first to become clients of MAS upon incorporation in 1995, and the Tucker family, which now spans 3 generations of clients with Carol having accepted a very youthful Eric as her adviser way back in 1988.

As always, the highlight of the day was the presentation of our Wealth Step awards to recognise client achievements. We were delighted to celebrate 16 Wealth Step Awards and present 31 awards in total. We also celebrated 12 couples who have been clients of MAS for 25 years.

The Cancer Council of Australia was our charity for the 9th instalment of the Investment Game.  In one of our best results ever, 4 of our 12 ‘Fund Managers’ managed a profit this year with Table 10 being declared the winners on the day. Overall, our initial investment of $960 was converted into a return of $930 and thanks to some generous donations, we raised over $1,800. We are pleased to announce that Count Charitable Foundation has pledged an additional $1,000 bringing our donation total to $2,800.

Following are some photos from the day.  We look forward to welcoming you again next year!

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After a 2-year Covid hiatus, we were thrilled to host our 26th Annual client awards on the 29th of October.

Aquis Park was resplendent with beautiful blue skies and lush green turf. Guests thoroughly enjoyed a day of fabulous food, good wine and great company.

Founder & CEO Eric McCay spoke about his original vision for the business and its subsequent growth beyond this, which he attributed to the dedication of the MAS Team and the support of our Client Referrals & Advocates.

As always, the highlight of the day was the presentation of our Wealth Step awards in recognition of client’s milestone achievements. We were delighted to celebrate having over forty clients achieve a Wealth Step.

Our 8th instalment of the Investment Game was held with MND Australia chosen as our charity, in memory of Troy who lost his battle with Motor Neurone Disease in July last year.

Despite their best efforts, only 2 of our 13 ‘Fund Managers’ managed a profit this year with Table 4 being declared the winners on the day. Overall, our initial ‘investment’ of $1,040 was converted into a return of $497.  Thanks to some generous donations we raised over $1,700 & we are pleased to announce that the Count Charitable Foundation has pledged an additional $2,500, bringing our total to over $4,200.

Following are some photos from the day.  We look forward to welcoming you again next year!

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22nd Annual Client Awards 2018

Our Annual Client Awards were held at the Gold Coast Turf Club on Saturday 3rd November with this year being the 22nd Celebration of the success of our clients.

We continued our history of mixed fortunes on the racetrack, as our betting game returned $506.20 after an outlay of $1,120. Despite our bad luck, thanks to additional generous donations, we have been able to give Future2 a donation of $1,334.35!

This year marked a significant milestone for many of our staff at MAS. Belinda McCay and Rob Dugdale were both awarded 20 Years of Service awards, Graham Gohl and Steve Cook received 15 Years of Service awards, and Kathy Herring was awarded her 10 Years of Service award.

As always, the highlight of the night was the presentation of the WealthStep milestone awards. This year we had over 20 award recipients, with one couple achieving WealthStep 5 – True Financial Independence. Congratulations to all award recipients!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this day possible, and thank you to everyone who attended. We look forward to seeing you all next year!

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After the 1987 share market crash, group founder and CEO Eric McCay witnessed clients of a share broking company be forced to sell their shares into a market that had already fallen over 50%. They were over-geared and unable to make payments on loans. After watching this destruction of wealth, these people watched from the sidelines as markets rebounded – they were unable to participate in the recovery, having been forced to sell out at the bottom. Eric vowed that no client of his would ever be a forced seller like what he had just seen.

Fast forward to 1996 when he was creating the ‘5 Pillars Program’, the first element that Eric designed was the concept of a ‘safety buffer’. Every client in the program would have enough undrawn capacity to cover a 50% fall in the sharemarket without needing to sell any of their investments. This strategy had been criticized as too conservative by some industry observers, particularly in the early to mid 2000’s when the sharemarket was posting great returns. However, the strategy was proven to be successful in 2008. As news broke about clients of Storm Financial and others being forced to sell their investments after the Global Financial Crises, Eric’s decision had been vindicated. Once again he watched on as people were forced to sell into an already falling market, knowing the clients of MAS Wealth Management were safe and those who had surplus buffer could take advantage of the opportunity.

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Imagine a bank that pays negative interest. In this upside down world, borrowers get paid and savers penalized.

At the moment, some 500 million people, in a quarter of the world’s economy, are living with negative deposit rates. Central banks are doing this in an attempt to increase lending, spur along inflation and reinvigorate the economy, after traditional measures have proven ineffective. The fear in Europe is that they will follow Japan into protracted deflation, and so central banks want to avoid this at all costs. Hence the focus on “unconventional” monetary policies that can operate to lift demand when lending rates hit zero.

If European central bank inflation forecasts are met, they should not need negative rates for too long – All expect inflation to increase towards their respective targets by 2017. However, in recent times central bank inflation forecasts have been too optimistic, which means these “temporary measures” could last much longer than expected.

What has this meant for savers?

Bank retail deposit rates are exceptionally low in those countries where central banks have adopted negative policy rates but they have seldom turned negative – zero is generally the floor. Deposit rates have been maintained better for households than for big corporates and for at-call accounts than term deposits.

And the borrowers?

Commercial bank retail lending rates have trended down in the negative interest rate countries but reductions have gradually lost momentum. Banks have been protecting margins, with a less prompt or full flow-through of changes in central bank deposit policy rates into retail lending rates. Where economies are strong or particular market segments buoyant, banks have even lifted margins to help offset the impact of negative central bank policy rates.

