""As an investor, it is interesting that ratios for IFL would...

""As an investor, it is interesting that ratios for IFL would show an equity ratio of about 60%, and thus the ROA appears quite low, when there is about a billion dollars of statutory funds on both sides of the balance sheet that net each other out. Netting that out, you get an equity ratio of about 85%, and the ROA moves from around 6% to around 9%.

If it is a study of IOOF's ROE that you are trying to conduct, then the company's'30 June 2018 balance sheet is somewhat meaningless as a reference point; for the simple reason that Net Assets are bloated by some $500m [*] from the capital raising undertaken in late CY2017, for the acquisition of the ANZ Wealth business, which has not yet been completed.

[*] The company has no borrowings, some $120m in cash and over $400m invested in short-term deposit.


""Do you or does anybody understand if IFL shareholders solely gain ticket clipping exposure to these statutory funds (assuming no lawsuits etc), or are their deeper potential liabilities hidden there? Or am I on the wrong tangent altogether?

I'm afraid I don't understand the question. That capital is held in relation to a life company subsidiary; other than the usual actuarial and contingent liabilities associated with the conducting of life cover business, I'm not sure what you mean by "deeper potential liabilities".