Financial adviser

Does your financial adviser tick all the right boxes?

Entrusting your wealth and future well-being to a financial advisory firm, how do you know if you are getting the best advice and service possible? These are the key questions to ask your financial adviser.

10 top tips for saving for your child’s education

For many prospective parents, the burden of providing for a child’s education becomes more and more of a challenge as costs escalate and the general level of public school education appears to deteriorate.

Managing risk and tax on retirement

The annual SARS statistics report is a fascinating document. If you are a tax nerd, that is. Unfortunately not many appreciate the valuable data and trends contained therein. So the document is seldom studied in any detail.

Buffettisms – and realising a great deal gets better with age

By Alec Hogg Over the weekend, I got thinking about age. And how healthier lifestyles are helping us live productive lives for a lot longer. My father in law is 89 yet still expertly edits his industry’s quarterly newsletter. My hairdresser turned 75 last week and cuts as well as he did when I first … Read more

A look at how new laws are changing the SA retirement industry

As we already know, South Africans are terrible savers. We borrow too much, and save hardly anything, and precious few South Africans are in a position to retire when age 65 rolls around. To deal with this, government has been systematically studying and revising the rules and regulations around the SA retirement industry. One of … Read more

Trevor Manuel

South African life assurance industry’s Hiroshima

Trevor Manuel

December 14, 2005

Her face was one big snarl. Although dutifully recording my responses her whole look shouted out: who do you think you are, you upstart know-nothing? Actuaries, doctors, other people infinitely smarter that you have calculated our commission structures. Who are you to criticize them?

This was 1984, the year of Orwell’s Big Brother. The power of life offices was at its zenith. A time before Robin McGregor sold out to the Evil Empire, when he still railed about four groups controlling 80% of corporate South Africa. And how three of them were assurance companies.

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