What LGBTQ+ couples need to know about financial planning in Australia
When it comes to financial planning, every couple is different. Marriage equality became law in Australia in December 2017, but equal legal status doesn’t automatically translate into equal financial planning. For many LGBTQ+ couples, the paperwork hasn’t caught up with the relationship. That gap can cause real problems down the track.
Unique considerations and opportunities
Many LGBTQ+ couples have spent years building lives together before formal recognition existed for relationships like theirs. This can mean:
- Longer de facto relationships without matching legal documentation.
- Blended or chosen family structures that don’t fit neatly into default legal categories.
- A stronger than average need to be explicit in writing, because default legal assumptions don’t always reflect the relationship.
The upside is that many LGBTQ+ couples already have deliberate conversations about their future rather than relying on convention. That habit can put them ahead when it comes to proactive planning.
Estate planning for non-traditional families
Superannuation does not automatically form part of your estate. A fund holds it in trust and pays it according to the fund’s rules and any nomination in place. A valid death benefit nomination is essential rather than optional.
Same-sex and de facto partners are recognised as dependants under superannuation law, on equal footing with married couples. That recognition only applies, though, if the paperwork reflects it. Key documents to review:
- Binding death benefit nominations, which typically lapse every three years unless the fund offers a non-lapsing option.
- Non-binding death benefit nominations that do not lapse but are not binding on the fund’s trustee.
- Wills that name a partner explicitly, particularly important where families of origin may not recognise the relationship.
- Powers of attorney and guardianship documents, so your partner has authority to make decisions if you can’t.
Relationship recognition and benefits
The Family Law Act treats de facto couples, including same-sex couples, equally to married couples for property division. Centrelink and tax law follow the same approach for benefits and thresholds.
The key is being able to evidence the relationship where required. This matters for age pension assessments, tax offsets, super splitting, and super death benefit payout.
Where an adviser adds value
A good adviser reviews every document as a set, not in isolation. They check that the will, super nomination, and powers of attorney all say the same thing.
We also help couples navigate conversations with family of origin, structure joint versus separate assets sensibly, and make sure chosen family members are properly protected in the plan.
Why dividend growth beats high yield for long-term passive income
Ten years ago, neighbours Phil and Ann were both 55 and eyeing retirement. Phil built a portfolio of high-yielding mining stocks paying 8% dividends, generating immediate cash flow. Ann chose steadily growing companies like Woolworths and Telstra, accepting a modest 4% yield. Ten years later, Phil’s income barely budged while costs climbed 30%. Ann’s growing dividends now exceed Phil’s, and her portfolio value has doubled.
Same starting point, different strategies, profoundly different outcomes. Dividend investing isn’t just about collecting passive income. It’s about choosing the right type of income for your timeline and goals.
High-yield vs dividend growth strategies
In late 2025, the ASX200 dividend yield sat at 3.3%, one per cent below its 10-year average of 4.3%, making strategic selection more critical than ever.
Research shows that simple high-yield strategies have consistently underperformed the market over the long term. Why? Because companies offering sky-high yields (often 7-10%) frequently do so because their growth has stalled. These companies believe the most efficient use of capital is returning it to investors rather than reinvesting for expansion. That 9% yield may look attractive, but if the dividend stays flat while inflation runs at 3% annually, you’re losing purchasing power every year.
Dividend growth investing flips this equation. Companies like Australian energy company APA Group have increased dividends annually for 20 consecutive years, including through the Global Financial Crisis and COVID. A $100,000 investment in APA in 2012 initially yielded 5.3%, generating $5,300 in income that year. By 2025, that same investment generated $11,200 annually, an 11.2% yield on the original capital, while average market yields remained around 5-6%. The share price appreciation mirrored the income growth, delivering superior total returns.
Creating a dividend portfolio
Building a sustainable income portfolio takes more discipline than simply chasing the highest yields. Franked dividends are generally better for most Australian investors because they include tax credits (franking credits) that reduce your personal tax on the dividend, sometimes even resulting in a cash refund if you’re in a low tax bracket, effectively giving you more after-tax income.
- Start with quality and diversification. Spread holdings across market sectors to reduce concentration risk and exposure to different economic drivers. High current yields are typically found in utilities, real estate, energy, and financial services sectors.
