Financial literacy and pension investment decisions

The call for enhanced financial literacy amongst consumers is a global phenomenon, driven by the growing complexity of financial markets and products, and government concerns about the affordability of supporting an ageing population. Worldwide, defined benefit pensions are giving way to the risk and uncertainty of defined contribution superannuation/pension funds where fund members now make choices and decisions that were once made on their behalf. An important prerequisite for informed financial decision-making is adequate financial knowledge and skills to make competent investment decisions. This paper reports the findings of an online survey of the members of a large Australian public sector-based superannuation fund and shows that although respondents generally understand basic financial matters, on average, their understanding of investments concepts, such as the relationship between risk and returns, is inadequate. These results highlight the need for education programs focusing specifically on developing fund members’ investment knowledge and skills to facilitate informed retirement savings decisions.

Enhancing business continuity management capacities in the insurance industry : a Southeast Asian perspective

As a resilience enhancing practice, business continuity management (BCM) can play an important role in aiding preparation of the insurance industry for coping with the losses incurred by major discontinuity incidents: regardless of cause. Acknowledging the increasing frequency of unpredictable man-made disasters and natural catastrophes, the insurance industry would benefit from examining and implementing, where suitable, key elements of BCM. Such strategic decisions would assist insurers and re-insurers collectively to enhance mutual capability to respond to, and recover from, the impact of significant losses. This paper presents a comparison of opinions about BCM practitioners in both retail and re-insurance companies on the importance of generic continuity practices with actual levels of BCM practice across the two industry groups in Southeast Asia. It suggests means by which multi-lateral cooperation across Asian economies and between retail and re-insurance market segments might enhance the viability of the insurance industry in the face of increased stress from major natural and socio-technical hazards.

Floods, earthquakes and insurance coverage : issues, problems and solutions

The recent floods in Queensland and elsewhere in Australia as well as the recent earthquakes in New Zealand have again given rise to very significant uninsured losses. This article looks at the issue of cover protection against catastrophes such as floods and earthquakes affecting home buildings and contents insurance and the standard cover provisions of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth). It points also to the possibility of a national scheme to cover natural disasters including floods.

The role of institutional rural property in diversified investment portfolios in NSW, Australia

The food and fuel crisis experienced in 2006 to 2008 has highlighted the importance of agricultural commodity production throughout developing and developed economies and has placed greater awareness and importance on rural property and rural property markets. These factors have led to an increased interest from major property investment institutions and property companies in the role of rural property in a mixed asset or mixed property investment portfolio. This paper will analyse rural property sales in New South Wales for the period 1990-2008, and will compare total return performance across a number of rural property sectors based on geographic location and land use type. These results show that the inclusion of rural property in an investment portfolio has benefits in relation to return and risk.

Insurance and the law of negligence : an influential or irrelevant persuader?

This article examines, from both within and outside the context of compulsory third party motor vehicle insurance, the different academic and judicial perspectives regarding the relevance of insurance to the imposition of negligence liability via the formulation of legal principle. In particular, the utility of insurance in setting the standard of care held owing by a learner driver to an instructor in Imbree v McNeilly is analysed and the implications of this High Court decision, in light of current jurisprudential argument and for other principles of negligence liability, namely claimant vulnerability, are considered. It concludes that ultimately one’s stance as to the relevance, or otherwise, of insurance to the development of the common law of negligence will be predominately influenced by normative views of torts’ function as an instrument of corrective or distributive justice.

Retrospective evaluation and prospective value-add : a review of R&D investment in Australia

This paper describes a lead project currently underway through Australia’s Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre evaluating diffusion mechanisms and impacts of R&D investment in the Australian built environment. Through a retrospective analysis of R&D investment trends and industry outcomes, and a prospective assessment of industry futures using strategic foresighting, a future-focussed industry R&D roadmap and pursuant policy guidelines will be developed. This research aims to build new understandings and knowledge relevant to R&D funding strategies, research team formation and management, dissemination of outcomes and industry uptake. Each of these issues are critical due to: the disaggregated nature of the built environment industry; intense competition; limited R&D investment; and new challenges (e.g. IT, increased environmental expectations). This paper details the context within which this project is being undertaken and the research design. Findings of the retrospective analysis of past R&D investment in Australia will be presented at this conference.

Property investment, construction and economic growth : the case of Malaysia

It is generally accepted that there is a close relationship between property investment and construction activity. The construction sector plays a crucial role in economic development, especially for a developing nation such as Malaysia. However, the volume of new properties added to the property market is only a fraction of the total volume of the property market. Is the conventional assumption of the relationship between property investment and construction supported by empirical data? This paper revisits the tripartite relationships between economic growths, property investment and construction activities with official Malaysian 2000Q1-2010Q4 quarterly time series data. The Granger causality tests are used to establish the causality runs from the GDP to the value of property transactions, and the growth of construction activities to GDP growth. The result is expected to be useful for policymakers and industrial practitioners in formulating industrial policies and corporate strategies.

Assessing the real value in residential property investment

One of the major fall outs from the Global Financial Crisis has been the decline in residential property construction, home lending and residential property prices. This has lead to some extent to a reduction in the number of small investors willing to commit funds to an investment market that is not seen to perform as well as other investment assets, particularly in relation to income return.With a decreasing supply of rental accommodation in the housing markets, less public housing being constructed by both State and Commonwealth Governments, there is the potential for the residential property market to provide more substantial returns than previous years.This paper will analyse the current residential housing market in Brisbane, Australia to determine if there are sectors in this market that are outperforming the average income and total return for residential investment property and the variation in investment performance across the various housing sub-markets. The results show that property investment in residential property provides opportunities to maximize returns based on geographic location and socio-economic economic status, with lower value areas showing the highest income returns and higher value suburbs showing greater capital returns

Mapping Australia's philanthropic investment in women and girls

The Australian Women Donors Network (Women Donors) partnered the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (ACPNS) at QUT to conduct this research. No studies exist on the size or sources of philanthropic giving in Australia directed intentionally towards the needs of women and girls. The survey aims to fill this knowledge gap and create a baseline for understanding trends and views in this area. Because the survey treads some new ground, its findings raise questions as well as giving answers. Encouragingly, 100 people from across the philanthropy spectrum completed the survey, embracing 41 individual donors and other respondents from various foundation types. Given the population difference, this response compares well with the 145 respondents to the USA-based Foundation Center’s 2009 European study (reported in 2011). The survey was designed for givers generally, not just those involved in giving to women and girls specifically. It is possible, though, that people with an interest in funding this area were more likely to participate. This potential oversampling may inflate the figures on funding women and girls to some degree. Also, because the population size of Australian philanthropists is unknown, no claims can be made that this information is generalizable to all Australian funders. Nonetheless, some patterns and themes emerge from the 100 responses.