This week’s TAMIM Reading List weaves together stories of innovation, risk, and cultural transformation. From Britain’s unlikely rise to road safety leadership to the physics community’s growing doubt over a “Theory of Everything,” we explore where certainty meets complexity. As weight-loss drugs reshape wardrobes and health norms, the humble act of washing produce turns into a debate on chemical residues. Meanwhile, Virgin Australia opens the cabin to four-legged passengers, Australia’s government prepares for a youth social media crackdown, and creative researchers offer surprising lessons on how great ideas are really born. Together, these stories reveal how the rules of safety, science, and society are being rewritten in real time.
This week’s TAMIM Reading List explores a world balancing uncertainty and transformation. From Cuba’s total grid collapse to Australia Post’s workaround for U.S. tariffs, global systems are under stress and adaptation. Consumer sentiment is dimming too, with Americans expecting to spend less this holiday season for the first time since 2020. On a different scale, TRAPPIST-1e – a planet 40 light-years away – hints at extra-terrestrial potential with its life-supporting atmosphere. Back on Earth, Elon Musk has been dethroned as the world’s richest man, while Lleyton Hewitt faces a tennis-wide ban for a shocking courtside incident. A cultural vibe shift is underway, and Ben Carlson’s latest piece explains why it might feel like everything is…off. From energy to spending, space to sport, these stories offer a snapshot of a planet grappling with disruption.
At Tamim, we believe that enduring outperformance stems not just from sharp spreadsheets or sector calls, but from the consistent cultivation of curiosity. That’s why we read, widely, deeply, and with purpose. Reading builds mental models. It stretches time horizons. And in a profession where the compounding of ideas is just as powerful as the compounding of capital, it is perhaps the most underrated skill in our toolkit.
This year, we set out to read and reflect more deliberately. What follows isn’t just a list of “must-reads,” but a map of insights that are actively informing our investment philosophy. Some are practical, some philosophical. Some reframe old ideas in new ways. All have helped us sharpen our thinking about business, human behaviour, and the long arc of investing. Here’s what we’ve been learning and why it matters.
1. “Hidden Genius” by Polina Marinova Pompliano
Theme: Investing in People, Not Just Businesses
This book puts a spotlight on the intangible qualities such as resilience, grit, integrity, that drive extraordinary performance in the real world. In investing, it’s easy to obsess over numbers. But long-term value creation often comes down to the people behind the ticker. Whether it’s founder-led businesses, turnarounds driven by cultural overhaul, or visionaries building category-defining companies, we are reminded to look for human catalysts. As Sam Altman recently noted, the skill stack era rewards those with adaptability and insight, traits not easily found on a balance sheet.
At TAMIM, we think of investing as partnering with people, not just purchasing earnings streams. This book is a powerful reminder to never forget the human side of capital allocation.
2. “The Intelligent Fund Investor” by Joe Wiggins
Theme: Behavioural Edge in a Quantitative World
Wiggins dissects the psychology of fund investing and shows how even the most sophisticated allocators are tripped up by behavioural biases. Overconfidence, short-termism, recency bias, all can infect decision-making if we don’t build systems to protect against them.
We’ve long believed that one of the greatest competitive advantages in markets is temperament. This book reinforces our internal discipline, our willingness to hold through volatility, to avoid style drift, and to make decisions aligned with long-term objectives. The takeaway? Process > Outcome. Always.
3. “Reading the Game” by Matthew Syed
Theme: Pattern Recognition and Probabilistic Thinking
Drawing analogies between elite sports and business, Syed explores how top performers navigate fast, complex, and uncertain environments. His insights into feedback loops, adaptive learning, and situational awareness are highly relevant to portfolio management.
In small caps especially, patterns matter. Earnings inflections, insider buying, sector rotations, there’s an edge in seeing the game before others do. This book reinforced our view that markets reward those who learn faster, not those who simply know more. Agile thinkers > static analysts.
4. “Sustainable” by Mike Issakidis
Theme: Building Durable, Long-Term Businesses
In a world increasingly obsessed with growth at all costs, Issakidis makes the case for sustainable capitalism. The book profiles Australian businesses that compound slowly, thoughtfully, and with integrity. Not all heroes wear capes, some run powerline inspection firms or agricultural co-ops.
For us, it validated our approach to buying quality at the right price. We’re not chasing moonshots. We’re backing steady growers, industry leaders, and businesses with optionality. Compounders might not always be sexy, but they often make the best partners.
5. “Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy” by Bill Janeway
Theme: Markets, Government, and the Capital Cycle
This classic (updated in 2024) explores the messy, interwoven relationship between venture capital, innovation, and state intervention. In today’s AI-dominated narrative, it’s a useful reminder that transformative change often requires coordinated ecosystems, not just killer apps.
As we invest into infrastructure, semiconductors, or defence tech, we think carefully about policy support, supply chain dynamics, and the funding path. Janeway reminds us that understanding capital flows, private and public, is key to anticipating where value may accrue.
