As we should be transitioning from the warmth of summer to the crispness of autumn, we find ourselves sweltering in the delayed summer heat.
As we draw near to the end of this first quarter, we are delighted to introduce our first newsletter for the year. A platform to share some interesting articles of relevance and an opportunity to enlighten you on recent developments at Pinnacle.
Following a period of relatively adverse returns, it is encouraging to participate in the markets resurgence. Share market indices reached record highs in early March on the back of lower CPI numbers. There are early indications suggesting that a rate reduction might take place towards the end of the year, which will no doubt provide some welcomed relief for some.
Whilst there have been some encouraging signs, the outlook remains uncertain. Cost of living pressures and the housing crisis are still prevalent and the Australian dollar is still providing headaches as it hovers around US$0.65—making travel to the US quite an expensive place to visit! Adding to the uncertainty is continued geopolitical instability, now with tensions in the Middle East.
What’s happening at Pinnacle!
We unfortunately started the beginning of this year and continue to do so ‘one man down’. As mentioned in previous newsletters Matthew Anderson had been experiencing ongoing health issues which resulted in him undergoing treatment for a period of time. Whilst the treatment did provide some positive outcome, it wasn’t enough to avoid major surgery in early January. To date, Matthew is still away on personal leave and recovery is taking time (too slow for Matthew’s liking), but we do hope to see him back in the office with some flexibility maybe next month. We have continual contact with Matthew and he’s in good spirits.
Communication around our new Client Portal had basically come to a halt! Unfortunately the development, functionality and ironing out of problems had made us reassess the software as it wasn’t instilling us with confidence. We are currently researching new options. Security is a major driver of the Client Portal, but it has so many other positives which we look forward to bringing to you as soon as possible.
For clients that receive their reviews via email, we have now introduced an interim security measure until we have the Client Portal up and running. All emailed documents will be ‘password protected’ with your date of birth.
From our own security front, we feel it’s important to keep you updated with our cyber security measures and what we are doing to protect your personal data. We are currently 6 months in to a 2 year plan of system upgrades. First major upgrade and the most important involved improving our network security and the next generation of anti-virus monitoring. So secure, I had to ask IT to remove the security block on purchasing wine! The upgrade includes the Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) as previously mentioned in our last newsletter, but also new firewall software that provides elevated network protection and 24/7 real time monitoring.
As we move into the next quarter, it will be a good time to focus on 30 June strategies! It’s time to start looking at making those additional super contributions and planning for any tax and super strategies that may apply to you. Different strategies can take time, so best to get any plans in motion now.
Chris Launer—Principal