Euro-zone housing loan rates are around 2% and have been trending down while new lending to non-financial corporates have also been trending down and varied between 1½ and 3½% depending on loan size and type.

How low could deposit rates go?

The main constraint on making deposit rates very negative is the possibility that banks, business and households might hold their funds as cash rather than in negative rate deposit accounts. The cost and inconvenience of holding cash becomes crucial, a cost that varies according to the type of depositor and sums involved. Will Europeans store their cash in a safe at home?

Many households surveyed by ING in Europe say they would indeed change their behaviour if they faced negative retail deposit rates, shifting their money into other assets or hoarding it. There has been no evidence of such behaviour yet in Europe whilst retail deposit rates remain positive.

It’s still too early to know for sure whether or not negative interest rates are working, and only time will tell if they are able to increase demand and inflation.

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One of the big changes to superannuation on budget night involved Transition to Retirement (TTR) pensions. Are they still a worthwhile strategy going forwards?

To recap, a TTR strategy involves salary sacrificing additional amounts of your income into superannuation, and then starting a pension to pay you money to offset the amount you have reduced your income by. The goal being to have additional money contributed to super whilst not experiencing any reduction in your back pocket. The benefits of a TTR strategy were:

• The earnings on the assets inside a TTR were tax free (vs. 15% in superannuation)
• The salary sacrifice to superannuation reduced overall tax
• The pension payment is taxed at a lower rate (by virtue of a tax rebate) or tax free if over 60.

The proposed changes that will impact TTR strategies:

From 1 July 2017, assets inside a TTR pension will be taxed at 15% (previously 0%). There will be no changes to the tax on pension payments.

In addition to this, there will be a reduction in the concessional contributions cap from $35,000 to $25,000, meaning less money can be contributed to super by way of salary sacrifice.

The Results

Modelling shows that the benefits of a TTR strategy for clients under age 60 are now minimal, or potentially negative, compared with a typical range of $1,500 to $4,000 per annum.

Over 60’s however may still see some benefit in the strategy, although the benefits are reduced (generally by half) under the new proposals.

To sum up, the proposed changes will alter the benefits of TTR’s dramatically, and all strategies will need to be reviewed thoroughly before the proposed 1 July 2017 implementation date.

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If there’s one word that is able to strike fear into some clients, it’s the ‘B’ word – budget. It doesn’t matter what stage in your financial journey you’re at, a realistic spending plan is an essential part of your financial plan. Here are 5 simple tips to help you make a start:

1. Make a start and don’t lose heart. People tell me that they started with a budget, but it didn’t work and so they stopped.
   When I teach my 16 year-old how to drive a car, I don’t expect that he’ll have mastered it after the first hour. It takes a lot of practice before he’s able to drive a car by himself. Likewise, when you’re budgeting, don’t expect that it will be perfect the first time. There will be changes, amendments, successes and failures. Keep going!

2. Set a goal. Most people find it more difficult to save unless they have a purpose or a reason in mind. If you’re saving for the deposit on your first home, this is your goal. If you’re retired, you goal might be to maximize your spending up to a certain limit. Whatever your reason, remind yourself regularly ‘why’ you’re doing it.
3. Track it. A lot of your regular bills are easy to track, but the smaller items can be harder to remember. If you’re tech savvy, you might like to use a smart phone app to record what you spend. A simple expense diary is a low-tech but very effective method of recording expenses.
4. Now that you’ve gone to the trouble of tracking your expenses, make the most of the information by reviewing it and decide which, if any, changes can be made. For example, people who spend $4 on a coffee on the way to work, will spend nearly $1,000 over a year. Is this more important than your goal?
5. Keep it up. Once you’ve become familiar with your expenses, you might be tempted to consider it mission accomplished, and stop tracking your expenditure.

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ASIC has released a new app  to help people achieve their savings goals. TrackMyGOALS allows you to set, plan, track and manage savings goals and visualise your progress towards achieving your goals.

TrackMyGOALS integrates techniques that we know work for successful savers. TrackMyGOALS allows you to set, plan, track and manage savings goals and visualise your progress towards achieving those goals.

The TrackMyGOALS app helps you cultivate good savings habits and reach your dreams by:

• Creating realistic savings goals
• Prioritising your goals to ensure they can be achieved
• Providing positive encouragement by tracking your progress

This app appeals to a wide range of users from adults to children and even people who have never saved before. Use it to track your saving for a holiday, wedding, car, house, renovation, school fees or anything else you can dream of.

Watch this video for more information.

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What is it?

People who have reached their preservation age and are still working are able to access their superannuation and start a transition to retirement (TTR) strategy. Your preservation age is the earliest time at which you can start to access your superannuation and currently ranges between 55 and 60, depending on your date of birth.

How it works

A portion of your existing superannuation account is converted into an income stream (a TTR pension account) whilst you’re still working. The pension account pays you regular payments. You can then salary sacrifice part of your salary and wages back into your superannuation account and still have the same amount of money to cover your cost of living. The diagram below gives you an idea as to how your money moves when using this strategy:

As always, there are a number of rules and limitations, and the amount of benefit in this strategy depends on a number of factors. However, it does become more attractive once you are over 60 years of age and the income from the pre-retirement pension is tax free.

Ask us to run some calculations for you the next time you come in for a review so you’re fully aware of how this strategy works.

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