About 5-6 years ago the Life Offices Association (now ASISA) made the claim that up to 35% of the cost of new business was due to the commission paid on the products (http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2627965&fSectionId=552&nld=2005-07-18&t=html&f=d) and that was one of the reasons life insurance products were “expensive” and heavy penalties were levied when these were cancelled before maturity. As a...

Consider the following – what would you advise the client? Client A took out an insurance based RA in 2003 (23 year term). She started a debit order of R450 pm (escalating at 10% pa). The current fund value is R63500 The company claims a return of 11.8% pa on the funds but the maths shows that she has had about 6% per annum. She now wants to move the RA to a unit trust RA (where there is no contractual obligation and no initial...

Just saw the 1Lifedirect TV advert again this evening and it really gets my goat – their advert is so incrediblymisleading. It should come with a huge health warning similar to that on cigarette packets. They were offering a 44 year old male R1million life cover for just under R500 (if i remember correctly) and at the same time boasting about how cutting out the broker would save up to 22%. While the 2nd part of the claim may be true,...

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...

I admit that this is written with a lot of emotion but there have got to be few things that are worse for investors than life insurance savings products. Whether they are endowment policies or retirement annuities (new age or traditional) they have got to be the worst thing that an investor can buy! I just cant understand how in 2009, when research shows that the average person will change jobs at least half dozen times during their working...