New advertising standards

Chapter 4 of the proposed new Policyholder Protection rules contains details regarding advertising standards. Some of the more interesting ones, which relate to enquiries we often receive from readers, are included below. Unwanted […]

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Slim vang sy baas

This Afrikaans saying is very apt with regards to a recent Ombud determination in which, for once, the adviser was not held liable for a client’s loss. During January 2012, two complaints were […]

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Remuneration for Investment Product Advice

This is possibly the biggest bone of contention for advisers in the investment space. In the FSB’s RDR Update published in December 2016, the following information was conveyed: Commission on investment products As indicated […]

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Conduct of Business Reforms in 2017

At the conclusion of the Insurance Regulatory Seminar last year, Mr. Jonathan Dixon, Deputy Registrar of Insurance at the FSB, indicated that 2017 will be a year of substantial change. The huge amount […]

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Conduct of Business Reports

The FSB intends replacing the current FSB compliance reports with Conduct of Business Reports (COBR) and has called for industry input on the proposed document. The content and format of the proposed COBR […]

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Suitebox Assessment by Industry Experts

SuiteBox provides video business meeting software of specific benefit to modern day financial advisers. Apart from providing significant cost, productivity and client engagement improvements, it assists in simplifying record keeping. Inaccurate or insufficient […]

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Important Proposals on Regulatory Changes

Revised Draft Default Regulations on Lowering Charges and Improving Market Conduct for Retirement Funds: National Treasury today publishes a second draft of the retirement funds default regulations, made in terms of section 36 […]

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RDR Status update November 2016 Part 1

A new discussion document on RDR is due for release before the end of December for industry input. At the Insurance Regulatory Seminar in Cape Town on 17 November 2016, the following information, which will […]

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Comparing Emerging Regulations

A bosom buddy of mine, now deceased, when asked what he would do differently if he could live his life over, said: “I would make the same mistakes, just start sooner.” I have […]

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Growing importance of Data

At the 2016 Insurance Regulatory Seminar held in Cape Town last week, Farzana Badat, Head of Insurance Compliance went to great lengths to illustrate the importance of “…reliable, dependable, quality data… to articulate […]

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Does size matter?

In Case 1 discussed above, the Ombud also made the following statement: “The investigation further revealed that the respondent, in advising the complainant, had compared various financial products on the basis of a […]

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Justice delayed?

We noted with great concern that there were delays of up to five years in resolving some complaints from the time the Office of the Ombud undertook to investigate the complaint. This was […]

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Trends from Ombud Annual Report

The operational report from the FAIS Ombud in the 2015/2016 annual report, released on 18 November 2016, contains details of specific trends picked up in the period under review. Forex Investments A growing trend in […]

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Liquidation of Saxum Insurance

On Friday, 28 October 2016, the FSB published a five page document to inform policyholders of the liquidated insurer and how this will affect them. Whilst most of the questions and answers deal […]

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Silly Season is upon us

The Wikipedia definition reads: In Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, the silly season has come to refer to the Christmas/New Year festive period on account of the higher than usual number of […]

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Representatives also at Risk

In a recent Ombud Determination (JJ & GH Carstens and Paarl Financial Advisors CC & JA Bartman) dated 12th October 2016, the Ombud made reference to the Appeal Board determination in the first (2013) appeal […]

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