Thursday, September 17, 2009

Bizarre behavior of Singaporeans

Do you agree with this article about Singaporeans?

FISCA service - to write a complaint

FISCA will provide a service to help consumers to write a complaint on consumer financial matters, to be lodged with the relevant bodies, such as the financial institution, FIDREC, Police or Commercial Affairs Department.

As the FISCA volunteers will be familiar with this matter after handling many similar cases, they will be able to help the consumer to gather the relevant documents and evidence to make a good case.

The consumer has to pay an administrative fee of $50. The FISCA volunteer will spend some time to listen to the consumers, identify the documents needed to support the case and draft the complaint.

The work of the FISCA volunteer does not constitute legal or financial advice. They are using common sense knowledge to help the consumer. Consumers should be aware that legal and financial advice are costly and cannot expect the same kind of professional advice from FISCA for an administrative fee of $50.

The FISCA volunteer will usually be well educated and knowledgeable people, although they are not practicing law or financial advice. They can give good guidance to the consumer from a consumer's perspective.

If the consumer needs legal or financial advice, the FISCA volunteer will guide the consumer to the appropriate expert.

To use FISCA's service, go to www.fisca.sg

Tan Kin Lian

Financial Planning (6) - How to find a good adviser?

If you need assistance to find the right type of investment or insurance product, you can use the services of a financial adviser.

It is better to find an adviser who will work for a fee. It is better for you to pay a fee of say $50 per hour for financial advice, rather than to use an adviser who earns a commission from the product that is sold to you.

If the adviser earns a commission, there is a conflict of interest. The adviser will recommend the product that pays him or her the highest commission. This cost is ultimately borne by your as the consumer, but you are not aware about it.

If you pay a fee to the adviser, you can ask for the commission that is paid on the recommended product to be refunded to you. This refund can be much more than than the fee that you have to pay. The adviser may be able to recommend financial or insurance products that are free of commission - so the cost will be lower anyway.

If you have to pay a fee of $50 per hour, you can reduce the total fee by spending some time to learn about your options, so that the financial adviser needs to spend less time to help you make the appropriate decision. The adviser may be able to give you some information from a website or booklet that you can read in advance.

To recap: Choose a financial adviser who is willing to work on a time-based fee, is willing to any commission paid on the products, and to refer you to educational materials that you can read in advance.

Tan Kin Lian

CPF Life will be operated on mutual principles

There were some negative comments about CPF Life - that the Government wants to make profit by operating this scheme and pay less to annuitants compared to the amounts that they have invested.

I asked some questions to CPF Board and they have given the reply here. The key points of the reply are:

a) A separate fund will be established for CPF Life
b) It will be credited with the premiums and investment income, and debited with the annuity payments, payment to beneficiaries and expenses of the fund
c) The expenses of the fund will be kept quite small, as the scheme is administered by CPF and enjoys economy of scale
d) The funds are not separately invested, but will be given a rate of interest that is pegged to long term government bonds plus 1%.
e) CPF Life will be operated on mutual principles, with the experience shared fairly among the members (i.e the profit does not go to the CPF Board or the Government).

I find this arrangement to be beneficial and in the interest of the annuitants. I hope that this will dispel any doubts about operation of the CPF Life scheme.

I thank the CPF for their helpfulness in giving this clarification.

Tan Kin Lian

Survey: CPF Life

Civil or criminal case?

If a land banking company has cheated the investors, is it a civil case or a criminal case? Does the Government (i.e. the Commercial Affairs Department or the Monetary Authority of Singapore) have the duty to investigate an allegation of cheating made by many investors? Can they sit idle and let other investors be cheated?

What is cheating? Cheating is described in the Penal Code of Singapore as follows:

Cheating – Whoever, by deceiving any person, fraudulently or dishonestly induces the person so deceived to deliver any property to any person, or to consent that any person shall retain any property, or intentionally induces the person so deceived to do or omit to do anything which he or she would not do or omit if he or she were not so deceived, and which act or omission causes or is likely to cause damage or harm to that person in body, mind, reputation or property, is said to "cheat". For example, A cheats if he intentionally deceives Z into a belief that A means to repay any money that Z may lend to him when A does not intend to repay it, and thereby dishonestly induces Z to lend him money.


