Capitalist system and its safeguards

Singapore adopts the capitalist, free market system that prevails in America. However, the American system has the following safeguards for consumers:

• If retail investors bring up a case against a financial institution and loses their case, they do not have to bear the legal cost of the other party.
• Some lawyers in America are willing to bring up the case on behalf of the retail investors on a "success fee" basis. The lawyer will bear all the expenses and will only charge their fees and expenses on the successful outcome 
• If there is sufficient merit, the attorney general will take up the case on behalf the retail investors, rather than leave it to them to fight the financial institution on their own. The attorney general is the lawyer for the people, as well as the lawyer for the government.

If Singapore had the same safeguards, the retail investors of the DBS High Notes would not have to suffer the outcome that they faced yesterday, when their case was rejected by the High Court judge and face the prospect of paying large legal fees, in addition to losing their invested principal.

Tan Kin Lian

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Court case on DBS High Notes - legal fees

In passing the judgement on the DBS High Notes case, the judge indicated that he will be giving a ruling on cost at a later date. This ruling will determine how much of the legal cost incurred by DBS will have to be paid by the investors.

It will be honorable for DBS to bear its own legal cost entirely and to ask the judge not to pass the cost to the investors. After all, the investors had lost a lot of their savings by investing in the High Notes that were created by DBS and marketed by DBS. If DBS does not make this request, I hope that the judge will decide that each party should bear its own cost, in the light of the circumstances.

Tan Kin Lian

Dispute on interest rate with NTUC Thrift

Dear Mr. Tan,
I was Ntuc thrift member for some years till recently, Thrift sent letter to me to cease all my accounts as they recently did a clean up and flagged that I was no longer a member. As my 2-yr FD matures in 2012, they agreed to pay on the interest rate for the invested period at the interest rate for tenor 9 month. Is this fair? Should they pay at the original interest rate despite reduce tenor? 
Alex

They should allow you to continue the 2 year tenure and pay you the agreed rate. If they wish to terminate earlier, they have to discuss with you on what is a fair rate - which should be the same interest rate but pro-rated for a shorter period.

Tan Kin Lian

Who can I get help for Thrift to honour the original FD? MAS? I have already asked Thrift on the following occassions: 1) I spoke with head of operations 2) Appealed to CEO during follow up call 3) Copied my appeal to MCYS  I sought help from MCYS but as there is no contractual issue so there's nothing they can do.

Alex

If the people in charge don't care, there is nothing much that I can do.Sorry.
Tan Kin Lian

Can I go to MAS?
Alex

You can go to MAS or the Prime Minister, but they probably don't care also.
Tan Kin Lian

Life insurance policies sold to elderly, illiterate person

I spent one hour talking to an angry person. His mother was sold 2 life insurance policies 15 years ago by an agent (a family friend) who told her a pack of lies. They had approached the insurance company a few years ago, but the matter was not resolved. He sought my help to advise him on what he could do now.

Honestly, his grounds are weak. It was 15 years ago. It was the word of one person (his mother) against another person (the agent). To make matters worse, the agent could not be located.

He felt that it was most unjust. He related on why the life insurance policies were sold to his mother, who was illiterate and unsavvy. He asked for my views, as the ex-head of a life insurance company, on what the problem was - that caused this type of unpleasant situation. Was it due to the fact that the insurance agent were not paid a salary and had to earn a commission by telling lies?

I tried to answer his questions, but he appeared to be not listening. I told him that it was unfair for him to now place the burden on to me. I did not cause this situation, and had no power to address it. It is easy for the people in charge, such as the MAS or the member of parliament, to close their eyes and ears to the problem. Maybe, I should also do the same?

Tan Kin Lian

Message from Spa Victim

Dear Mr. Tan,


Thank you for helping to raise awareness. I am encouraged by your efforts to fight for justice for consumers and the common man.

In respect to the recent case where hundreds of millions of dollars are lost when True Spa and Subtle Senses stopped operations, below are 2 links for your readers' attention.

