Financial Planning Central

Many a time, you can find insurance companies dangling freebies to attract customers. It is not unusual to find them at electronic and pc fairs where they will display advertisements showing freebies such as digital cameras or printers. You would have mistaken them as another electronic booth!
It is very common to find Investment-Linked Plans (ILP) being [...]

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My client ask me about a mid term savings plan that gives a impressive return (considering the current low interest bear market). She was introduced to the plan by a bank Relationship Manager (RM) when she wanted a fixed deposit. This is how the RM illustrated the plans to her:

Interest in saving account - 0.2+% [...]

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When deciding what brand of buying cookies to buy, do you find yourself going for the one with nicer and more expensive-looking packaging if you have no preferred brand? This is normal. The nice picture, the nice texture of the packaging and the exotic name gives us a impression of a delicious cookie. Well, behind [...]

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Endowment plans are a common sight in many people’s insurance portfolio. A common way to mis-sell is to preach the benefit of having returns if nothing happens at the end of a term. So many people end up getting endowment plans when Term plans might have been the much better choice. Endowment plans are basically saving plans and are [...]

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The recent collapse of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent troubles facing its brilliantly named Minibonds shock many investors who though that they had bought real bonds and not some complicated structured products. Some of these structured products have even been sold as fixed deposits. Financial institutions, greedy for the investors’ dollar, mis-sold them to thousands of unknowing [...]

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The last few days in the financial market have been much more turbulent than the typhoon and hurricane weather around the world. Lehman Brother’s filling for chapter 11, sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America and the big one, the threat of AIG, parent of AIA, going bust. Following the appearance of crowds at AIA customer service to [...]

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In the course of doing insurance summary and review, I have come across many Investment-Linked-Policies (ILP) in client’s insurance portfolio. How they came into getting ILP is another story altogether. What troubles and baffles me is how the investment portfolio is constructed.
The vast majority of ILPs are heavily or totally invested in the riskier markets, with funds [...]

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When someone is accepted for an insurance policy as a non-standard life, mostly due to health status, insurers may either exclude the condition or load them with extra premium. The loading is to compensate for the extra risks the insurer has to bear. Some insurers pay commission to the adviser for the extra loading premium. I cannot understand the logic of [...]

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The Ethic of Reciprocity or The Golden Rule states:
“Do unto others as you would have them do to you”
which means ”treat others as you would like to be treated.“
In the same vein, Confucius said:
“己所不欲，勿施于人”
Such wisdom forms a moral and ethical code for all. However, most people being mere mortals, does not up hold such moral high grounds at [...]

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Watching a National Geographic program on illegal organ trading reminded me of the recent legal case of kidney buying in Singapore. It made me ask myself, will I become a buyer one day? Would I be able to afford it?
Not many countries allow organ trading. Coupled with the lack of organ supply globally made illegal organ trading [...]

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