I attended a refresher workshop for CFP® Professionals hosted by the Centre for Financial Planning Law (UOFS) on Friday. This is part of the continuing education that Certified Financial Planners are required to do in order to maintain their CFP® status.  One of the interesting things from the workshop was to learn that Financial Planning only started as a career in 1969 when 12 people got together to establish the profession in the USA....

I recently read an article where the person was writing about how to choose a financial planner/advisor…some of what he said made absolute sense. Such as, asking for references from existing clients and checking that they are in fact registered with the Financial Services Board. But then, I am afraid, he lost all credibility when he suggested that you should “ask the advisor for a free review of your position and some ideas on...

I recently had a most disturbing (if not revealing) conversation with a board member of ASISA (the association for savings and investments in South Africa). But before I proceed, a bit of background and history on ASISA. The following is taken directly from the ASISA website www.asisa.co.za. (If you already know all of this then scroll down to “At the beginning of July…”) ASISA was formed in 2008 by members of the Association of...

Results from the American Demographics poll showed that retirement is more difficult than becoming a parent or than getting married*. Those that felt retirement was the most difficult adjustment said that they struggle with the monotony, boredom, lack of purpose and lack of intellectual stimulation that traditional retirement offers. So if this is the case, why is there still such a one-dimensional approach to retirement from the financial...

There was a lot of information about medical aids in the weekend press, a lot of it was very critical of the many schemes. While some of it is certainly warranted, what most people dont seem to grasp is that while many of us think that we are members of a medical aid, we are actually just members of glorified hospital insurance schemes. And even then, not all our “in hospital” expenses will be covered by the schemes. Once we...

As a follow up to the post on cutting out the middle man, I thought I would write about another case of “half-truths” from insurance companies. About 6 years ago, I was at a financial planning conference where the issue of fees and commissions was being discussed by a panel. One of the panel members was representing the LOA (Life Offices Association, now ASISA) and he stated that about 35% of the cost of new business for life insurance...