START YOUR MORNING BY LISTENING TO TODAY’S BIZNEWS BREAKFAST BRIEFING PODCAST: Shares rise for fourth successive week; Institutions driving Crypto; Telkom tussles; Some small SA industrial shares post share price increases.
LATEST ON BIZNEWS.COM:
- South Africans speak: Helen Zille a beacon of true character and leadership
- Upholding the right to transparent free trading – Adam Pike
- Gut alternatives to antidepressants – Psychiatrist on mental health
- SLR: Ignore the entrenched power of civil servants at your peril
- Hope and dreams no substitute for sensible economic policies
- Let’s raise a glass to the township moms who fought so hard to raise us
- Your health is directly impacted by loneliness and social isolation, study finds
- Peak dreams of Deshun Deysel, South Africa’s unstoppable summiteer
- Paul Harris dusts off his FirstRand playbook – a quarter century later (Premium)
- Why Amazon paid $1.7 billion for a Roomba (Premium)
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Power of independence – Sean Peche, financial whistleblower
When Sean Peche went public last week with his comments on the Balance Fund unit trusts ripoff (aggressive marketing hiding big fees charged despite awful returns) you just knew it would touch a nerve with our tribe. But the extent of the reaction has been a surprise.
Personally, there has been lots of spontaneous feedback from friends, family and associates. More broadly, Sean’s article on BizNews.com has been read by 20 000 people; the YouTube recording of our 20-minute interview viewed by 13 000; and the podcast consumed by a thousand listeners. Given the niched nature of the topic, that’s exceptional.
Reason: Peche is a rare bird in the financial services sector. He’s prepared to speak his mind because his firm is not beholden to vested interests. That makes his opinions a valuable counter to the incumbents benefitting from an archaic status quo. Peche illustrates the power of true independence.
Despite the feedback and the highly critical nature of Peche’s allegations, we haven’t heard a peep from Allan Gray, Coronation or Ninety One, SA’s Big Three asset managers. Although the reference is obvious, Peche did not actually name the trio which harvest more than R3bn a year in management fees from these awful performers. So they appear to have borrowed from the Bain & Co playbook – brazen it out and hope that we’ll all forget about it.
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