Platinum Asset Management founder Kerr Neilson last month invited The Australian Financial Review into his temporary home in Sydney’s The Rocks, from where the billionaire manages his considerable private investments, including the $250 million corpus of the Neilson Foundation.

Neilson’s old arch-rival Hamish Douglass only wishes he’d parked that sort of loot in a tax-effective vehicle while he was still a man of great means.