1. Here is the link to the newspaper report. This is an update on the case about True Spa and Subtle Senses.

http://www.singaporelawwatch.sg/remweb/legal/ln2/rss/legalnews/70016.html?utm_source=rss%20subscription&utm_medium=rss

2. There are about 20,000 consumers. We need to get as many people to come together as possible to go after the owners of True Spa who started this mess.

Here is the link to the facebook group - Victims of True Spa Subtle Senses

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_170620749615018&ap=1#!/home.php?sk=group_170620749615018&ap=1

Many thanks for your time.


Spa Victim

Democracy rating

Singapore has climbed 9 rungs in the democracy rating, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Do you agree with the findings? SGEP

Ape Snap Dining Vouchers

Are you paying for hefty dining bill with clientsDo you lack of ideas for corporate gifts or employee benefit?|Are you overwhelmed by the exorbitant charges for meals?

Now ApeSnapDining is representing over 20 restaurants to provide dining voucher at 20% discount. These cash vouchers are available for use every day to minimize expenditure on dining, employee benefits and corporate gifts. Please do not hesitate to grab vouchers on our website www.apesnapdining.com  and catch up with us on facebook

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/ApeSnap-Dining/165429836829430

Note from Tan Kin Lian
I am helping my former student in SMU in marketing these vouchers in her first job after graduation. Please support her.

Wealth accumulator and Flexi Life

A consumer asked me about the wealth accumulator plan that I mentioned two years ago. When will it be ready?

This plan is now evolved into the Flexi-Life plan that is found in this website: http://projects.easyapps.sg/life21d.

I will be writiing a book on Life Insurance - which will describe this plan as a solution for a person to manage the personal finance. I hope that some insurance companies will be interested to introduce this type of plan. I will also be looking for investors to set up a new insurance company to work on this business model.

Data roaming charges

There is a need to cap the data roaming charges and also for the mobile operators to negotiate an agreement to set the charges at a reasonable level, for the sake of their subscribers.


www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=316

Fire safety regulations need to be practical

On 4 Nov 2009, Mr. Leong Jun Wei died from a fall on his wedding night. While intoxicated, he wondered into the fire escape staircase and could not get out. The doors were locked due to the fire safety regulations. He tried to climb out through a window and fell to his death. His bride, Kerin Pei, took her life a few months later, as she could not bear the grief and loneliness.

This is an example of a safety regulation that has probably been taken to an impractical limit. Why must the door to the fire escape staircase be kept shut? How many people had ended in the trap faced by Mr. Leong and could not get out? They had been greatly inconvenienced in the interest of "safety" although they did not face the fate of Mr. Leong.

Who weighs the pro and cons of the regulatory measures that are being introduced in the name of "safety"?

Business Times report on the court decision on DBS High Notes

The fallout from the global financial crisis that began two years ago in the United States continues to be felt here, as 213 investors failed in their efforts to recoup the $18 million they lost when their DBS High Notes 5 were devastated by the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The investors' claim that the notes are void due to an inconsistency in a material portion of the agreement was dismissed

The High Court of Singapore on Friday decided, in a judgment released yesterday, against the 21 investors who brought the action against DBS Bank on behalf of 192 other individuals - the first representative action here after the Lehman collapse.

The investors, represented by Siraj Omar and Dipti Jauhar of Premier Law LLC, were asking the courts to declare the DBS High Notes 5 void at the time that they were issued, and for the bank to repay each of the 21 plaintiffs what they had invested and to bear the costs of the legal proceedings.

But Justice Lee Seiu Kin dismissed their claim, some 10 months after the hearing concluded, and will hear both sides on the issue of costs at another time.

Read the full report in the Business Times website after 6 pm.

Cost of preparing a medical report

A letter was published in the Straits Times Forum page complaining about the high fee charged for a medical report. The Singapore Dental Center replied that the cost of $90 (or thereabouts) represent only a part of their total cost in preparing the report.

