
Online Seminar on Techniques to Predict Future Investment Returns

Seminar Speaker, Mr. Wilfred Ling
There will be an online seminar conducted this Saturday, 24th September 2011 at 10:00AM regarding Techniques to Predict Future Investment Returns
There are many techniques used to forecast the future. Forecasting the future in investment is called ‘capital markets expectations’. Without formulating an expectation of the future, it is not possible even to plan for one’s retirement because future inflation, interest rates and investment returns are completely unknown. In the investment circles, all investors make some kind of forecast. The question is: are these forecasts accurate?
The Financial Planning Process
Financial planning is a process where an adviser assists his client in areas such as cash flow management, investment planning, risk management, insurance planning, estate planning etc. Depending on the individual needs and complexity of one’s portfolio, financial planning can be quite a big project.
It is important for a systematic approach to be adopted in order to structure the process to ensure that it is productive, as well as to develop a plan that is suitable, relevant and useful to the client.
Not so Obvious Reasons to Start Planning Sooner Rather Than Later
There are quite a few obvious and oft-repeated reasons why people should start financial planning now: insurance premiums increase when one decides to get it at an older age; health problems may set in making it more difficult to get insurance coverage; investing early allows one to enjoy the full magnitude of the compounding effect amongst other reasons.
These are actually rather minor concerns to me.
What is the absolute difference in premiums when one is 25 versus when one is 26, 27 or even 28? It is not very much actually. Delaying one’s investing by some time also do not make very significant difference. Of course, horror stories about bad things happening to even young people can be an effective way of getting people to sign on the dotted line, but to me, I think a few other factors are more pertinent.
Cash Value Policies – Why are There Losses on Early Termination?
Have you ever wondered one incurs capital losses on early termination of policies with cash values? Ask any insurance agent and the likely answer would be, “oh, these plans are for the long term and hence there are losses incurred when the plan is surrendered prematurely.”
Most people accept this answer readily, if they even ask at all. It seems like a fact of life few people bother to question.
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