Friday, April 2, 2010

New Blog officially launched

My new blog is officially launched on 1st April 2010 at

http://akhiat.com

Thanks for your support

Blue skies,
Adrian Khiat

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This report may interest you...

Monday, April 26, 2010

Australia tightens rules on financial advice
Posted: 26 April 2010 2014 hrs

SYDNEY: Australia Monday announced sweeping changes to the financial planning industry, including the banning of commissions for advisors, in the wake of several high-profile corporate collapses.

Under the new rules, financial advisers would be legally required to put the interests of their clients first, Financial Services Minister Chris Bowen said.

"Customers and clients, when they're seeing a financial planner, deserve to know that a financial planner is acting in their best interest and when you have commissions that is simply impossible," the minister said.

Bowen said the changes were designed to improve the quality of financial advice and tackle the sale of inappropriate financial products that culminated in the collapse of firms such as Storm Financial, Opes Prime, and Westpoint.

"Over the years thousands of Australians have had their life savings wiped out by inappropriate financial advice," the minister told reporters.

"They have a right to be angry and we have an obligation to act."

Thousands of investors lost their savings in Storm Financial's S$3.0 billion (US$2.78 billion) collapse in late 2008, while Opes Prime fell apart in March 2008 owing clients and creditors some A$630 million.

Westpoint, which began to unravel in late 2005, collapsed with thousands of investors losing some US$388 million.

"Some of the collapses we have seen ... have been because of poor business models ... but (these products) have been recommended by financial planners because they have provided very substantial commissions," Bowen said.

"In some cases up to 12 per cent of the investment... clearly that has distorted the advice given."

The government, which faces a general election this year, said it hopes to pass the legislation so it comes into force on 1 July, 2012.

The conservative opposition said it would oppose the changes because they could prevent people on low incomes from accessing financial advice as they may not be able to pay for it up front.

Under the proposed changes, the government would also strengthen the powers of the corporate watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), to act against unscrupulous operators, Bowen said.

SingaporeMemoryProject said...

Hi Khiat Han Hwee Adrian,

We tried to look for your email contact but it does not seem to be available on your blog. So we are contacting you via a comment.

On behalf of the National Library Board (NLB), we would like to invite you to pledge your blog to the Singapore Memory Project (SMP).

We find that your entries about health and insurance would be a great addition to the Singapore Memory Project.

We think your blog would offer a different perspective. Whether your posts are an account of your daily life or an expression of your thoughts, our project hopes to find a home for these memories so that it can help build a ground-up understanding of Singapore.

If you believe memories are worth preserving, simply pledge your blog here: http://singaporememory.simulation.com.sg/Public/Pledge.

The SMP is a national initiative started in 2011 to collect, preserve and provide access to stories, moments and memories related to Singapore. For more information about this initiative, you may wish to contact Mr Patrick Cher at patrick_cher@nlb.gov.sg or read the FAQ.

Yours sincerely,
Krishna

[Simulation Software & Technologies (S2T) Pte Ltd. is the officially appointed vendor for SMP for the period Nov 2012 to Dec 2013.]