- Assess sustainability before yield. Companies with payout ratios below 80% and strong free cash flow generation typically offer more sustainable dividends than those stretching to maintain high payouts. A 10% yield means nothing if the dividend gets slashed next year.
- Consider your timeline and strategy:
- 10+ year horizon (Growth approach): Weight toward dividend growth companies with 3-5% starting yields that compound over decades.
- 5-10 year horizon (Balanced approach): Combine moderate yields (4-6%) with some growth potential.
- Immediate income needs (High-yield approach): Higher yields (6-8%) from established, defensive companies with visible cash flows.
Your next move
Don’t chase yield blindly. Are your dividends growing faster than inflation, or are they simply generating income that loses purchasing power annually?
The difference between retiring comfortably and struggling financially often comes down to whether you prioritised yield growth alongside current income.
How to overcome financial FOMO and make smarter money decisions
There’s a particular kind of financial anxiety that didn’t really exist a decade ago. It’s the feeling you get when you see someone on Instagram has just renovated their kitchen, someone on TikTok is posting from Amalfi, and someone on LinkedIn has just announced they’ve paid off their mortgage at 34. All before you’ve finished your morning coffee.
That feeling has a name: financial FOMO. And it’s doing real damage to real people’s financial decisions.
The comparison trap is built into the platform
Research from ING found that 38% of Gen Z Australians feel constant pressure to be financially successful, 21% regularly compare their financial journey to curated online portrayals, and 15% feel pressured to pursue side hustles they would rather avoid.
This isn’t weakness. It’s the intended outcome of platforms engineered to keep you scrolling, comparing, and feeling like everyone else is further ahead. Almost half of Australians say social media has influenced their purchasing decisions, while 41% actively follow financial content on social platforms. The line between inspiration and anxiety has become very thin.
ING’s research makes the dynamic clear: while digital channels open important conversations and introduce useful budgeting concepts, they also expose people to aspirational content that amplifies unrealistic expectations, high-risk trends, and financial comparison.
The curated highlight reel you’re measuring yourself against isn’t real. Nobody posts their credit card debt, their stressful mortgage repayments, or the inheritance that funded that renovation. You are comparing your entire financial reality to someone else’s curated best moments, and that comparison is never going to be fair.
Staying focused on what matters to you
The antidote to financial FOMO isn’t logging off forever. It’s having a clear enough picture of your own goals that someone else’s choices stop feeling like a verdict on yours.
In my practice, I ask clients a simple question early on: What does a genuinely good life look like for you in ten years? Not what looks impressive. Not what your friends are doing. What would make you feel settled, free, and satisfied?
Once that picture is clear, financial decisions become a lot easier to evaluate. Whether a particular investment, purchase, or life choice moves you toward your version of a good life is a far more useful test than whether it keeps pace with what you’re seeing online.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) advice to Australians is equally applicable here. Take a moment to pause, sense-check, and verify before acting on financial content, especially when it’s delivered by people who may be profiting from your response. That pause is not just about avoiding scams. It’s about asking whether this decision is yours, or whether an algorithm has nudged you into it.
Building genuine financial confidence
Confidence with money doesn’t come from having the most. It comes from knowing where you stand, understanding your direction, and making deliberate choices rather than reactive ones.
Despite the pressures, 77% of Gen Z Australians intend to set financial goals, which reflects real optimism and genuine determination to improve their situations. That instinct is worth protecting and channelling well.
A written plan, even a simple one, anchors you. It gives you something to return to when the noise gets loud. And today’s noise is very loud.
The goal isn’t to stop caring about money. It’s to care about your money, on your terms.
How to invest in the AI revolution without chasing every headline
It can feel as if artificial intelligence (AI) makes its way into almost every conversation, especially for investors. From headlines about trillion-dollar technology companies to predictions that entire industries will disappear, we are being bombarded with AI news, forecasts, and investment themes every day.
For investors, the challenge is in determining who will ultimately capture the value and how to avoid concentrating portfolios around a handful of highly publicised winners.
The most sensible response may be the least exciting: stay diversified, invest regularly, and resist the temptation to chase the latest AI headline.
