About 2 weeks ago I was sent a link on you tube which contained the (now famous) interview between the BBC and Alessio Rastani http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC19fEqR5bA where he was predicting the imminent collapse of the financial markets (and I guess the global financial system as we know it as well). When I first viewed the clip it had around 16000 hits and I have just received it again (from another client) and it now has almost...

I have written about this before but the issue has come to the fore again when I recently applied for a tax clearance certificate for offshore investing on behalf of a client. On the face of it, exchange control legislation has all but fallen away with the announcement by National Treasury that individual investors can take R4million offshore each year. But it seems that someone at Treasury forgot to tell SARS that it is ok for people to...

…in my opinion at least! I cant understand the motivation behind treasury and the FSB’s latest (very zealous) implementation of the regulation 28 rules that apply to retirement funds. These rules have a whole host of unintended consequences, not least of which, will probably be that RA’s are no longer used as savings vehicles and especially by younger people. First a brief bit of background: The Prudential Investment Guidelines...

I came across this post by Kokkie Kooyman from SIM (Sanlam Investment Management). He has twice been rated as Investment Week’s Global Fund Manager of the year and this is well worth the read. It is a good take on what is happening in the global...

Heard a radio ad this morning for RSA Retail Bonds…it went something like this…“There’s no fees or commissions therefore it’s a great way to save”. I disagree strongly with this statement – it is not a great way to save. It is a great way for people to generate income – at 7.25% for 2 years it is still the best rate out there, but as a long term savings product it is pretty poor. Even at 8.25% the 5 year rate is...

The recent changes to Regulation 28 rules around retirement funds has caused a bit of “excitement” in the asset management industry and I have seen at least 2 articles making a case that the stricter enforcement of the Reg 28 rules make Retirement Annuities  unattractive investments, especially for younger investors (see the article by Jan Mouton of PSG Asset Management –...