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Life is uncertain. There are many things that can happen that may impact on your life. We call these things life changing events. Whether its disability, attracting a terminal illness or death itself, all of them will cause a drastic change in your life but also in the life of your loved ones.
By insuring yourself against these events you may lessen the financial hardships that go with it.
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What does investing mean? What are the risks? Why unit trusts? Learn more
Starting early and keep on doing it is the recipe for successful investment. Here is an example of the power of compound interest
Saving for your childrens' education is easy if you start early. An Education Policy from any insurer insures your life as well as helps you to save for the child's education. The insurance on your life protects your investment against the risk of you becoming disabled or passing away. You can imagine that, should a life-changing event happen to you early on in the Education Policy's existence, that the investment is still wholly insufficient for its purpose. By insuring the premium, you are comfortable in the knowledge that the insurer will continue paying the premium until the policy is needed.
This is by far the most popular vehicle to use to save and invest. Investing in unit trusts is similar to investing on the stock exchange. Whilst you need huge lump sums to buy shares of individual companies, with unit trust investments you are buying small units of share from a large number of companies listed on the stock exchange. (To learn more about unit trusts go here)
Our advisors and financial planners can assist you to build an investment suited to your needs.
To contact us click hereExchange-traded funds, commonly called ETFs, are index funds (unit trusts that track various stock market indexes) that trade like stocks. As such, they have all of the benefits of plain old index funds with some added punch. The fees for ETFs are often - but not always - cheaper than index funds, and they may cost you less in fees.
Exchange-traded funds began trading more than 15 years ago, but in recent years they've been gaining in popularity against more mature unit trusts.
An ETF's underlying net asset value is calculated by taking the current value of the fund's net assets (the value of all securities inside minus liabilities) divided by the total number of shares outstanding. The net asset value, or NAV, is published every 15 seconds throughout the trading day. But the ETF's NAV isn't necessarily its market price. More on that in a bit.
When you purchase shares of a traditional mutual fund, the net asset value serves much like a stock price - it's the price at which shares are bought or sold from the fund company. At a traditional fund, the NAV is set at the end of each trading day.
ETFs, as noted, work a bit differently. Since ETFs trade like a stock, you buy and sell shares on an exchange at a price determined by supply and demand. That's why an ETF's market price can differ from its net asset value. The way ETF shares are structured helps keep the gap between those two figures pretty tight.
Many investors - including the pros - have taken notice of these funds. Money invested in ETFs has more than quintupled over the past five years. The number of existing ETFs has skyrocketed at the same pace - investors now have hundreds to choose from. That number is still pretty small compared to the thousands of mutual funds that exist, but it is a lot of growth. And there are hundreds more on the way.
Investors like ETFs for several reasons:
Costs: Many good ETFs have very low fees, compared with traditional unit trusts.
Taxes: ETFs are big winners at tax time. As with any index fund, the manager of the ETF doesn't need to constantly buy and sell stocks unless a component of the underlying index that the ETF is attempting to track has changed. (This can happen if companies have merged, gone out of business or if their stocks have moved dramatically). And given the special way ETFs are structured (trust us, you don't want to know how this works), they're often more tax-efficient than traditional index unit trusts.
Diversification: Like index funds, ETFs provide an efficient way to invest in a specific part of the stock or bond market (say, small-cap stocks, energy or emerging markets), or the whole shebang (like the JSE Top 40).
Open Book: Again, since they track an index, you usually know exactly what's inside an ETF. With traditional unit trusts, holdings are usually revealed with a long delay and only periodically throughout the year (unit trusts that track a specific index are the exception here).
User-Friendliness: ETFs can be bought or sold at any time during the day, just like stocks. Unit trusts, on the other hand, are priced only once at the end of each trading day. If you're investing for the long-term, this doesn't really matter. It is nice to know, however, that you can usually get out of an ETF at any time during the trading day.
There is a small catch. Since ETFs trade like stocks, buyers must pay a brokerage commission every time they buy or sell shares. Those commissions add up quickly, especially if you're buying more shares each month. ETFs are great for lump-sum investors, but you should use a traditional index fund if you're buying a little bit at a time.
Should You Buy an ETF? There are a few situations where ETFS come in handy: . If you have a chunk of money you'd like to invest - say if you're transferring money from an old legacy type RA to a new more cost effective RA - ETFs could be a smart choice.
But if you want to regularly build on that investment a bit each month, stick with unit trusts that allow you to buy in without paying brokerage fees. Paying a commission will eat into your returns. And there are at least a handful of good unit trusts to choose from that track the big, popular stock indexes.
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We have contracts with the major medical schemes in South Africa. For advice and guidance on how to choose the medical scheme and the option that suits your needs best please contact us.
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Gap Cover is an addition to medical aid. It is a Short Term Insurance product that is designed to cover the shortfall between the medical scheme rate and the rate that the doctor or specialist charges whilst you or a family member is in hospital.
Benefits of Gap Cover: The deficit between what your medical scheme is prepared to pay and the actual account of the medical service provider can be significant - leaving you seriously out of pocket. Gap Cover provides benefits per annum of up to 500% of medical scheme rate.
Who should apply for Gap Cover?: Any South African whose medical aid does not pay for the full costs of the specialists and other medical providers whilst in hospital, should apply for Gap Cover.
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We provide cover for your house or business; for household and business items as well as for your motor vehicle. We source the best quote from a number of short term insurers in order to get you the best price.
Contact us for a quote or download the questionnaire and send it back to us for a quote.
Questionnaire 1 - Household Items (29 KB)
Questionnaire 2 - Motor Vehicle (29 KB)
Questionnaire 3 - Business Insurance (32 KB)
More than 94 people out of every 100 that reach retirement age in South Africa will not be able to retire. According to one of the major insurance companies in South Africa, this includes people who are currently contributing to a pension fund.
The major question remains then: Will you be able to retire comfortably with enough money to sustain your current lifestyle AND do the things that you have dreamed of all your life? Or, will you be forced to keep on working, or worse, be dependent on your family and/or the state in your old age? Will you have enough funds left after the ravages of inflation to support the standard of living that you have become accustomed to?
Most people will have to answer NO to these questions. That is the reason why you need to invest in a retirement annuity. The earlier you start the better.
If you are smart, you will have the tax man (SARS) help you to fund your retirement annuity. There are 10 ways to save tax with a retirement annuity.
Why do I need it?: The reality: thousands of individuals are retrenched every month. Being retrenched is emotionally challenging and scary at the same time - the prospect of maintaining your general living expenses can be very stressful.
We're here to remove the financial pressure of retrenchment so that you can have the confidence and focus on finding a new job.
What does it cover?: It provides an income to enable you to provide in the most pressing needs whilst you are looking for a new job.
How will I be covered?: You will receive a claim payment for 6 months irrespective whether you've found a job in the interim.
Tell me more: Click here for more information
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