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Compulsory vaccination increasingly likely
Making vaccination compulsory to enter workplaces and certain public spaces seems a certainty if the statements from the ...
Forgive and forget – so ‘no need’ to disclose debarment
The owner of a brokerage asked the Financial Services Tribunal to award him R2 million in damages because the FSCA refused to grant his firm an FSP licence. The regulator rejected the firm’s licence application because its sole key individual, director and shareholder did not comply with the fit and proper requirements. The tribunal also […]
Cybercrimes Act takes effect – sending threatening messages can land you in prison
Certain sections of the Cybercrimes Act came into effect on Wednesday, which means it is now a criminal offence to, among other things, send messages on social media that threaten to harm someone or damage their property. However, the provision that obliges electronic communications service providers and financial institutions (as defined by the Financial Sector […]
What constitutes “access-controlled” premises?
What does “access control” mean for the purposes of an insurance policy? The answer to this question was at the heart of a complaint that came before the Ombudsman for Short-term Insurance (Osti). The Osti overturned an insurer’s decision to reject a claim for a vehicle stolen from a business park, the latest “Ombudsman’s Briefcase” […]
The case for simplifying policy wording
You, as an adviser, are legally required to explain all material clauses in a policy to enable your client to make an informed decision. What happens if some clauses are so clouded in mystery that it takes 13 judges to finally lay rest to the question of causation, and an appeal to the highest court […]
‘Cyber risk is an opportunity for brokers to showcase their value’
The systemic nature of cyber risk provides intermediaries with an unprecedented opportunity to show-case their value to clients, Andrew Coutts, Santam’s head of Intermediated Distribution, told the recent InsureTalk18 online conference. It is difficult to insure and re-insure against something that happens everywhere at the same time, such as a pandemic, climate change, political instability […]
Life insurers pay 99.3% of all claims against fully underwritten policies
South African life insurers paid 99.3% of all claims against fully underwritten individual life policies in 2020 to a value of R20.6 billion. The 2020 death claims statistics for fully underwritten individual life policies, released this week by the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (Asisa), show that life insurers received 32 072 claims, […]
Coronation reports another year of net outflows
Coronation Fund Managers grew its assets under management (AUM) by 11% to R634 billion in the year to September 2021, from R569bn. However, it once again reported a net cash outflow of average AUM. The net (excluding capital and currency changes and charges) outflow was 4.8% in the 2021 financial year. This follows net outflows […]
Three ways to think about money, risk and investing
Behavioural finance expert Morgan Housel, partner at Collaborative Fund and an award-winning author, was a speaker at the Allan Gray Investment Summit and the CFA Investment Conference this year. Housel, in almost identical presentations at both events, spoke about how we can think about money, risk and investing in more productive ways. Here are the […]
Financial Sector Laws Amendment Bill: another bureaucratic power grab?
It is questionable whether the much-vaunted “too-big-to-fail” benefits of the Financial Sector Laws Amendment Bill now before Parliament justify its far-reaching impingements on the rule of law, its dubious depositor insurance provisions and its very significant costs, among many other concerns. The Bill fails to crisply define its principal stratagem, being the “resolution” by employees […]
It’s ‘too soon’ for investors to panic over Omicron
Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s top three investment banks, does not think the emergence of the omicron variant of Covid-19 is sufficient reason to make major changes to investment portfolios. Meanwhile, James Glover, the managing executive: Markets at Nedbank Corporate and Investment Bank, said the market will be keeping a very close eye on […]
