In 2020, Vitality will launch a series of improvements – monetizing health behaviors directly, improving health outcomes and making it easier for all Discovery members to use Vitality. Vitality Health Tracker, which is available free of charge to all Discovery members and improves Vitality Activity products to help more members get healthy and get rewards. Vitality Active Reward (Vitality physical examination at Dischem/Clicks has reached a high benefit) 1. Up to 50% discount on the gym. Huawei watches have a maximum discount of 50%. 2. Up to 25% cash back for healthy lifestyle items. 3. Watch a 50% discount on movies. 4. Funeral insurance up to 30,000 rand. Vitality reward (graded; the higher the level, the higher the discount) 1. Up to 75% discount on the gym. 2. Up to 25% cash return for healthy food. 3. Up to 25% cash back for healthy lifestyle items. 4. Up to 25% cash back for sporting goods. 5. Up to 25% cash return for healthy meals. 6. Watch a 50% discount on movies. 7. Book a flight, rent a car, and up to 35% discount on accommodation. 8. Vitality Sports Awards Vitality Partner How to use Discovery currency Vitality children and adolescents reward partners Vitality points and grades If you would like to apply for Vitality, please contact Namhla or Tammy or in our health and wellness department email :health@daberistic.com tel no: (011) 658 - 1333
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Insurance companies and clients don’t always see eye to eye. Here is some advice from the gurus at independent insurance comparison website CompareGuru on the most common causes of disputes and how to avoid them. Misrepresentation One of the leading causes for rejected vehicle claims is misrepresentation. This alludes to who the regular driver of the car will be. If you’re putting yourself down as the regular driver of the vehicle when somebody else will be using it instead, such as your teenage son, this will become a problem later on. Your claim will also be rejected if: • You have lied about your claims history; • You have lied about your credit history; • You have lied about your security system/devices and; • You have misrepresented whether the insured vehicle will be used for personal or business use. Possessing proof of your most valuable items When it comes to household content, most of the complaints center around how much the insurer is willing to pay out. In many instances last year, the insured was unable to provide proof of ownership or proof of value for the lost goods. These are reasonable requests from any insurance company. When validating a claim, especially when it comes to high-value items, the insured must be able to provide ownership evidence. It’s not a bad idea to keep an inventory of your valuable home contents and retain all proof of purchase where possible. It’s also smart to keep copies of these outside of your home, just in case they are damaged in a fire or taken during a burglary. Theft and burglary were the reasons behind 73% of household content claims. Maintaining Your Property On that note, you may remember that 2017 saw a large amount of storm and fire damage across the country . We had tornadoes tornadoes in the Vaal area, the devastating fires in Knysna, extreme drought in the Western Cape and flash flooding in KZN and Gauteng. Thirteen percent of all claims were due to natural events, and many disputes were about storm damage. The biggest problem came in when insurers refused to pay out claims due to the properties already being affected by gradual deterioration. Negligent property owners did not maintain the property properly and ignored a large amount of wear and tear. Those who did might not have kept adequate records of any maintenance performed. Driving under the influence Without question, the area where insurance companies and clients butt heads the most is when it comes to drunk driving.Most of the claims considered by the Ombud were rejected due to the driver being intoxicated at the time of the incident. In order to manage the risks involved with drunk driving, some insurance companies have even implemented ‘take me home’ type services. If one were to look at the DUI statistics of car accidents in South Africa, though, it becomes clear that we have a serious problem. For help with all of your insurance needs, log onto Compareguru.co.za and compare quotes from South Africa’s leading insurers. Contact the gurus for independent advice and assistance on the best option for you. For assistance with any of your claims please contact Rethabile or Edmond email: shortterm@daberistic.com tel:(011)658-1333 Source: Personal Finance After you have engaged a financial planner to conduct a comprehensive financial needs analysis, the financial planner should have a subsequent meeting with you, to give you a proposed financial plan and discuss the findings with you. This meeting can be called Strategy Meeting or Recommendations Meeting. So what do you do when you have received the financial plan? 1. You are the co-creator of your financial plan. The financial planner is equipped with the professional knowledge and experience, to craft a financial plan that takes into account your personal circumstances, future inflation rate, investment returns, life expectancy and tax. However, the proposed financial plan is the starting point; this should not be your final plan. The proposed financial plan is what I call the theoretically ideal scenario. In practice you are in charge of the path you want to take. You need to decide what you want to do, how you want to do it, to achieve your financial and lifestyle goals. You give inputs, ask the financial planner to make changes, to get to a financial plan that is workable for you. 2. Ask questions. No questions are stupid questions. A good financial planner is also a good teacher, ready to answer your questions and explain financial concepts, relating to details of your plan, assumptions, terms and conditions, details of the financial solutions proposed to meet your needs. At times these financial jargons and concepts can seem daunting. Don't pretend you understand them if you don't. Ask questions. If a financial planner wants to rush through things, only interested in selling you the financial products he wants you to buy, without explaining to you all the details you would like to know, you should rather walk away. 3. Highlight issues