The proposed revamp of the Central Depository (CDP) system to allow stockbrokers’ access is in the news again.  The Straits Times carried a report on the subject on its 30th December 2011 edition (CDP revamp reignites debate on potential fraud). The article can be accessed here.

Basically, they have summarised [...]

A businessman deposits $1m into a bank. Down comes the relationship manager with 2 proposals that total, you guessed it, $1m.

2 hot funds plus a universal life plan were proposed. A whopping 5% sales charge was imposed but there was no attempt to asset allocate at all. The investment was split [...]

The main reason for relationship managers (RMs) leaving is that they have been ‘encouraged to do so‘ by the banks! Not very encouraging… And by the way, what do you mean by ‘underperformance‘?

The latest Global Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey has yielded some interesting (but long known?) results. Snippets of [...]

Which form of distribution channel would give you the best advice? Through the Agency model, the Bancassurance model or the IFA model? We will discuss more about that later.

A lady have wrote in to The Straits Times Forum on the 25th July 2011 sharing her experience of getting insurance advice from [...]

A local insurer has launched a FA company that is a hybrid between a agency only model and the FA model. The new company, which targets the mass affluent, will offer life insurance from the insurer (with the exception of products from a foreign insurer), general insurance from multiple companies and unit trust [...]

We are constantly being bombarded with new information. These info are often biased and we, the information recepians, are often not aware of these biases. Just like to share some recent incidents that highlighted the information asymmetry we face.

Incident 1

There have been widespread reporting on the charges a well-known [...]

‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover‘, the old saying goes. Now, we have to add another – ‘Don’t judge a man by his titles‘. In the 21st Jan 2011 edition of The Straits Times (Insurance agents’ body sued for offering dud degree), it was reported that a financial adviser has [...]

Having the right investment adviser who works for you and not his employer is paramount to having good advice. With the slew of  lawsuits between private banks and their clients lately, investors should be mindful of some basic questions when choosing their asset managers. Read the article –

Private banks seems to be busy these days. Yet another lawsuit has surfaced. This time, UBS has taken a couple to court on the grounds that they owe the bank $9m from losses from foreign exchange transactions. The couple has counter-sued claiming that they are relatively inexperienced in financial markets and had relied [...]

A fund distributor has officially closed its doors in Hong Kong. What has this got to do with us who are here in Singapore? Well, the same thing could jolly well happen here as well.

Sources claim that the closure was due to the change in the preference of investment platforms [...]