Recent articles on 28 and 29 October in Straits Times highlighted that customer satisfaction fell in various industries like retail, food and beverage and education. This is despite four years of efforts in various ways, such as training and awareness campaigns.What exactly is happening? And how does that affect your Financial Advisory Business? Read it all..
November 3, 2009
Don’t let poor Customer Service Let You Down
Rise of “Superwoman”, a niche player in the making
Superwoman Financial Solutions, an Australian-based financial services company is expanding it’s services to Singapore, targeting at female clients, sovereign funds and charitable organizations. Headed by Mr Colin Grant, they hope to bring understanding to investment products. They feel women generally prefer things that they can touch and feel. Most likely riding on the a fund manager’s license, they are set to roll out more investment products like water, luxury brand goods and food themes over the next 18 months.
The article is however unclear as to whether they are also providing financial advisory services as registered under MAS Financial Advisers Act.
Read it in this article here.
Private Banking Hiring again?
Asia remains the place for Private banks to hunt for new wealth to manage, as an article on Straits Times 06 Oct stated. Major banks like HSBC, Julius Bear,, Merril Lynch are all boosting their relationship manager numbers.”China is expected to be one of the most important markets for us in Asia for domestic private banking …” SG Private Banking.
Read the full article here.
September 17, 2009
UOB selling it’s life insurance unit?
UOB is selling it’s life insurance unit via an auction to divest it’s non-core business with Prudential and Manulife among the suitors. Without a strong distribution arm like Great Eastern for OCBC, UOB Life Insurance has been a minor player in the multi-billion dollar industry. What’s the impact on the industry? Read it all..
Insurer Manulife selling pure unit trusts? Is this a Big Deal?
Manulife will be selling 17 “Elite” funds of which five are managed by it’s own asset management arm Manulife Asset Management, and 12 from other financial institutions like Aberdeen Asset Management. They aim to grow the pool to 40 funds in the next 12 months. The funds will be sold as “pure” unit trusts as opposed to investment-linked funds. Is it a Big Deal? Read it all..
September 16, 2009
Citi-Gold offers Fee-Based Service? What Gives?
From 2 Sep, Citigold clients can opt for a wrap-fee based service, which reduces the front-end transactional cost to better align client/adviser interests. This is offered to those with $1 million to US$10m of investments under management. Instead of the front-end sales charges or commissions, they will be billed annual fees on the portfolio under management (including structured notes, bonds and unit trusts). A significant change of trend perhaps? Read it all..
August 31, 2009
Which Tree is the new Consumer Watchdog FISCA barking up?
A new consumer watchdog (officially formed in Apr 09) FiSCA or Financial Services Consumer Association , aims to be the champion of consumers of financial products and services, declaring itself to be independent unlike the incumbent and recognized route for financial services related disputes like FiDREC. What’s this all about? Read it all..
August 24, 2009
Insurance Commission structure to be reviewed? Why and What Explained …
Mission before Commission. Or have insurance practitioners forgotten about that?
MAS called for a review of the commission structure for life insurance advisers, stating concerns that the prevailing front-loading structure may not serve the best interest of consumers. Read it all..
August 21, 2009
Insurance business saturated? Then Why are Singaporeans Underinsured?
If the insurance business is saturated, shouldn’t Singaporeans be adequately insured by now?
For many people who join the insurance and financial planning business, they are frequently told by their relatives and friends that this industry is saturated, they know of at least 2 or three insurance agents or financial planners, assuming that everyone else is similarly crowded with such people.
The simple truth is that although there are many who join the business, there are more thaty fall out of the business. Since 2006, there is only a 1.2% increase (from 12,841 in 2006) in insurance agents. This is not in line with our population growth and wage increase numbers.
Another interesting fact is, according to national statistics, the average coverage of working adults is only $165,628 marginally up from $118,000 in Dec 07. A study done by Prof David Yee (NTU) commissioned by the Life Insurance Association, shows an average working Singaporean adult will need $495,000 protection against death. This points to gross under-insurance and a huge market for life insurance.
August 13, 2009
What’s moving? LIA Insurance Industry Report 1H 2009 Review
In the previous article, we looked at the observations of a 38% increase in premiums collected compared to the 1st quarter of 2009. There are actually two other areas which bears taking a look at in the LIA Insurance Industry Report 1H 2009. Read it all..
Recent Posts
- Don’t Let it Be Just Another Goal Setting
- Don’t let poor Customer Service Let You Down
- Rise of “Superwoman”, a niche player in the making
- Private Banking Hiring again?
- UOB selling it’s life insurance unit?
Recommended Financial Adviser Books From Amazon
Pages
Categories
Click Advertisers for Job Openings
Automate Your Communications
