Whenever an investment is made in a company, there are some important points which should be kept under consideration. One such point is reliability check. Some companies that exist on the internet have not even been created. In this way, many scam companies have been able to fool people and rip them off their finances.
The biggest problem being battled by every individual in this world is recession. Along with all the negative effects produced by this problem, an unusual positive effect has also been produced. Recession has damaged the corporate standing of various money granting firms. A logical aspect is that money granting companies conduct all their operations on the available cash amount.
Debt Settlement solutions are designed to improve the overall financial situation in the United States. As it is obvious that for money granting tasks, two key players are involved. One is the loan taker and the other is the loan giver. A loan taker is an individual who seeks monetary assistance while loan givers and finance granting organization.
Mostly loan takers get customized debt settlement services. A lot of companies have a generic structure which is followed for all the customers. All the clients do not use these services. Instead they get their own debt settlement solutions designed. In this way, the client does not have to depend on the progress of a generic approach.
This aspect has a negative factor as well because the generic approach has been tested and used. A new approach does not have any prediction criteria in terms of results. For a generic approach in case of debt settlement programs, the risk percentage involved is quite less. Most of the times, a very low reduction percentage is attained when the customer gets his own solution tested.
The reduction percentage attained in debt settlement services depends on the risk involved. At times when the risk involved is high then the attained percentage is low. The key factor in relief programs is that, many new things should not be tested. In this way the rate of error declines. Relief processes involve conversation to the bank representatives.
There are various settlement companies which have a mandatory condition of pre defined reduction modules which cannot be modified as well. The companies do not force any decision but the success rate is shown to the clients so that a belief is established. Belief and trust are very important factors involved in the relief company selection process.
Getting out of debt through a debt settlement process is currently very popular but you need to know where to locate the best performing programs in order to get the best deals. To compare debt settlement companies it would be wise to visit a free debt relief network which will locate the best performing companies in your area for free.
BusinessTimes
SINGAPORE: Singapore's United Overseas Bank (UOB) said yesterday its fund management arm has formed an alliance with a unit of India's UTI Asset Management to jointly launch and distribute mutual funds.
"The first initiative of the alliance is an equity fund that both parties have jointly developed," UOB Asset Management (UOBAM) said in a statement.
"The features of the fund will be announced at a later date."
UOBAM manages about S$13.5 billion (S$1 = RM2.44) in assets and has business operations in Singapore, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand.
Its partner UTI International (Singapore) is a joint venture involving India's largest mutual fund company UTI, Shinsei Investments and another company.
UTI manages around US$15 billion (US$1 = RM3.51) and its funds are distributed in 450 of India's 620 districts, UOBAM said. - Reuters
Disclaimer: Reading materials in this site are obtained from its respective website and it is for information purposes only. It is not Malaysia Unit Trusts - administrator view and it is not to be used against Malaysia Unit Trusts - administrator.
REDEV Properties is coming to Malaysian shores. What so special about REDEV properties? Well, for one, unlike the usual land banking offering that you hold long-term for capital gains, with REDEV you are able to earn both income and capital gains. REDEV allows you the opportunity to hold a direct investment (undivided interest) in prime Canadian commercial properties for a fraction of the cost it would take you to invest in a commercial property in Malaysia. And did I mentioned REDEV commercial properties are fully tenanted as well?
REDEV Properties has been syndicating commercial properties to investors since 2001. Today, they own and manage 25 well located, fully occupied commercial properties along with 4,000 investors. Eighty percent (80%) of the investing partners are Canadians and this speaks volume in terms of the credibility of the investment offered. In fact, they recently won the Hong Kong Business High Flyers of 2008 award.
The 3 founding members are Richard Crenian, Howard Manley and Darwin Forer. They partnered up in 1981 and since then have developed over 11,000 condominiums and commercial properties in Canada. By 2001, they changed focus to redeveloping established commercial properties. It had become cheaper to buy existing properties than developing new ones, and with long term leases already established, it posed less risk and provided immediate cash flow.
By partnering up with REDEV, you enjoy immediate cash flow generated from existing leases with regional and multinational companies. You are expected to earn between 6% - 10% net income pa. Commercial properties leases are long and secure leases of 5 - 20 years. The best part is... these are Triple-Net Leases where the tenant is responsible for all taxes, insurance, miscellaneous expenses and all costs associated with repairs. This protects you as an investors.
On top of your 6%-10%pa cash flow, you enjoy capital gains as well. At the end of 5 years, investors will vote to either sell or refinance the property. REDEV has a historical capital gain of 140% after 5 years. You have a clear exit strategy.
Commercial real estate is normally beyond the reach of the average investor. REDEV provides a platform for investors to simply own a percentage interest for as little as C$25,500 in freehold property, with existing tenants and existing cash flow. This is a very secure investment with land titles (undivided interest) and a trustee to safeguard your investment. Their current project Sturgeon Plaza has established tenants such as Canada Post and Royal Bank of Canada. An excellent investment such as this is expected to be sold-out very soon. If you are interested, drop me a comment now!
p/s: Don't miss out on this!
