GTC Q1 2023 March

_______________________________________________________ Is a Living Will binding and recognised in South Africa? Avoiding the unnecessary prolonging of life In South Africa anyone over the age of 18 who is of  ‘sound mind’ can sign a Living Will, though it is important to note that this document is not (yet) recognised in South African statutory law.  However, our law does recognise each person’s right to accept or decline treatment. As it stands at the moment in South Africa, anyone can refuse medical treatment (even if it causes death) – unless a specific law states that a doctor must provide certain treatment.  The South African Medical Association has stipulated specific guidelines for medical practitioners to adhere to, in terms of implementing any Living Will. A Living Will isn’t the same as a Will, and it has very different legal ramifications Patients frequently believe... Read More

Manty Seligmann Director – Asset Management       _______________________________________________________ Investments: Spreading risk and locking in gains – the fundamentals of hedging In the construction of investment portfolios, regulation prescribed by the financial authorities in South Africa allows the use of hedging tools to ensure efficient portfolio construction and to safeguard client funds.  Over recent years, economies have experienced heightened market volatility, and – under the current regime of price fluctuations and instability – there have been numerous occasions when the asset management team at GTC has been able to make use of these hedging tools, ensuring currency protection within the investment portfolios.   These currency hedges have had the effect of providing a more stable return profile and lowering the investment risk  for our clients. Investment choice in our ‘always on 24/7 world’ has evolved way beyond the initial... Read More

Gary Mockler Group Chief Executive Officer       _______________________________________________________ A thirty-something-year perspective of providing retirement fund services within an ever-tightening regulatory environment in South Africa – CEO Gary Mockler For over thirty years GTC has been delivering a range of services to retirement funds, always within the ambit of prevailing legislation.  This legislation is invariably completely different from regulations governing how we engage with private investors.  Employee Benefit (EB) wise, from our inception, we’ve remained benefit consultants.  Since 2000 we’ve had our pension fund administration (13B) license, and we’ve been approved investment managers for a similar tenure.  Counselling obligations came into effect some five years ago. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), previously known as the Financial Services Board (FSB) began its oversight role in the same year that GTC was founded – 1991.  Our business journey therefore exactly... Read More

Jenny Williams Senior Servicing Consultant     _______________________________________________________ Considerations of a long-term well-structured retirement portfolio – Part 1 Whilst it is the fifth and last article in our current series on family financial planning, this topic of retirement from investment products is complex and particularly important.  Accordingly, we are splitting this article into three sections over the next several Trendline editions. These will cover retirement from compulsory and discretionary investments, followed by investment portfolios available for pre- and post-retirement, and lastly the annuity options available on retirement. To kick off this mini-series, we will focus on retirement from compulsory and discretionary investments. In a recent Trendline, we defined what compulsory investments are, namely investments that are registered under the Pension Funds Act, and upon which tax concessions are granted, either on contributions, investments within the product, or upon the maturity... Read More

A loose contemporary definition of record keeping and administration would include some reference to ‘electronic’ at the very least. Computers have been replacing filing cabinets and manila folder tickler systems which were popular from the 1950’s through to the 80’s and beyond for decades now.  The advent of the World Wide Web for public use in 1991 has progressively seen hardcopy forms of data storage becoming increasingly redundant. GTC has always prided itself on being at the forefront of technological change and was an early adopter of digital innovation as it became available (sharing a start date concurrent with the World Wide Web). Over recent years GTC has drawn attention to many of our bespoke digital business processes in various Trendline articles, many under the overall auspices of the overarching digital platform of Altertude. FlightPath is indeed one of these... Read More

An in-depth market commentary – detailing global and local investment performance over the quarter – with our Asset Management team delving into the concept of ‘hedging’. Market Overview Q1 2023 Investments: Spreading risk and locking in gains – the fundamentals of hedging

In-depth market commentary detailing market performance over the quarter Market volatility – More of the same Market performance over quarter one (Q1) was deceptively upbeat given that most asset classes posted positive returns.  In reality, these positive returns did not accurately reflect the volatility underlying the return journey.  Significant headwinds persist which cloud the hope for a strong global economic recovery in 2023.  Demand for safe-haven asset classes remained strong as investors became increasingly troubled by global economic growth prospects.  All this necessitates continued caution in portfolio positioning. Over the quarter: Local equities sold off over the month of March 2023 amid worries around what the impact of the international banking sector sell-off would mean for local banks.  Notwithstanding this concern, local equity markets ended the quarter up +2.4% as enthusiasm around China’s  increased participation in global trade – following... Read More

Roger Scharges Senior Onboarding Consultant         Clients in-the-know make healthier financial decisions with GTC _______________________________________________________ Whilst global technology progress – across all industries – was accelerated as a consequence of remote working due to Covid-19, GTC’s tech journey began a long time before this.  For some twenty years GTC has been progressively building bespoke digital solutions for the operations and management of our business, and most importantly, integrating this into our financial advisory processes. This singular platform, named Altertude by GTC, has enabled us to manage both our private clients and our large base of retirement fund members (GTC operates the 6th largest umbrella retirement fund in South Africa).  Superior record keeping, task management, work-flows, status reports, visual dashboards, together with a consistency of advanced financial planning capabilities for each individual investor are at hand.  Less staff... Read More