not taken into account in the financial plan. There can be times a financial planner did not consider certain information discussed in the initial meeting, in developing your financial plan. Or you forgot to disclose material information. You should then bring it to the attention of the financial planner, so you can discuss about it, and the financial planner may have to re-work the plan. 4. Think about the implications of the recommendations. The value of a financial plan lies in the ability of the client to execute the plan successfully, over the long term, with the help of a financial planner. You need to think about the action items, whether you can mentally and financially commit to such actions over the long term. Does the plan give you flexibility? If your circumstances change, say you have one more child, or are retrenched, how would it impact your ability to continue with these financial products? Would you lose cover, benefits, or suffer financial penalties and charges? If your financial planner nudges you to be disciplined, would you toe the line? 5. Discuss the plan with the people affected by your plan. You do not live in a vacuum. You do not live alone. You have families and friends in your circle, that are going to be impacted by your financial plan and decisions. Specifically, people that are financially dependent on you, your spouse, children, sibling and maybe even parents. Discuss your financial plan with them, so you can consider their needs and inputs, in amending your financial plan. On the other hand, do not be a slave to your families' every wish. We do need to take care of our parents and siblings in need. However, every person needs to take own responsibility, to be useful and productive. In the Bible, 2 Corinthians 12:14 says, "... After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children." 6. Your are the owner of the financial plan. After you have discussed and finalised the changes to the financial plan with your financial planner, take ownership of the plan. It's your financial plan, not your financial planner's. Use the plan. Implement the plan. From time to time you may have to revisit and make changes to the plan, as your circumstances and needs change. The plan is the roadmap, to take you to your final destination, to realise your dreams and goals. There may be detours along the way, but adapt like our winning Springboks, be steadfast, and you will lift your own Webb Ellis Cup one day! This is a real-life client question I had recently. The client had invested for 2 1/2 years, the actual return after fees is 0.5% annualised. Understandably the client questions why staying invested in the same funds if the actual returns have been poor. Most clients will invariably compare the return to what they could get in a safe bank deposit. A bank deposit would have easily given the client at least 7% interest per annum over the same period. In comparison, the mere 0.5% is hard to accept. It is important to pay attention to the following: 1. What was your original investment objective? What was the initial time horizon? If the original investment objective has not changed, the investment funds are in line with the objective, then you should listen to your financial advisor and do nothing. 2. Are the fund managers still fit for the job? Fund managers are questioned and criticised a lot when they under-perform, especially in a long-period of under-performance. The things investors should ask are: Does the fund manager follow the same investment philosophy and process? Does he have the experience to manage the money? Does he follow the investment mandate? If the answers are yes, then leave the fund manager to do his job. 3. Active fund managers do go through periods of under-performance. True active fund managers do not hug a specific benchmark, their portfolio make-up most of the times do not look like index constituents. There will be periods of under-performance and periods of over-performance relative to the benchmark. It is human nature (me included) that when fund managers do well, investors are happy. When fund managers don't do well, investors are unhappy and want to switch out. However, in investments, we need to be counter-intuitive. When good active fund managers seem to be down and out, we should increase out investments, to maximise returns thereafter. Buy low, sell high. It is a lot easier said than done. 4. Fund managers do make mistakes. Fund managers employ highly intelligent people armed with relevant qualifications, such as CFA, CA(SA), Actuary and MBA, with years of experience to manage your money. Despite their best research, analysis and efforts, good fund managers will be honest and tell you that not all of their investment ideas work out. In fact, even best fund managers only get 60% to 65% of their stock picks right (making money for investors). 5. Equity funds are volatile and go through cycles. Equity funds invest in shares listed on the stock markets. They will be affected by market ups and downs. Performance from equity funds, or any funds with a significant exposure to growth assets, do not come in a straight line. The worst an investor can do is to sell at the bottom, when he feels this investment is not working out. 6. South African economy has been struggling. The South Africa GDP growth rate has been 0.6%, 1.3% and 0.8% for 2016 - 2018 respectively. The average was 0.9%. This year Finance Minister Tito Mboweni projects to be 0.5%. With the Eskom debt burden and electricity capacity constraint, increased tax burdens for consumers, the economy has been sluggish. This will filter through to the earnings (profits) of domestically focused companies. Hence the JSE has produced mediocre returns over the last 5 years. This will also lead to equity funds producing mediocre returns.
7. Patience is required when investing in equity funds. Equity funds and other aggressive risk profile funds require time, to allow fund managers to invest in their ideas and reap the rewards from these investment ideas. Investors should stay invested for at least 5 years. It is human nature to want to react and take action when something is not working as expected. In the case of investing with good fund managers, the best action to take is - do nothing! |
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January 2025
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