A sign of the times?

The economic situation must be grimer than I thought. Today, I receive a call from someone asking for a rebate…

The conversation goes like this;

A: Hello, is this XXX?

Me: Yes speaking.

A: This is YYY. You are from Promiseland right? Some companies are strict, some are not. Is your company strict?

Me: Strict? I don’t get you.

A: Do your company give rebates?

Me: Sorry, we do not give rebates.

A: Do………

Not too long ago, there were many advertisements in the papers and posters at bus stops advertising ways to get cash from investments/CPF. These are most likely advisers giving cash rebates out of the sales charge/commission from unit trust or Single-premium Investment-Linked-Policies (ILP) purchased using CPF. These unethical salesworm would churn your policies by constantly selling and buying. They would just churn by claiming that its time to move to other funds after making some profits or say that there are better funds around. In a bull market, this is easy as everything would be moving up.

Some FA companies are in trouble with the authorities due to rebates and churning. Recruitment have been suspended. This has affected not only those at fault but also other innocent advisers who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Some advisers have been back-stabbed by their principal when they wanted to leave while others have to go through much scrutiny and delay by the authorities over moving to other companies.

I really hope the authorities can help purge the industry of unethical practitioners. But knowing how resilient parasites are, it would probably remain as as it is – a hope.

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