Advice: a robo future?
Advice in Australia is expensive to provide. So expensive, that people who need advice can’t afford it. We have an advice gap and it’s only going to get worse as the baby boomers head into retirement. But it’s not an insurmountable problem. In our recent client strategy breakfast sessions, held in Melbourne and Sydney, we […]
Read more...Mercado Released [07 September 2015]: Emerging Markets Currencies Drop
Most commodities currencies have lost against the greenback this year. Currencies that are leading in losses are the Brazilian real and the Russian ruble. These currencies have declined 30.6% and 21.9% against the dollar, respectively this year. Currency volatility is on the rise especially for emerging markets because of subdued commodity prices and as investors […]
Read more...Advice firms moving up the value chain… Be wary, it’s a different type of business
Our last Trialogue shed some light on a couple of opportunities created by the growth in managed accounts. This week we take a different angle, identifying opportunities for advice firms to leverage managed accounts and other similar structures to move up the value chain, and the threat that presents for fund managers (whose revenue streams […]
Read more...Andrew Warren interviewed on Metrofm
NMG Benefits CEO was interviewed on Metrofm by Rams Mabote. Issues covered were Employee Benefits for small businesses, BBB-EEE and procurement opportunities for small businesses at NMG. Also explored was NMG’S history of providing sound advice to all types of employers in South Africa.
Read more...Mercado Released [17 August 2015]: THE CHINESE YUAN
China sent shock waves through the market on Tuesday as it took steps to boost the economy by devaluing the currency by the most in two decades. The central bank cut its daily reference rate by 1.9% which caused the currency to weaken. The move had ripple effects across the globe as world markets posted […]
Read more...NMG Benefits welcomes National Treasury’s Retirement Reform proposals
The National Treasury recently released a statement outlining the first step towards implementing proposals that aim to lower charges and improve market conduct in the retirement fund industry. Read More
Read more...Managed accounts – are we there yet?
Managed accounts are complex – the term can refer to SMAs, IMAs, MDAs and managed portfolios. We have seen SMAs of stocks, SMAs of ETFs and even SMAs of other SMAs. No wonder, then, that we are often asked to explain managed accounts to clients – something we hope to do in this week’s Trialogue. […]
Read more...Decoding the investment universe
To some the word “investment” can be intimidating and something that is only accessible to the wealthy. And as such it can leave those apathetic, resulting in a reluctance to understand the importance of investing and the critical role it plays in one’s future prosperity. Other jargon and seemingly technical areas such as taxation, […]
Read more...Legal Update: Overview of new draft default regulations that affect retirement funds
National Treasury has published draft default proposals that follow from the Treasury paper, Charges in South African Retirement Funds, published in 2013. This paper highlighted the complex and opaque products with high charges in the SA retirement system. The draft default proposals are some of the first steps, together with the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) […]
Read more...Mercado Released [27 July 2015]: SA: Interest Rate Hike
In a surprise move the South African Reserve Bank has hiked interest rates by 25 basis points to 6.0%. This was the first increase since July 2014. The Reserve Bank had maintained interest rates in order to assist the local economy which has battled with strikes and rolling black outs. Despite the fact that the […]
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