I consider the cost of $90 to be excessive. An "angry doc" asked me to state what I felt the fee should be. I replied "$30". Another anonymous doctor said that he would outsource the writing of the report to other doctors for this fee. This argument is not fair, as it will be more difficult for another doctor, who is not attending to the patient, to write the report with the same effort.

A member of the public asked me to justify the $30, which he felt to be too high. A doctor charged only $30 for a consultation. He argued that the cost of writing a report should be lower.

This is the kind of problem that can arise when the regulators decide to leave such matters to the "free market". Actually, there is no free market here - but a monopolistic situation.The doctor who attended to the patient is the only party that has the information to write the medical report. They can charge whatever they want, and justify their fee based on the effort taken to write the report. If they are inefficient, their cost is obviously higher, so they can easily justify a high fee.

We also have to define what constitute the report. My suggestion of $30 is for a routine report that will take the attending doctor 10 minutes to write. I have seen many doctors and it takes this time for them to read their patient card and write down what is the problem with me relating to a specific medical condition. In most cases, this is what is needed to support an insurance claim or application for insurance.

A more detailed and complete medical report covering all of a patient's medical condition would obviously cost much more than $30. But, this is only required for exceptional cases, and is not the norm. There is a low cost way and a high cost way to write a medical report. The consumer would want a low cost, and the doctor would want a high cost. How can this be resolved in the "free market environment" in Singapore?

I hope that our government leaders and regulators will find out what is really happening on the ground and why consumers are complaining about the high cost of living in Singapore. There are countless examples happening every day.

Tan Kin Lian

SDCF and fire safety regulations

I sent this letter to the Pro-Enterprise Panel about the fire safety regulations and why it is imposing a high cost to enterprise for a simple piece of work.
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=314
www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

Office renovation and fire regulations

I wrote a letter, which was published in the Straits Times Forum, about the high cost of renovating an office, which included a fee of $3,500 to get an engineer to certify that the renovation met the fire safety regulations in a small premise of 1,600 sf.

Major Gobi of the Singapore Civil Defence Force replied that under the regulation a full submission is not required for renovation that can be classified as "minor alteration and addition". I called Major Gobi to ask for the definition of minor addition and alteration and whether renovation involving the putting up of a false ceiling and relocation of sprinklers would fall under this category. Major Gobi did not know and said that he would arrange for his expert to call me.

I manage to speak to the expert, Major Lim, a week later. He said that I still needed an engineer to certify the works after it has been completed, but it need not be a full submission. This matter was still unclear to me.

In the meantime, due to urgency, I had asked the renovation contractor to proceed with the works, including the payment of the fee of $3,500. The contractor had told me that the building manager would not allow the renovation work to proceed without a signed certificate by the engineer. I had no choice in this matter but to pay the ransom fee.

This lack of clarity has caused me to spend a large professional fees for a simple piece of work.  If senior people in the SCDF could not give an answer on what constitute "minor alteration and addition", how can they expect the public to know? With this type of uncertainty, it is easy for the building manager to insist on requirements to "be safe and sure" but the trouble is that this attitude is causing other people to pay a large sum of money.

The SCDF said that they are in no position to regulate the fees charged by the professional engineer. But they are the party that is responsible to write the regulation in the first place. If they cannot play a role in regulating the fees, how do they expect the end user, who has to renovate the premises, to be in a better position to negotiate the fees in this wonderful "free market environment" in Singapore?

I hope that our government leaders will wake up to the real world and understand why the public is complaining about the high cost of living, the high cost of doing business, and why hapless consumers are being ripped off to pay a lot of money just to get things done.

Tan Kin Lian

Court decision on DBS High Notes

Investors took action against DBS on the High Notes. Their argument was on a mistake in the prospectus that led to inconsistency. DBS lawyers argued that it was an "obvious clerical mistake" and should not be used to void the contract. The court decided in favor of DBS.

