Tuesday, July 08, 2008


Investment Management Professionals

Abundance through Education


Investment Education Seminars for $zip

What is an I-share?

What Millionaires Do, and YOU Can, Too...

Financial Planner, Wealth Coach & Author Jeremy Britton will be speaking at several locations in Queensland during April. Please contact the IMP office for bookings on 1300 762 624 or call the venue (all are free events).
April 1st 3pm Brisbane Church of Christ Headquarters, Kenmore
April 2nd 10am Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Southbank
April 3rd 10am Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Southbank
April 18th 10am Whitsunday Anglican School, Mackay
April 19th 10am Mackay Convention Centre, Mackay
I-pod, I-phone, I-shares?
The Apple computer company turned the world on its ear (bad pun) a few years ago with the launch of the I-pod portable music player.

Since then, we have also seen the launch of the i-phone mobile phone, which includes satellite linkup and 'pocket computer' characteristics.

New on the horizon are investment vehicles 'i-shares', which may be set to turn the financial planning industry on its head.

For many years, if the public wished to invest into Australian shares, they could approach a stockbroker for direct shares or a financial planner for indirect shares or Aussie managed funds.
Both had their pros and cons, and the investor had a choice between using the two services to generate a similar result.

If the public wanted to invest into overseas markets (e.g. buying shares in China or Japan), it was mostly too difficult or too expensive to use a stockbroker, so the investor could have to use a financial planner to invest into overseas managed funds.
This seemed to then become another distinction between financial planners and stockbrokers: one could get you an overseas investment and one could not.

(It is important to realise that the vast majority of financial planners are not accredited to advise on direct shares as a stockbroker may do.)

With the introduction of i-shares (the I stands for "international"), Australian stockbrokers can now assist the public with investing into overseas markets. You may choose to buy a market such as the Chinese Index or Indian Index and this will be traded on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in the same way as a share in Woolworths or Telstra.

Does this mean that people will no longer need to see a financial planner? Depending upon the clients' need, it could mean the demise of much of the planners' business. Certainly, losing the "overseas exclusive" may affect planning businesses.

There will always be room for good strategists, but a broker may start to fill a need that was once the sole domain of the planner...
Some planners may upskill themselves to be accredited in i-shares and ASX shares*, while others may simply find that they have lost significant advantage in the new open playing field.

It is unlikely that Microsoft will launch rivals to the Apple i-pod and i-phone. To do so could be expensive, risky or futile. Far wiser to concentrate on the home PC market and gaming consoles such as the X-Box.

As for what the financial planning industry will do to compete, we can only guess. Perhaps fees on overseas funds will come down in response to the availability of i-shares. We can live in hope...

CAUTION: there may be far greater volatility in I-share prices than in standard ASX shares, due to the nature of overseas markets and also the affect of currency prices (the Aussie dollar).

Jeremy Britton and Jacob van Rensburg are both qualified financial planners who are also uniquely accredited to advise on managed funds, direct ASX stocks and i-shares.
Find out more: www.24hourwealthcoach.com or 1300 762 624

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