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Keep your eyes open when you appoint executors and trustees
An area that generates a steady stream of reader complaints to Personal Finance is the administration of trusts - particularly testamentary trusts that are set up on the death of the benefactor - and the estates of people who have died.
[Full Story...]
Financial industry must change how it rewards advisers so that you are put first
Our front-page report about financial advisers who want to reclaim from their clients any commission they lose is symptomatic of most of the things that are wrong in the financial services industry and, in particular, the life assurance business.
[Full Story...]
Leaving saving too late the main cause of pensioner misery
The 2010 Sanlam Employee Benefits Benchmark Survey of retirement funding is a mixture of good and bad news.
[Full Story...]
What happened to pension fund reform?
Pension funds and pensioners have been and continue to be seen by too many as the easy pickings of the financial industry, including mainline providers such as life assurance companies, retirement fund administrators; property market players, particularly property syndication promoters; and a whole horde of so-called financial advisers who cynically either steal money from their clients or provide commission-driven, appalling advice.
[Full Story...]
Some tips that will make it easier for you to eFile
The eFiling system introduced by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) is great - that is apart from actually having to pay over the money. eFiling makes completing a tax return ever so much easier.
[Full Story...]
Breaking free from debt does you and the country good
The National Credit Act (NCA) has been getting the blame for a lot of things recently, from the slow-down in the economy to the non-profitability of banks.
[Full Story...]
Some sound advice about buying your 'dream' retirement home at the coast
Property sales are often based on hyperbole that sometimes stretches to the irresponsible. But there are many estate agents who do tell it like it is.
[Full Story...]
Passive tracker funds have an important place in your portfolio
It is amazing how much questionable propaganda and misleading information is still being put out by the financial services industry, while essential facts, particularly relating to risk, are withheld or obfuscated.
[Full Story...]
How to take a realistic view of risk and return on your investments
One of the most important judgments you must make on any investment is the risk of the investment relative to the returns you want. Generally, as is oft repeated, the greater the return you require, the greater the risk that you could lose part or all of your money.
[Full Story...]
Tread carefully before you change assurance products
Switching financial services products, particularly when a life assurance investment product matures, is not necessarily a bad thing. You may get a far better deal, particularly when it comes to costs, which, if they are high, can significantly undermine your savings over the long term. And you may pay far lower premiums if you switch a risk life assurance policy.
[Full Story...]
KPMG's stance does little for public trust in auditors
Last week, auditing company KPMG hosted a breakfast to launch the second edition of its educational handbook for retirement fund trustees. The guest speaker was Mervyn King, otherwise known as Mr Corporate Governance.
[Full Story...]
Your retirement savings deserve King III treatment
Mervyn King, generally known as Mr Corporate Governance, says your retirement fund trustees and service providers should treat your retirement savings in the same way as they would care for the financial assets of an incapacitated relative.
[Full Story...]
Product providers must also ensure you get proper advice
Last week Personal Finance reported in detail on welcome new moves by the Association for Savings & Investment South Africa (Asisa) to provide better guidelines to pensioners with investment-linked living annuities (Illas) to help ensure that their pension is sustainable for the rest of their life.
[Full Story...]
Research on pensions is 22 years overdue
Traditional "straight line" expected return methods are not sufficient for making decisions on how to draw down your retirement savings in retirement, says Matthew de Wet, the head of investments at Nedgroup Investments in a comprehensive presentation on understanding investment linked living annuity (Illa) strategies.
[Full Story...]
Concerns over life products for low earners are justified
Recently, both Judge Brian Galgut, the Ombudsman for Long-term Insurance, and Jonathan Dixon, the Financial Services Board's deputy executive in charge of insurance, expressed concern about life assurance savings products that are aimed at the low-income market.
[Full Story...]
Flaws built into the financial system put your savings at risk
Recently, I spent a week at the International Congress of Actuaries in Cape Town. A lot of what was said by the 1 500 brain-boxes from 100 countries went straight over the heads of us ordinary mortals.
[Full Story...]
Life assurers still confiscating your savings 25 years on
It is amazing how the life assurance industry simply refuses to treat its customers as customers. All too often, it treats you with contempt while relying on its perversely incentivised product- floggers to go out there and sell you poorly designed, expensive investment (endowment and retirement annuity) products that are not necessarily in your best interests.
[Full Story...]
Your risk policy's small print could easily trip you up
You have risk life assurance so that a benefit is paid when it is required, but too often you are tripped up by what can easily be seen as unfair conditions.
[Full Story...]
Death benefit payouts: weigh up your options carefully
There is no reason you cannot arrange your tax affairs to your best advantage, or to the best advantage of your dependants.
[Full Story...]
Facing up to the often harsh realities of growing old
Recently, I was speaking to a respected actuary about the problems associated with things such as deciding when to move into a retirement village and, even more importantly, into frail care.
[Full Story...]
Some with-profit pension increases beat inflation over the long term
In times of uncertain stock markets, guaranteed annuities (pensions), with their steady income flows, become increasingly popular. The only problem, however, is that when interest rates are low, guaranteed annuities can be just as dangerous as investment-linked living annuities (Illas), which are exposed fully to the vagaries of stock markets.
[Full Story...]
Smoothed products proved their worth when the equity ride got bumpy
This is the month in which most of the life assurance companies announce the bonuses on their capital-guaranteed smoothed/stable bonus products. These products proved their worth in the recent market turmoil, which, at its worst, saw the JSE lose almost 50 percent of its value against its record - and I would say exuberant - highs of 2008.
[Full Story...]
Do your loved ones a big favour: draw up a will
This week we deal extensively with the problems of cessions of life assurance policies to provide security for loans. It is a complex issue and one that can become a great deal more complex if you do not have a will.
[Full Story...]
You're taking a huge risk if you invest in unregulated products
This week we publish reports on our front page on three different cases where individuals have been stung by people operating in the financial services industry.
[Full Story...]
Take Pravin's tax advantages where you can
Every year you get tax breaks in the Budget that are aimed mainly at helping you to save but also at alleviating the financial pressures on the elderly.
[Full Story...]
Tax break lets you save for retirement at a discount
You have two weeks left in which to take advantage of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's annual tax break, which will help you to fill up your retirement coffer at a big discount.
[Full Story...]
Alexander Forbes's about-turn will go far in repairing its damaged reputation
Finally Alexander Forbes has come to its senses and, for the first time, has genuinely attempted to put its sordid past behind it. It is a puzzle why it has taken it so long to do what Edward Kieswetter, its new chief executive, says is "the right thing to do" .
[Full Story...]
Costs a flashing red light for unit trust industry
This week, the Raging Bull Awards celebrate the collective investment schemes that provided investors with superior performance over the past year.
[Full Story...]
Assurers edgy about being compared on claims ratios
I have always thought that the reason one buys risk insurance - be it on your life or your property - is so that you receive a benefit when you need it.
[Full Story...]
Don't place blind trust in advice, even when you trust the brand
Trust is what the financial services provider sells. Trust that you will be given the right advice and trust that it will deliver what it says it will.
[Full Story...]
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