It is the duty of the Government to enforce the law. If there is a complaint by the public that the land banking company is cheating them, the Government must at least carry out an investigation to see if cheating was involved. If there are grounds to believe that there was cheating, they should bring the case to court with the evidence (obtained through the investigation) and let the court decide.

If many members of the public lodge a similar complaint, the need to investigate is strengthened. Clearly, it is no longer a civil dispute. There is prima facie evidence of cheating.

For example, the investigation will show if the money received has been properly used for investing in the land that was intended. Has any money been mis-appropriated for other purposes? If the investment went bad, was there any money left that could be repaid to the investor?

The investors do not have the power or resources to carry out such investigation. Their lawyer (which has to be appointed at great expenses) do not have these investigative powers.

Even the act of investigation will deter the land banking company from continuing its dubious operations and put them in proper order.

If the investigation shows that there was no attempt to cheat, then the CAD can tell the investors to bring a civil case in court. But, I repeat, it is the duty for CAD to investigate the allegation.

Tan Kin Lian

RED Portal (5) - Highest Benchmark Price

The RED portal provides an important indicator called BMP (Benchmark Price). It is the average PSF (price per square foot) computed for the latest 20 sales transactions, adjusted by the price index.

Do you know the condos with the highest BMP in Singapore. Here are the top 10 condos. 8 of them are still under construction (to be ready in 2010 and 2011). Two are already occupied. Are you familiar with them?

Go to www.easysearch.sg (Real Estate Data) to see the map of the condo and also the actual transactions.


TOP 10 BMP

Condo Year Comp Tenure Location Nr Units BMP
Marq on Patterson Hill 2011 FH Orchard 66 $4,305
Cliveden at Grange 2011 FH Tanglin 100 $3,315
Orchard Residences 2010 99 Tanglin 175 $3,282
Parkview Eclat 2010 FH Tanglin 35 $3,220
Lumos 2011 FH Orchard 53 $3,133
Beaufort on Nassim 2008 FH Bukit Timah 30 $3,087
Leonie Parc View FH Orchard 44 $2,910
Helios Residences 2011 FH Newton 140 $2,840
Boulevard Residences 2005 FH Tanglin 46 $2,807
Nassim Park 2011 FH Bukit Timah 100 $2,751


These properties cost several million dollars and are beyond the reach of ordinary people. Anyway, it is nice to know how expensive they are, and where they are located.

You can find more reasonably priced properties at other sectors. Go to the portal and select the condo by its name, or choose the condos in your preferred sector (or district).

www.easysearch.sg (Real Estate Data)

Land banking - call on CAD to investigate

Many investors bought a land banking product with an option (guarantee) that they can withdraw their investment after 12 months with a certain rate of return. They exercised their option, but the land banking company refused to honor the promise.

The investors lodged a complaint with the CAD (Commercial Affairs Department) but the CAD officer told them to see a lawyer and take a legal case. One investor went to see the Member of Parliament and was advised to lodge a complaint with CAD.

Why are our public officers not doing their job? They seem to be passing the buck around. One point to the other. The poor citizens, having "lost" their money, have to go on a merry go round. It seems that they have to carry out their own investigation.

It is the duty of the CAD, on receiving several similar complaints about this land banking company, to carry out an investigation. At the least, they should ask the land banking company to give an explanation, so that the CAD can decide if there is a potential case of cheating. If so, they should carry out more detailed investigation to gather evidence and charge the wrong doers in court.

If the investigation shows that there is no cheating, it will then be appropriate for the CAD to advice the investors to take up a legal case for specific performance.

I suggest that all the affected investors should get together and collectively go to see a Member of Parliament. If you go togther, you will be able to bring your point across more clearly to the MP. Ask the MP to write to CAD to carry out an investigation.

After refusing the honor the promise to repay the earlier investors, the land banking company continue to sell the product to new investors. Will this become a ponzi scheme?

I am worried about the future of Singapore. If our public servants and elected leaders do not carry out their duty, things will get worse. There will be more cases of cheating.

Is it due to lack of manpower in CAD that they cannot carry out any investigation? Or do we now have officials that do not like the ground work and prefer to sit behind a desk and write reports?

Tan Kin Lian