Making reparations

Hi Mr. Tan,

After studying for some financial planning examination modules as well as reading up widely about financial planning, insurance and investments, I have come to realise that I have sold many products of poor value to my clients during the last almost two years I spent at an agency of a large insurance company.

Being naive and new to the industry back then, I readily accepted products such as anticipated endowment plans and regular-premium ILP life insurance as good and beneficial for my clients and myself. Like many of my colleagues, I trusted my manager and company to teach us the right thing.

It is only now that I realised that many of these products were taught to us based on half-truths, and in turn we recommended such products to our clients based on such half-truths. When I raised such issues to my colleagues and manager, they persisted in rhetoric that we were truly benefitting our clients with such products, and even that the half-truths were necessary for them to take up the beneficial plans. Later, possibly knowing that I know better, I was persuaded to leave which I was more than happy to do so as I could not continue to do things against my conscience. My colleagues are still spell-bound by their managers and perhaps the money and incentives they got from the sales of such products. I know them to be good-natured and well-meaning people, but alas I feel hurt to realise that many of them think that I'm just trying to create trouble when I tell them about the serious downsides of the products we were selling.

I feel very bad and guilty that many of my clients will be shortchanged as a result of such plans which neither insure them adequately nor prepare them for retirement. Insurance agents face a lot of rejection, and I feel that I have betrayed the trust of these people who were kind enough to give me a chance to handle their finances.

I am moving on to an ethical independent financial advisory firm where I feel I will be most able to give ethical and competent advice (low cost funds and term policies), but I still feel bad for the financial damage I have potentially caused to my clients. I feel that I should tell them the truth I have realised about the products they have taken up, but I worry about the potential repercussions I might face. While I feel that it is good for them to know as their policies are still young and still manageable, I think that many will misunderstand and think I am just trying to sell other products to them even though I can receive a good income by just remaining mum and collecting the trailing commissions.

I even feel inclined to refund them the full cost of the premiums they have paid, but I realised that while the remuneration for such products were good, I cannot possibly do this as a bulk of the premiums also go to other entities aside from the adviser, and I have to consider my own survival.

I sincerely wish to make up for the wrongs I have done. I hope you and your blog readers can give some suggestions and advice on how I can make reparations to my clients.

Many thanks.

Great book on spirituality - one of the best!

Review of Wisdom on How to Live Life (Book 2) By Smudger "Spirituality"
Every decade or so comes a spiritual book which stands out from the rest. Don't get me wrong, I liked the Conversations With God series and still do, also Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now increased our knowledge of spiritualty enormously, but Dr. Tommy Wong's Wisdom and How to Live Life (BK2) is, in my opinion, at least on a par with any of those. His BK1 with the same title blew me away with the shear depth of reasoning in the dicussions between Guru Dick and Harry and the student Tom. This sequel centres on a discussion between Guru Harry and student Tom only. It covers such vitally important topics such as 'how to find our interest and mission in life', 'why it is important to believe that God and we are one','the real problems in having attachments'and so on. I have only owned BK2 for one week, but read it through twice, such is the impact this book has had on me and will do so again until its teachings permeates through me. I can truly recommend both books and honestly believe you will not regret doing so.


The books can be ordered here.

Asking for advice from TKL

If you wish to ask for my advice, please take note of the points stating in this FAQ:
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=182

Some people expect to take up a lot of my time for free. They do not read the FAQs  or do their own homework before approaching me. When I told them that I do not have the time, they asked me to recommend someone who can advise them. I know of a financial planner who charges $200 per hour.

If you do wish to ask for time, be prepared to spend this money. Do not expect to take other people's time for free.

Sub-prime crisis in the USA

Many people saw the sub-prime crisis coming, except the people who are in charge. Will this also apply to Singapore? Although we do not have sub-prime loans, the low interest rate in Singapore is also inflating property prices.

Read SGEP.

FISCA Talk: Insuring your Financial Security

Title of talk: Insuring your Financial Security
Date : 18 Dec 10, Sat, 2-5 pm
Venue : The Verge (2 Serangoon Road Level 6)(Near Little India MRT)

FiSCA is pleased to bring to you another new topic on insurance. The speaker is Mr Tan Kin Lian, who has over 30 years of experience in insurance business. His talk will focus on how to consider insurance as another tool for your financial security. Make use of this great opportunity to learn from the insurance guru.

This event is available to all FiSCA members at $20 and non-members at $30.
We encourage the public to join as FiSCA members as the annual fee for members is only $36.

More details and registration can be found at:
http://www.fisca.sg/events

Outline of the talk can be found here.

HK: Minibond investors misled, says prosecutor

A bank manager appeared in court yesterday accused of misleading six investors, some barely educated and retired, to buy HK$6.8 million of Lehman Brothers minibonds.

Cheung Kwai-kwai, 47, a former personal financial services manager at Bank of China (Hong Kong), pleaded not guilty in the District Court to nine counts of fraudulently or recklessly inducing the victims to invest money between 2005 and 2008, violating the Securities and Futures Ordinance.

Senior prosecutor Jonathan Man Tak-ho said that Cheung misrepresented to the victims the minibonds were "principal protected", "of very low risk" or "highly secured" while experts said the products were complicated structures whose principal - the sum invested - was not protected, meaning investors could lose all of their money.

The alleged victims are now aged 51 to 78. Three were retirees when they were induced to buy the products, the court heard on the first day of the trial.

Read the following link for the full story:
http://www.lbv.org.hk/content/pages/posts/minibond-investors-misled-says-prosecutor10705.php

Learn to be entrepreneur

Singaporeans generally are not entrepreneurial. They are brought up in an environment to be careful, to work hard, to get the right answer and to avoid mistake. They tend to avoid making decisions and to take responsibilty for bad decisions. They like other people to decide for them. This is part of the Singaporean culture.

To be an entrepreneur, one has to be willing to try and experiment, to make mistakes and learn from mistakes, to learn by doing (rather than to take instructions from other people).

I have developed the BEST Business Game to allow the players to learn the skill of making decisions on pricing, marketing and resource allocation. It allows the player to develop the skill by practicing over many rounds.

Learn to be a business entrepreneur. Go to www.easysearch.sg and click on BEST Business Game.