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Life assurance loans may catch you out
In light of the cautionary statement issued by Judge Brian Galgut, the Ombudsman for Long-term Insurance, about the dangers of borrowing against a life assurance investment policy, I asked the major life companies about loans and "hidden" loans.
[Full Story...]
Don't resign in a panic for your pension
Do not, don't resign from your job to get your hands on your retirement money. It's likely to be the silliest thing you could do.
[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...]
Time for Alexander Forbes to make right
Increasingly beleaguered financial services company Alexander Forbes continues to behave like a truculent schoolboy rather than a company that holds in its hands the retirement fortunes of many thousands of South Africans.
[Full Story...]
It's all too easy for someone to be you
Recently, I checked into the new Holiday Inn in Rivonia Road in Johannesburg. The accommodation had been booked through a travel agent, with confirmation that all extras were to be added to the bill and submitted to the travel agent. I had a copy of the booking form, as did the hotel.
[Full Story...]
Laws put in place to protect you are being side-stepped
The financial services industry and its regulators are going to have to take a long hard look at themselves if investors are not to lose total confidence in financial markets.
[Full Story...]
Plan your finances as if you expect the unexpected
It happens in an unavoidable, terribly violent second.
[Full Story...]
Go to the ombud if you were given bad advice on RAs
I think it is a brave financial services provider or agent who continues to indiscriminately sell life assurance retirement annuity (RA) products that come with high cost structures and confiscatory penalties that apply if fund members are not able to maintain the required level of payments.
[Full Story...]
Bullyboy assurers have got too clever
Recently, the financial services industry body, the Association for Savings & Investment South Africa (Asisa), published an important advertisement.
[Full Story...]
Judge intervenes to protect investors
Television personality and Cape Town High Court judge Dennis Davis confirmed in a court ruling this week that money held in a nominee account on behalf of investors cannot be attacked by outside parties.
[Full Story...]
Time for investors to look at foreign markets
So often when I look at investor behaviour, I think of that old anti-war song, Where have all the flowers gone? with the refrain "When will they ever learn?".
[Full Story...]
Funds need to heed adjudicator's criticisms
All the various adjudicator and ombud offices in the financial services industry at some stage or another express frustration about not getting prompt and comprehensive replies from the financial services industry.
[Full Story...]
Time is against you if you don't plan for what happens in retirement
Too many people, retirement funds and financial advisers focus on building wealth before retirement, paying little or no attention to what should happen in retirement. This was the basis of a presentation by actuary Karen de Kock, the head of annuities at Sanlam Employee Benefits, at the recent Sanlam Employee Benefits retirement survey seminar.
[Full Story...]
Dice may not be loaded in your favour if you change risk products
In this, the last of a four-part series of columns on the dangers of switching financial services products, I am going to deal with life assurance risk products. Life assurance risk business is the second front of a major war that is raging in the financial services industry. The other front is the retirement annuity (RA) business, which I dealt with in the earlier columns.
[Full Story...]
Arguments for switching RAs may not hold water
In this, the third of four columns on the dangers of switching financial products, I again deal with retirement annuities (RAs), which have become a major target of the unacceptable practices that have been taking place since the government changed legislation to allow you to switch your RA between product providers.
[Full Story...]
Beware of costs minefield when you switch an RA
Last week, I wrote about the war, raging on two fronts, in the financial services industry in which you could quite easily become a victim.
[Full Story...]
Don't become a casualty of financial services war
An increasingly nasty war is raging in the financial services industry, with companies fighting for market share. The foot soldiers are intermediaries, who are encouraged with high commissions. The main casualties are consumers.
[Full Story...]
Look to the experts if you want vintage performance
I originally set out to write this column to mark National Women's Day two weeks ago.
[Full Story...]
Invest in unregulated products only if you can afford to lose the money
Don't, do not, and I repeat, don't, do not invest in or through under-regulated companies that are not listed on a formal stock exchange or make investments that require you to give loans to an unlisted entity.
[Full Story...]
Murky dividend funds hide tax hoard
It's that taxing time of the year again when we have to collect the relevant information and complete our returns.
[Full Story...]
Passive funds take the guesswork out of investing
Recently I wrote a column about the gap that, until recently, existed in the choice of exchange traded funds (ETFs), namely ETFs that track the performance of bond indices.
[Full Story...]
Time for a spring clean in the unit trust industry
The Financial Services Board (FSB) is taking a new hard look at a number of aspects of the unit trust industry in a needed spring clean of the industry. Much of this has been spurred by the recent implosion of Corporate Money Managers (CMM), which controlled a varied specialist fixed interest unit trust fund, the Corporate Money Fund (CMF), and the seemingly sloppy work done by some of the service providers, who could and should have blown the whistle far earlier and far louder on what was happe...
[Full Story...]
Adjudicator challenges high penalties assurers levy on RAs
The office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator is again in battle with the life assurance industry over the issue of the confiscatory penalties the life companies levy when you reduce or stop contributions on life assurance retirement annuities (RAs).
[Full Story...]
10 rules that will save you from being conned
Dear Sean (Summers, former chief executive of Pick n Pay), Mervyn (Serebro, former chief executive of OK Bazaars), Tom (Lawless, former head of the Bond Exchange) and Norman (Lowenthal, former JSE chairman).
[Full Story...]
Save yourself from a miserable old age
July is National Savings Month. I wish it was also national preserve your savings month. Or even better, national preserve your savings against the avariciousness of people and product providers that flog high-risk so-called investments, such as poorly structured property syndication schemes, particularly to the elderly, who cannot afford losses.
[Full Story...]
Vigilance is key, wherever your money is invested
A large number of investors in money market funds have clearly been spooked following last week's Personal Finance report on the collapse of money market-type cash manager Corporate Money Managers (CMM), and its Cash Managed Fund (CMF), under the headline "Money market investments may not be as safe you think".
[Full Story...]
A lifestage portfolio gradually reduces your risk, but at what cost?
Lifestage investment portfolios are becoming increasingly popular for retirement savings. With a lifestage portfolio the equity component of your savings is gradually reduced as you approach retirement, even though equities have historically provided the superior investment returns. But the superior returns come with a far higher risk of extreme volatility. In other words, equities have a far greater propensity than other asset classes to surge in or lose value over short periods.
[Full Story...]
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