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Inflation horror stories and some musings on crypto and gold

02 June 2023 | The Stage

You cannot scan the financial press these days without tripping up over an article on global inflation and central banks’ responses to same, typically through aggressive interest rate hikes. One after the other, the financial journalists entertain their “we-already-knew-that” followers with stories about how much more a basket of basic household goods costs today versus 12-months ago. “In November 2021 you were paying ZAR15 500,00 per month on your ZAR2 million home loan, today you pay ZAR6 170,00 per month more,” they lament, making sure to compare the best rate with the worst.

I’d love to face the ZAR10 million offshore transfer dilemma, this year or ever!

21 May 2023 | The Stage

The financial media has been in a bit of a frenzy of late over suggestions that government, National Treasury and the South African Revenue Services (SARS) are making it more difficult for citizens to transfer large sums of money offshore. This writer must confess to an initial feeling of trepidation when confronted by the Biznews.com article headlined ‘Treasury’s shock exchange control tightening’ but he soon calmed down; the last thing a freelance writer has to worry about is how to move ZAR10 million offshore, this year or ever!

Did South Africa’s non-life brokers miss the grid failure exclusion shock?

06 May 2023 | Featured Story

Year-to-date 2023 has been tough for South Africa’s non-life insurance brokers and their commercial insurance clients, with new business and renewal negotiations soured by a range of measures introduced by insurers, often at the insistence of their reinsurance partners, to ensure the long-term sustainability of the sector. The bottom line is that premiums are on the rise while perils on cover and sums insured are contracting. Case in point the grid failure exclusions announced by traditional insurers recently, and difficulties in obtaining cover for flood.

These are the external risks you need to fret over…

02 May 2023 | Straight Talk

The cost-of-living crisis; erosion of social cohesion; public infrastructure and state collapse; and supply chain issues are among the ‘big bubbles’ on a graphic representation of the risks facing insurers and reinsurers circa 2023. These were also among the risks explored during a recent Insurance Institute of Gauteng (IIG) Insights 2023 session presentation by Carolyn Thompson, Executive Head of Product, Underwriting and Pricing at Old Mutual Insure. Among the first statements put to the mostly South African audience was that the short-listed external risks were global and interconnected.

quick poll

Question

Do you think short-term insurance broking will survive the AI plus humanoid robotics age?

Answer

Human first always Not a chance Possibly maybe Yes, but reimagined

View the Results

What’s inside… FAnews Magazine April 2023

18 April 2023 | The Stage

Compliance with the provisions of the Code

17 April 2023 | Featured Story

Will Chat GPT and other AI live up to the ‘boats and rising tide’ aphorism?

14 April 2023 | The Stage

Dear broker, I pranged my Ferrari

27 March 2023 | Straight Talk

Is the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) hiccup somewhat of a grey rhino?

24 March 2023 | The Stage

Advisor firm consolidations and acquisitions

20 March 2023 | Featured Story

Baseball & other economic malarkey that mires your client’s financial outcomes

10 March 2023 | Straight Talk

What the FATF

28 February 2023 | Featured Story

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