Speaking of starting afresh, while the financial crisis still lingers over us, many (including me) believe the worst is over. So are there anything for us to look forward to in terms of investments?
Before we move forward, let us briefly recap how the financial crisis actually started (I know its painful to remember things sometimes, but one should always learn from the past). It all started with the US housing bubble which peaked in 2005-2006. High default rates on sub-prime loans begin (sub-prime loans are loans which are in the riskiest category in the consumer loan market). Basically the financial institutions keep dishing out money to house buyers that have low credit rating. As house prices begin to stagnant or fall, house owners can no longer refinance their houses to keep up with their high interest rate mortgages. High defaults and foreclosures in turn plunge the US housing market even further.
When all these collapse, it spilled over to the financial markets. Many of these sub-prime loans are repackaged into financial instruments such as mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and a form of credit insurance called credit default swap (CDS). These are in turn sold to investors. Financial institutions who suffered losses includes Lehman Brothers (since bankrupt) and AIG (who received close to US$180 billion in US government aid that it has yet to repay). The spiraling effects include falling global consumer wealth, substantial financial commitments by governments all over the world and a significant decline in economic activity globally.
Going forward, US Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke recently gave his comment on the US economy stating, "I've seen some agreement among the forecasting community at this point that we are in a recovery, that we will see growth in the third quarter continuing and that growth will continue into 2010. But the general view of most forecasters is that that pace of growth in 2010 will be moderate..."
Recent gains in stock prices, rise in consumer confidence and home building activity, reinforces Bernanke's view that the worst is over. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index has soured 58% since March 9, 2009 when it hit a 12-year low. Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Expectation rose to 65 in August 2009, and climbed to 69.2 in Sep 2009; signally future spending is likely to rise. US Building Permits rose 2.7% to a 579,000 annual rate in August 2009; signally an increase in future construction. Things are indeed starting to improve and next we can talk about where best to put our money to take advantage of the recovering US & global economy (A new form of investment is about to hit the Malaysian shores)!
TheEdge
KUALA LUMPUR: Ethics and a forward-looking approach are key factors for investors to consider when selecting a fund manager, industry experts said.
Securities Industry Development Corp (SIDC) chief executive officer John Zinkin said investors should look at the integrity of the fund manager’s organisation — for example, how the fund manager was rewarded.
“The investor should also assess whether the fund manager has an understanding of the investor’s risk appetite, that they understand what you want in your time horizon.
“Do you want your fund manager to be engaged or passive? There are a lot of fund managers who are passive investors, they don’t go in with that engagement,” Zinkin said.
Speaking to The Edge Financial Daily, he said investors should also be clear on what they wanted out of their fund managers. “Do you just want to take your returns, or do you think through the fund manager, have an interest in the way the business (you are investing in) is being run?” he added.
Meanwhile, Zinkin said the size of Malaysia’s capital market was not enough to justify the inadequate level of corporate governance exercised.
“The governance problem is hurting the Malaysian equity market as a whole. Fund managers look at Malaysia and say it’s got a governance problem, but the market is not big enough to take the risk on.
“China’s got a much bigger governance problem, but the opportunities there are so big that people will live with that. There’s not enough going on in the market to make people want to come in here, if there’s also a slight question mark about governance.”
Watson Wyatt Worldwide practice leader (investment consulting) Puah Ser Sze added that the typical practice of looking at fund managers’ past performance was not sufficient to select the right fund manager.She said the investor should be in tune with the fund manager’s skill cycle, due to the amount of “noise” in the market.
“You have to base it on qualitative data. The criteria you should look at is the business, the people, and the investment process. You have to have good people because information gets arbitraged quickly in today’s seamless market, and with regard to the investment process, does the fund manager’s organisation have a competitive advantage?” Ser Sze said.
She added investors should be cautious of products offered by the fund manager, as part of the cause of the subprime crisis had been the over-incentivisation of low-quality products.
Meanwhile, Mercer (Singapore) Pte Ltd senior consultant Antony C Cherian said: “A skilled, active manager can add value to your investments. The challenge is to find that skilled, active manager, and this is where the research is required.”
He agreed investors should emphasize a forward-looking approach to identifying a fund manager, while criteria fund managers should have included business management skills, idea generation, portfolio construction and implementation.
He added that while Malaysian fund managers were largely on par with foreign fund managers in managing Malaysian equities, foreign managers were more experienced in managing global equities, and hence there was a need for Malaysian investors to include more asset classes to their portfolio, instead of just Malaysian equities and bonds.
Disclaimer: Reading materials in this site are obtained from its respective website and it is for information purposes only.
