Comments for Cover Publications

Comment on Linking Risk Management and compensation in financial services by Horst

Horst — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:11:30 +0000

This is a great move, I have been saying this for years. Too many CRO’s are just keeping the chair warm ( managing the risk) this did not work up to now; and will not work in the future– it is all about the Risk Culture and Optimising the risks for maximum reward. Risk quantification and risk control is outdated concepts.
Join the “Risk Culture Builders” group on Linked-In– there we discuss the Future of Risk Management in Real-time.

Comment on Fees vs Commission by Peter

Peter — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:20:03 +0000

I do agree to some extent with the views above, however, not with all of them.

My concern is not so much charging the fee but collecting it from the client. Remember, that 90% of the people out there do not see a need for our services. Thus, getting them to pay for a service that the feel is not needed or not needed now but later when they are older, will prove very difficult.

Do we want to then take legal action against the defaulting clients? What will it do to our already tainted profession? Then we will not only be greedy policy mongers but policy mongers that have clients blacklisted because they are not paying their bills to us. I again state that the majority of people do not see our services as essential.

If we do not find a way of getting our fees I believe that we will have to exclude the majority of people from our services. The people that need it most.

Comment on The Regulatory exams – A plea for common sense! by Trent

Trent — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:22:34 +0000

Thanks for the article.

I passed first time with 85% without opening a book, so how much are they really testing?

Comment on The Regulatory exams – A plea for common sense! by Fanie

Fanie — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:55:45 +0000

I agree 100%. Which attorney or doctor has to remember everything about law or medicine, as long as they know where to find the answer quickly. Surely no one will pass this exam in 6 months time, why all the trick questions?

Is there a monetary gain scheme lurking somewhere?

Comment on The Regulatory exams – A plea for common sense! by tony van niekerk

tony van niekerk — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:46:02 +0000

Thanks for the comments guys. There are still varied comment from different sections of the industry regarding the exams. Overall it seems the pass rate has increased. Comments ascribe this to better study material, better prepared trainers and changes to the exam papers. I agree with Robert that all this and the extension of the deadline is unfair to those who wrote early and is a disincentive to people to write the RE2 exams early when they arrive. Hopefully there will be good consultation before these are finalised.COVER will be looking at the RE exams in detail again early next year and will use some of your comments to create the feature.

Comment on The Regulatory exams – A plea for common sense! by Robert Berrisford

Robert Berrisford — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:47:43 +0000

By all means regulate but make the regulations relevant. In the meantime one must sit (and pass) the exams as required to continue in the industry. Yet again it seems that the major industry players have an advantage over the smaller concerns in that they can provide training, assistance, networking, study time off and even payment of fees. A one person business needs to spend all the time available on servicing, retaining and aquiring new clients, and complying with all the administrative regulations that are now imposed and has little time left to study. This presents an oportunity for them to acquire small books of business at discount rates, good reason that they support such autocratic legislation. That said;
Why was the dead line extended, this is unfair on those individuals that studied and took the exams in time?
Why has the Africaans material not yet been released?
What is the current pass rate? The FSB said that as soon as sufficient people had sat, I think 25%-30%, this would be released. Surely sufficient have now sat but I do not recall seeing the figures.
What does the FSB, and seperately the industry, see happenning firstly to reps who do not qualify by the deadline and also to key individuals/sole proprietors?

Pass the exams, stand as one body and lobby for a relevant
regulatory authority at an affordable cost.

Comment on The Regulatory exams – A plea for common sense! by Mercurian

Mercurian — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:45:53 +0000

Since most ‘advisers’ out there cant even project an investment value(they use compounding which is blatantly wrong) , still don’t understand tax rebates and how they work (from a personal pension perspective), and the like, regulatory exams are a waste of time. The insurance industry is turned into a sausage machine, that revolves staff faster than a turnstile at the divorce court, but still keeps their revenues up in the hope that new staff perform at breakneck speed during the first three months, and will be replaced by the multitude of unemployed baying at the door…

Comment on Out of the ashes… by tony van niekerk

tony van niekerk — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:35:13 +0000

The challenge that the Europeans sit with, contrary to the Americans, is that the US has, for the most part, one national culture and “pride” whereas the EU has such varied cultures and national identities. This is coming back to haunt them when trying to work together for the good of the whole. As Richard says the Italians need to put their hard hats on. In fact, the whole of the EU should put their hard hats on and march together. The chances of that happening, unknown….

Comment on Medical schemes outraged by Martin Smit

Martin Smit — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 07:27:17 +0000

Medical Aid costs and Private Hospital costs are crippling. The huge profits made by Medical Aids are criminal – this is an emergency service, not another Anglo American! Regulation of Medical Aids to lower ever increasing premiums against lower benefits is necessary.

Comment on SA’s tax system ranks number one among BRIC economies for efficiency by Tax Payer

Tax Payer — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 11:27:20 +0000

It is all well for SARS to be ranked number one. However if one considers the utter and extreme frustrations experienced when interacting with its officials at the enforcement and other levels with simple issues like answering their telephones or the delay in dealing with extremely urgent matters which leave tax payers vulnerable to penalties and interest, then one wonders if these factors have been taken into account in the ranking. Just on Friday (18/11/2011) we witnessed an extremely frustrated gentleman at the reception who left the SARS office swearing. It is clear from this incident as well as our own frustrating experiences that SARS needs to be number one on ALL fronts of service delivery. In addition, bona fide businesses are being frustrated at not being able to register new ventures for vat, thus stifling important economic growth and job creation opportunities. The reasons provided by officials are that SARS has lost too much money because of the level of fraud. Good publicity and marketing campaigns by SARS is not key to providing customer satisfaction. SARS can go a long way in reducing stress levels and contribute to the well being of our nation.