Beyond the AI giants
Much of the media attention has focused on the companies developing AI models and infrastructure. These include “The Magnificent Seven” firms such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Meta and Tesla, which are investing hundreds of billions of dollars into AI-related infrastructure and services.
These companies have obviously benefited from the AI boom. Nvidia, for example, has become one of the world’s most valuable companies because its graphics processing units (GPUs) power much of the world’s AI computing capacity.
But successful investing rarely comes from simply identifying a major trend. The important question is who benefits most and for how long.
History shows that new technologies often create value far beyond the companies that invent them. Railways, electricity, automobiles, and the internet all reshaped economies, but the eventual winners were not always the pioneers who first captured investors’ attention, and there were casualties along the way.
Categorising AI
Investors can think of AI opportunities in three broad categories.
The first category is the direct AI beneficiaries, such as semiconductor manufacturers, cloud computing providers, data centre operators, and AI software developers. These are the companies building the infrastructure and tools that enable AI.
The second category includes businesses that successfully use AI to strengthen their competitive advantages. These companies may not be seen as AI businesses, yet they stand to benefit significantly through higher productivity, lower costs, improved customer experiences, and new revenue streams.
Many established software companies fall into this category. Rather than being displaced by AI, they are incorporating AI capabilities into products that already benefit from large customer bases, trusted brands, proprietary data, and high switching costs. These advantages are often difficult for new competitors to replicate.
The third category includes businesses that indirectly benefit from AI-driven investment. Growing demand for data centres, computing power, and electricity is creating opportunities for resource companies, energy infrastructure providers, network operators, and industrial businesses.
Goldman Sachs estimates AI processing could account for approximately 28 per cent of data centre electricity demand by 2027, creating significant investment opportunities across energy generation, grid infrastructure, and critical minerals.
Private equity and venture capital
Investors focusing solely on listed markets may be seeing only part of the AI story.
Beyond the listed market, many of the most innovative AI businesses remain privately owned. AI companies attracted almost half of all global venture capital funding in 2025, as investors backed startups developing applications in areas such as healthcare, robotics, autonomous systems, cybersecurity, and enterprise software.
Private equity firms are also acquiring established businesses and using AI to improve operational efficiency, enhance customer engagement, and reduce costs. In some cases, these productivity gains may become more valuable than the AI technology itself.
For investors with access to diversified private market investments, exposure to venture capital and private equity can provide participation in AI innovation beyond the listed market. However, these investments typically involve higher risk and reduced liquidity.
The risk of AI ‘roadkill’
Every technological revolution produces winners and losers.
During the internet boom of the late 1990s, many investors correctly identified that the internet would transform society. What they got wrong was assuming every technology company would prosper. Many failed.
As with every major technological shift, AI is likely to leave some casualties behind.
Businesses that rely on repetitive information processing, basic content creation, or undifferentiated software solutions may find themselves under significant pressure. Companies whose products can be easily replicated by increasingly capable AI tools could see profit margins erode.
McKinsey estimates generative AI could ultimately create US$2.6 trillion to US$4.4 trillion of annual economic value globally. Yet its latest surveys suggest that while AI adoption is becoming widespread, many organisations are still struggling to convert experimentation into meaningful profits. For investors, that may be a reminder that identifying companies that can use AI productively could prove just as important as identifying the businesses developing it.
The challenge for investors is that identifying future casualties in advance is rarely straightforward. That’s why diversification remains so important.
Why diversification wins
The biggest investment risk may be becoming overexposed to a small number of companies that seem to be unbeatable today.
Technology leaders change over time. Dominant businesses can be disrupted, regulatory environments can evolve, and valuations can become detached from fundamentals.
Diversification acknowledges this uncertainty. Rather than attempting to predict the companies that will dominate the AI landscape a decade from now, diversified investors gain exposure across multiple sectors, asset classes, and business models.
Some of the strongest beneficiaries may emerge from unexpected areas such as energy infrastructure, industrial automation, logistics, healthcare, or specialised software. Others may come from venture capital and private equity portfolios that provide access to innovations before they reach public markets.
Diversification also helps investors resist the temptation to chase every new headline. In a rapidly changing AI landscape, spreading risk across sectors, asset classes, and business models may prove more valuable than trying to pick every winner.