I suspect that the legal fees involved in this argument of "an obvious clerical mistake" must amount to several million dollars. It is a great time for lawyers. So much fees are at stake to argue this small issue. Surely, there are larger issues of fairness, justice and responsibility of DBS in creating and issuing the High Notes?

It seems that justice does not count much in Singapore today.What seems more important is the pursuit of profits and economic growth.

Tan Kin Lian

Legal Office Supplies

With the state of the economy at present it is essential for legal offices of all legal professionals to source their legal office supplies at the most competitive prices possible.

The range of legal office supplies available is extensive and it is easy to get bogged down in trying to choose what is best for your law office.

But hopefully our site will be able to help you make those critical decisions and get the most appropriate legal stationery for your office.

Legal Binders

4 Ring Metal Hinge Binder

This metal hinge binder is a Wilson Jones legal binder which weighs about 3.5 pounds and has 4 non locking DublLock rings and metal hinges. The DublLock mechanism keeps the contents safely secured and the rings securely closed.

It has a capacity of 2 inches and can be bought for about $60 online.

D-Slant Legal Binder

This is a very competitively priced binder at around $14 and is a 3 ring, 1 inch capacity black binder with a clear label holder on the spine. It has extra long covers to accommodate legal size documents.

High Capacity Binders

Clearvue Binder

This binder is a high capacity binder which has a capacity of 4 inches with a locking ring which opens and closes with the touch of the finger. It costs around $19 and the locking mechanism engages immediately which rules out the need for 2 handed operation and the the closing rings are operated with delayed tension which ensures that your fingers should never be clamped.

Legal Document Paper

Pleading Paper

This pleading paper sells for about $27 and comes in a pack of 500/RM. It is red ruled, watermarked and is perfect for documents, correspondence and letterheads and is 25% cotton.

via legalofficesupplies.org

Heart implant at subsidized rate

A part time teacher told me that his teenage daughter had a heart implant recently. She was treated in a subsidized ward. The orignal bill was $10,000 but, after subsidy, the bill was reduced to $5,000. The major portion was paid by Medishield and the remainder by Medisave. The cash outlay was quite small.

He gave this advice on how to get treated as a subsidized patient. The daughter went to a polyclinic and obtained a referral to a private hospital but as a subsidized patient. He wanted to share this tip with other people in a similar situation. If you need medical treatment as a subsidized patient, go to a polyclinic and get a referral.

Timely termination of life insurance policy

A couple attended my financial planning talk two weeks ago. They learnt how to read the benefit illustration and went back to study the policy that they bought recently. They found that the policy gave a poor yield as a large percentage of the accumulated premium was taken away as "effect of deduction". They cancelled the policy during the 14 day cooling off period - so they were able to get a full refund of their premium. They told me that they now know how bad the life insurance policy was. They advised their nephew and niece to register and attend my next talk!

FISCA talk - Insuring your financial security (aka Consumer Guide to Insurance)

The talk will be held this Saturday at 2 pm. More details can be found here:
http://www.fisca.sg/events
Register now .....

Tips on preventing dementia

View the tips here:
http://easyapps.sg/learn/
You can also view the other useful tips on financial planning, investments, insurance.

Book - get value from your life insurance policies

II will be publishing a book entitled "Get Value from your Life Insurance Policy". It shows examples of the policies that the market that give a poor yield to policyholders and should be avoided. The last four chapters of the book tell consumers about  the policy that give good value, but is not available in the market at the present time. I hope that they will be available in the future. Here are chapters 6 to 9 of the book.

http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=313

www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

HSA warns against pills

The Health Science Authority has warned the public not to consumer this pill. I wish MAS takes the same approach to warn retail investors to avoid toxic financial products. Read SGEP

Stress and high school students

Parents and students in USA are now facing the stress They are following Singapore style.
SGEP
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/12/stress-and-the-high-school-student