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A financial pitfall or a step forward? An alternative perspective from GTC

October 2024 As we navigate the complexities of retirement planning in today’s financial landscape, the now fully- fledged Two-pot System has sparked significant debate.  While the concept may initially seem appealing – offering increased access to retirement savings – it is essential to consider the long-term implications of this newfound flexibility. Click here to listen to the brief interview by Simon Brown with Gary Mockler. Click here to read the article.  

Using the Two-pot System. Two wrongs don’t make a right

Here at GTC the initial pent-up demand for Two-pot savings withdrawals is now sorted with all but the exceptional cases having been accommodated.  We accompanied every withdrawal application with a detailed counselling engagement and it was enlightening as to the reasons and motivations that members had for these withdrawals. In our pursuit of establishing GTC’s Net Promoter Score from affected members (and GTC is proud of an overall score of 97%), we gleaned some useful information from the numerous responses we received.  A relatively common trend was of members noting how easy the process had been, with them looking forward to repeating this same process next year, as they undertook this exercise for pre-determined expenses. These expenses were often noted as being school related, with other similar conventional family expenses. As a professional financial advisory practice, we at GTC are...
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How Two-pot has transformed client relationships

Conventionally Two-pot could be seen as nothing more than a further administrative complexity, further reducing the profits of a retirement fund administrator.  While Two-pot is entirely a government-introduced intervention, GTC embraces every opportunity to engage with retirement fund members, treating them as private clients rather than anonymous members of a corporate client.   GTC communicates with many fund members regularly, both in terms of regulated counselling events and Two-pot (together with several other financial events which are sufficiently important to factor in when having a financial planning discussion with an investor). Empowering each and every member of a retirement fund is both a rewarding undertaking, as well as being a powerful economic enabler as a retirement fund member begins the serious dialogue of sharing their financial planning objectives and requirements. GTC’s sophisticated, technology-driven engagement platform – Altertude, ensures that retirement...
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Will South Africans really have ‘free healthcare’?

June 2023 On June 12, the National Assembly passed the National Health Insurance (NHI Bill) aimed at creating universal access to healthcare services in South Africa. But, in GTC’s estimation, South Africa is, unfortunately, light-years away from meeting our healthcare objectives, with many more questions than answers – many of which still seem unresolvable… Click here and here to read the full articles.  

Quarterly market performance reveals volatility despite positive returns

May 2023 South Africa experienced a promising market performance during the first quarter of 2023, with various asset classes showing positive returns.  However, these favourable outcomes mask underlying challenges that are expected to persist in the near future. Click here to read the full article. Click here to listen to the interview on Power 98.7

Morningstar award nomination 2023

Recognising excellence on a large playing field – GTC’s Capital Plus Fund of Funds shines Late in February 2023, at an industry award ceremony hosted by Morningstar, a global well respected independent investment research company,  announced the nomination of GTC’s Capital Plus Fund of Fund in their ‘Best Moderate Fund Allocation’ category. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, debt securities, and real time global market data. An award nomination would recognise funds and asset managers that have served their investors well, by delivering strong risk-adjusted performance for investors in 2022, reports Mr. Tal Nieburg, Managing Director of Morningstar South Africa. The Morningstar manager research team use a qualitative overlay against the Morningstar’s quantitative methodology to determine finalists, each of whom should be “Commended on...
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South Africa on FATF grey list

South Africa has been grey listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) after considering protection mechanisms employed against ensuring South Africa is not used as a money laundering, terror funding, or proliferation financing jurisdiction.  What does that mean to us in reality? The FATF is a global inter-governmental body, that promotes policies of good governance and sets international standards relating to the combating of money laundering, terrorist financing, and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and biological weapons.  There are currently 39 members of the FATF: 37 jurisdictions (including South Africa as a member state) and two regional organisations (the Gulf Cooperation Council and the European Commission). 22 countries, including South Africa, currently appear on the FATF grey list for not having adequate controls in place to efficiently combat and report on these “nefarious“ practices. ...
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