6. “Working Backwards” by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
Theme: Systems Thinking from Inside Amazon
Written by two long-time Amazon executives, this book outlines the decision-making frameworks that powered one of the most successful companies of our time. From the “PR FAQ” approach to product planning to the bias for frugality and high hiring bars, it’s a lesson in process excellence.
For us, it’s also a lens through which we evaluate other businesses. Is their growth repeatable? Are they customer-obsessed or internally confused? Do they scale culture as well as they scale code? Great companies leave clues in how they operate. Reading this helped us identify them faster.
7. “100 Baggers” by Chris Mayer
Theme: Asymmetric Upside and the Patience Premium
Every investor dreams of finding the next 100-bagger. But Mayer makes the case that these aren’t lottery tickets, they’re the result of discipline, vision, and a tolerance for boredom. The average 100-bagger took 20+ years to mature.
We’ve adopted some of Mayer’s key heuristics into our screening process: high ROIC, founder ownership, optionality, and long runways. It aligns with our view that true wealth in investing comes from time in the market, not timing the market.
8. “Trillion Dollar Triage” by Nick Timiraos
Theme: Central Banks, Crisis Response, and Policy Risk
While not strictly a business book, this inside look at the Federal Reserve’s pandemic-era response is essential reading for understanding today’s macro landscape. Timiraos tracks how policymakers juggle liquidity, inflation, political pressure, and market confidence.
As investors, we must now navigate an era of regime change, where the easy-money playbook of the 2010s may no longer apply. Reading this helped us anticipate higher-for-longer rates, more activist fiscal policy, and the new dance between bond markets and bureaucrats.
The Reading Advantage
So why does all this matter to investors?
Because reading expands your mental models. It connects the dots. It improves your ability to:
Spot inflections in business models
Understand context behind company decisions
Anticipate second-order effects in macro shifts
Control your own behaviour when the crowd panics
And more than anything, reading cultivates curiosity. That’s the real edge—being willing to ask better questions than everyone else.
The TAMIM Takeaway
At TAMIM, we believe that reading is not a luxury, it’s a strategic advantage. It keeps us humble, informed, and creatively alert. In a world where data is cheap but wisdom is rare, books are our quiet weapon. They teach us to think, not just react.
So the next time you hear someone say, “there’s no time to read,” ask yourself: how are they finding time to think?
We’ll be here, books open, eyes wide, portfolios ready.
At TAMIM, we spend a great deal of time separating signal from noise. We like underfollowed, underappreciated businesses that are quietly compounding away from the spotlight. Occasionally, however, we come across a company that’s not just overlooked, it’s misunderstood. ClearView Wealth (ASX: CVW) is one such opportunity.
Fresh off the back of its FY25 results, ClearView has begun to look more like a nimble fintech than a traditional life insurer. The numbers suggest a turning point. The strategy shows ambition. And the valuation? Let’s just say it hasn’t caught up yet. As always, we’ll walk you through the what, the why, and the potential upside.
The Backdrop: From Laggard to Lean
ClearView Wealth has long been a quiet achiever in the life insurance space. A modest market cap ($360 million), a reasonable share of the retail life market (~3.9%), and a history of being lumped in with other legacy life insurance businesses. But here’s the thing: ClearView is no longer a legacy business.
FY25 marked the company’s complete exit from wealth management and the successful rollout of its new cloud-based insurance platform. That’s a big deal. It signals a new phase for ClearView, one defined not by restructuring, but by scaling.
While many insurers continue to wrestle with ancient systems and slow customer onboarding, ClearView is now a digitally native player. Faster quote times, lower servicing costs, and customisable product design. That’s a material advantage in a world where insurance needs are becoming more personalised and where margin pressure is real.
FY25 Results: Stronger, Smarter, Leaner
Despite a tough start to the year, ClearView’s second-half results were surprisingly strong, delivering:
$22.5 million in 2H25 life insurance underlying NPAT (up 12% YoY)
In-force premiums up 10% to $412.9 million
ClearChoice product premiums at $112 million since launch
Embedded value up 5% to $524.4 million (82c per share ex-franking)
Operating leverage across all major lines
Yes, full-year NPAT was down 5% to $37.7 million, but that only tells half the story. The real shift is operational: customer acquisition costs have stabilised, lapse rates have improved, and claims experience has returned to more predictable patterns. This is the kind of platform a business can grow from. In many ways, FY25 was about turning the ship. FY26 is where we expect it to pick up speed.
A Buyback-Fuelled Re-Rate?
Now let’s talk capital management, a topic close to every value investor’s heart.
ClearView has already repurchased 11.4 million shares on-market as part of its FY25 buyback program. That’s about 4.5% of issued capital. The company has flagged its intention to continue, with a potential $20 million buyback capacity in the next 12 months.
Why is this important?
Because in a stock trading on a forward P/E of 7.8x FY26 EPS guidance, buying back shares is an accretive use of capital, particularly when the underlying NPAT is expected to rise 40%. It also suggests that the board sees the shares as materially undervalued.
