Comments for The 5 Pillars of Life

Comment on Blog Temporarily ceased. No new articles allowed by The Watchman

The Watchman — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:53:04 +0000

You can post wihout any reference to your name..
Your company is concerned about your postings that harm their business especially your views on some of the products and the ways advisers approach clients’ need. The truth is your postings expose the inappropriate practices of some of the advisers.
Adrain, the best way to go for the industry is fee . Push for the commission to be banned. Contribute your proposals to MAS to ban commission. Australia has just banned commission and many more countries are hot on the heels.
I am sure you witnessed the evils of ‘anyhow’ selling practices in your company. It is the same everywhere, in the insurance companies and in the FAs too. The worst could be in some FAs.
All the best. Don’t stop blogging. you have educated many consumers who visited tour blogs. They are more aware now of the unethical practices of financial products salesmen especailly the high flyers who ;achieved mdrt or cot or tot. These are the worse salesmen.

Comment on My Resume by Mrs Lee

Mrs Lee — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 14:38:49 +0000

I like your view on financial planning. Maybe, we can exchange opinions on this topic. And I do have few clarifications, appreciate if you could do this via emails. Tks.

Comment on Contact Me by steven

steven — Mon, 30 May 2011 08:50:14 +0000

I like your website very much.

Comment on Blog Temporarily ceased. No new articles allowed by steven

steven — Mon, 30 May 2011 08:48:51 +0000

i like your blog, it is very useful.

Put disclaimer at the bottom of the page, just like for financial newsletters

Comment on Blog Temporarily ceased. No new articles allowed by Derek

Derek — Mon, 30 May 2011 07:28:56 +0000

Hi Kiat,

It’s strange but also not surprising. Does it apply to past articles too? Let me know if you require me to remove your posts from my site ya.

I enjoy your articles and it will be sad to see u go. Personal finance blogs are relatively few and I hope that to see you posting soon.

Cheers!

Comment on An insurance portfolio that makes my blood boil. by Jack

Jack — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:38:16 +0000

You know I’ve seen worst. One example I saw was a person who was asked by his banker to “transfer” his bank savings aka. emergency funds into some lousy endowment plan which locked him up for 15 years. Worst of all, he has no surplus or barely any savings (after expenses and insurance). The projected rate of return for the endowment plan is only around 1.2-1.5%.

That person earns only around $2000 per month and has a family with one child to take care. The premium for that stupid plan cost $550 per month.

Fortunately, he only started 1 year ago and I told him to cancel the policy immediately. Didn’t bear to propose any alternative, not even a $100 per month RSP because honestly, it’s quite heart-wrenching.

Comment on An insurance portfolio that makes my blood boil. by The Watchman

The Watchman — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:01:38 +0000

Adrain, good advisers cannot earn much commission because they put their clients’ interest above theirs.
Only salesmen disguised as financial consultants will make tons of money.They are the cheats MAS is unable to see. Sometimes, I wonder.

Comment on An insurance portfolio that makes my blood boil. by akhiat

akhiat — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:05:08 +0000

I do not want to name any insurance company or to discuss what she need next. I also do not want to say that Whole Life, Endowment or ILPs are bad.

My view is that if the person put in more than 10% of his income on insurance, it could be a sign that he/she is spending too much. Whole Life policies are usually the culprit in making people spending too much. As for Endowments, we must understand that they are very illiquid. For young professional with many short term needs on its way may not be recommended to put in too much of such savings. As for ILPs, there are some with 100% allocation, minimum insurance and relatively low cost and liquid but how many of such plans are recommended to their clients?

For this young lady with nearly 50% of her pay into all such illiquid plans will be highly not advisable… It is also rampant to see advisers recommending high commission plans and it is easily justifiable if they wants to.

Comment on An insurance portfolio that makes my blood boil. by Derek

Derek — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 03:19:49 +0000

DD accelerator rider looks very familiar to my TM Asia policy. DD here refers to critical illness ya? I think it is not a bad plan since I only need to pay for 25yrs and coverage is lifetime for death and CI.

I agree what is missing is a shield plan. The disability income should be a stand alone or at least be with a life plan. ILP will gets very expensive as u get older.

For savings and investment, I dun believe in using insurance. U can do the same using dollardex or FSM. If u really need that little bit of extra insurance coverage, just buy a term.

My two cents worth.

Comment on An insurance portfolio that makes my blood boil. by Wilfred Ling

Wilfred Ling — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:01:34 +0000

LOL

Classic example of rubbish insurance. Two most important insurance – medical and disability income are completely missing. Adrain, looks like you have to sell her these two negative commissions (after net of expenses and vomit blood) insurances! Don’t be ashame to invoice her for your work rendered. Consumer also need to take some responsibility.