Archive for November, 2008
"Who do you represent?"
When I started out in HSBC insurance (formerly known as Keppel Insurance), I put pride in the brand of the company and their products. “I represent HSBC Insurance”, has always been the standard reply in the introductory phase of the interview with a prospect (the potential client). As a rookie, I have always favoured that answer as I could easily leverage my position with the HSBC brand. With familiarity, comes trust. This would definitively help in the sales process as people in general are more ready to deal with a familiar brand than an unknown brand.
To fast forward, that is no longer the case now that I’m with Elpis Financial. Unless you’re in the company, the name is unheard of. What product do they sell? Why should one deal with an unknown brand? One may be forgiven for having this notion. As for me, it is no longer about representing the company. It is about representing THE CLIENT. The client wants the freedom of choice, and they would like to leverage on the knowledge and experience of the adviser in the process of getting THE BEST solution the industry can offer, for their unique set of problems.
I’m now in the position to do just that. Affiliating nearly a dozen of household brand life insurance companies, 2 investment platforms which gives the consumer access to more Unit Trust Funds than one will ever need in Singapore, my role as an advisor is now ever more specialized in financial planning than a product specialist, more like a doctor whose job is to diagnose a patient and remedy it with his arsenal of medicines and treatments in contrast to a pharmacist.
NTUC Incomeshield change of benefits and premiums
Posted by: admin in Product updates on November 12th, 2008
Latest news from one of our affiliates, just in today:
The Ministry of Health (MOH) had announced that from December 2008, there will be benefits and premiums adjustment to Medishield.
As Incomeshield is a medisave-approved integrated shield plan, changes on Medishield will have a direct impact on Incomeshield. NTUC Income will be introducing changes in benefits and premiums accordingly from 1 Jan 2009 and we would like update you of the following changes.
These changes will be effective 1 Jan 2009 (applicable to proposal submitted on and after 16th November 2008). However Enhanced Preferred Plan, Advantage Plan & Riders will not be affected and do not have any changes.
For any new applications submitted by 15th November, we will process them under the old rates.
We will also be uploading the new revised proposal forms & brochures to our website on the 16th November.
It’s a matter of time when the rest of the competiting Private MediShield plans will follow suite, such as Aviva MyShield, GE SupremeHealth, etc.. In my experience, a newer insurance product is not necessarily a better one. If you’ve been thinking for sometime already about beefing up your MediShield plan, you’ll get a better value if you act before the change.
Did you buy into funds because of an iconic event?
Posted by: admin in Unit Trust on November 1st, 2008
I have talked with a few people who bought into country-focused funds such as DWS China Equity or LionGlobal Singapore Trust because they believed, or made believers by their advisers on the possiblity of making good gains during the Beijing Olympics 2008 and Singapore’s F1 night race.
On hindsight, it didn’t help at all for both countries, looking at the charts and corresponding it to the dates of the events. It doesn’t look like it made any impact at all. Attending a fund manager talk, it has been mentioned that any impacts these events have on these respective countries would have already been factored in, by the time the official announcement had been made. That would probably be months or years before Beijing Olympics and Singapore F1 has actually materialized, when money has been pumped in for infrastructure, marketing, etc.
What can be learnt from this? To be obvious, we’ll never really know what’s around the corner. We may hear gossips, or speculations about them, but only time will tell. My best policy is always to stick to fundamentals, unless you wanna gamble your money away.
China vs Singapore chart