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 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 […]
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 […]
Average take-home pay in South Africa decreased by 3.1% in real terms in October, the steepest year-on-year decline since September 2019, according to the latest BankservAfrica Take-home Pay Index (BTPI). BankservAfrica said the decline follows the high base in October last year, when casual employees were returning to work. The average real take-home pay was […]
It’s commonly believed that communicating online, as opposed to in person, results in people telling more lies. But the results of a recent study challenge that perception. David Markowitz, Assistant Professor of Social Media Data Analytics at the University of Oregon, had 250 people record their social interactions and number of interactions with a lie […]
Mark Mobius, founder of Mobius Capital Partners and former chairperson of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, is widely credited with having established emerging markets as an asset class. Mobius had virtual “fire-side chat” with CFA board member Delphine Govender at the recent CFA Investment Conference. Here is a run-down of some of Mobius’s views on current […]
Average administrative costs per retirement fund member increased from 2006 to 2018, but this overall increase conceals that average costs have fallen for particular fund types and classes and benefit structures. This is one of the findings contained in a report, published by the FSCA and National Treasury, on the economies of scale in the […]
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has already implemented a number of recommendations arising from the Special Investigating Unit’s investigation into alleged misconduct by its employees, and it plans to increase its tariffs for regulatory services. CMS chief executive Dr Sipho Kabane told Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health that the SIU indicated in October that […]
National Treasury has put National Health Insurance (NHI) on the backburner because of the slow progress in getting the project off the ground. In the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, Treasury said there was “insufficient capacity in the health sector to work substantively” on NHI. The NHI indirect grant (which funds most NHI projects) has […]
From 1 January next year, Old Mutual employees will have to submit proof that they have been vaccinated against Covid-19. This follows similar announcements in September by Discovery Health and in October by mining service partner Fraser Alexander. Old Mutual’s chief executive, Iain Williamson, said the company has a moral obligation to make decisions that […]