We estimate the stock is trading at a large discount to embedded value, with no credit given for digital transformation, potential dividends in FY26, or optionality around strategic buyers.
The FY26 Outlook: A New Engine, Ready to Roar
ClearView’s FY26 guidance is, we believe, impressive:
Gross premium income: $435–$440 million
Life insurance underlying impact: $47–$52 million
Group underlying NPAT: $42–$47 million
EPS: 6.8–7.3 cents (implied P/E of ~7.8x at current price)
In our view, this guidance is both credible and conservative.
Why?
Embedded value supports the earnings base, with higher lapse rates normalising and claims well within long-term expectations.
ClearChoice is gaining traction, providing better cross-sell opportunities and a fresher brand in adviser channels.
Digital systems reduce cost-to-serve, helping margins expand even without top-line blowouts.
And crucially: the business is no longer distracted by non-core operations.
Technology Tailwinds: More Than Just a Platform Upgrade
Let’s dig deeper into the tech angle. This isn’t just window dressing. ClearView has spent the better part of two years replatforming its core insurance operations to the cloud and now that’s complete.
Benefits include:
Faster policy issuance and servicing
Lower unit costs on a per-policy basis
Simpler product innovation cycles
Real-time data tracking across claims and underwriting
This enables ClearView to compete with insurtechs on speed and digital delivery, while still offering the scale and trust of a licensed life insurer. For financial advisers and brokers, that’s an attractive combo, particularly as regulatory scrutiny intensifies.
In many ways, the company now looks like a platform-enabled compounder. That’s not something you could say even 18 months ago.
Founder Mentality without the Founder?
One of the more subtle features we look for in a business is “founder mentality” even when the founder isn’t in the building.
ClearView has long been run by a pragmatic, capital-disciplined management team. FY25 only reinforced that image. Rather than chasing growth at any cost, they opted for:
Operational simplicity
Scalable systems
Shareholder return via buybacks
Clear guidance and delivery
These are the hallmarks of a management team that acts like owners. As small cap investors, we’re always hunting for this mindset particularly in financial services, where discipline can slip.
M&A Optionality Still in Play
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: ClearView remains a takeover target.
Why?
Clean balance sheet (net cash)
Fully migrated digital systems
Scalable retail life platform
Trading at EV/EBITDA levels that private equity would typically salivate over
We also note that 80% of Australia’s life market is controlled by a handful of large players, many of whom struggle with legacy infrastructure. Acquiring ClearView would instantly plug a modern retail life engine into a broader financial services machine.
Add in potential offshore interest (particularly from Asia) and the story becomes compelling. We’re happy holding for the earnings growth alone — but optionality is there.
Risks: Asymmetric, But Real
Of course, no investment is without risk. With ClearView, the primary ones are:
Claims volatility, as always, one-off spikes can impact quarterly earnings.
Tech migration challenges, although largely complete, any post-migration bugs could cause adviser friction.
Distribution risks, heavy reliance on IFA channels could be impacted by regulatory changes or sentiment shifts.
Investor perception, many still treat CVW as a “legacy insurer” and haven’t re-rated the digital potential yet.
That said, we believe the risks are increasingly asymmetric, tilted in favour of upside surprises in margins, earnings, and capital returns.
Valuation: What’s Priced In?
At the current share price (~56 cents), ClearView trades on:
7.8x FY26 P/E
EV/EBITDA ~6x
Price to embedded value ~0.7x (ex franking)
For a digitally modern, cashflow-generative, buyback-running insurer with 40% forecast earnings growth, this is cheap.
In fact, it’s hard to find peers with:
Cloud-based platforms already live
Strong guidance and historical delivery
Buyback in place
High gross margins and low debt
Our internal valuation model suggests a target range of 80–90 cents, excluding any optionality from a potential take-over.
TAMIM Takeaway
ClearView Wealth is no longer the clunky, underperforming life insurer of old. It has evolved into a digitally enabled, capital-efficient platform business with buyback support, earnings momentum, and the optionality of strategic interest. We believe CVW is at an inflection point. With earnings guidance of up to $52 million, a lean balance sheet, and a shareholder-friendly capital allocation approach, we see material upside from here. In a market starved of quality, low multiple growth — ClearView might just live up to its name.
Disclaimer: ClearView Wealth (ASX: CVW) is held in TAMIM Portfolios as at date of article publication. Holdings can change substantially at any given time.
This week’s TAMIM Reading List spans the spectrum of innovation, disruption, and discovery. We begin with the global car reckoning as legacy automakers scramble to adapt. Meanwhile, Domino’s pizza tracker emerges as an unlikely corporate case study in UX brilliance. From the mysterious power laws shaping outlier success to NASA’s awe-inspiring revelations at Jupiter, ambition takes many forms. Scientists discover a way to regrow tooth enamel using hair, while home gardeners learn how to sprout flavour from seed. A volcanic eruption sends lava soaring sky-high – just as our imaginations should. Sometimes the biggest stories come from the smallest sparks.
