Financial advisers can benefit or destroy consumers

I met a marketing director of a computer software to be used by financial advisers. He wanted to see how we can collaborate. I told him that there are two types of advisers:

• Those that benefit consumers by helping them to take advantage of tax incentives and earn a better yield, net of tax and charges
• Those that mislead consumers into buying a life insurance policy that gives a poor yield

He agreed with my views. He was previously a financial adviser in Holland. He told me that Holland had the same bad experience of mis-selling and that the regulators had to impose fines on insurance companies and advisers. I told him that, to my knowledge, no fine was imposed on insurance companies, although the case of malpractices is quite bad in Singapore. He agreed to write to me and share some of his perspective as a financial adviser.

Tan Kin Lian