Archive

Martin Lee

Trade Securities Via OCBC Internet Banking

December 16, 2010 by Martin Lee
It appears that OCBC now allows their OCBC Securities customers to trade stocks by using their OCBC internet banking login. This can be done by linking the OCBC bank online account to the OCBC Securities trading account. DBS had done something similar in the past with a linkage which also comes with a cash upfront [...]

in Categories: Investing

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CPF List A Funds (Dec 2010)

December 15, 2010 by Martin Lee
The CPF List A funds is a list of funds that can be purchased using the monies in your CPF ordinary account. Over the years, CPF has tightened the ruling for the funds that are admitted into this list. Under the latest criteria , the funds have to be in the top quartile among their [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Relaunch of Capital Plus CPN23 and CPN24

December 13, 2010 by Martin Lee
NTUC has relaunched their Capital Plus (CPN23 and CPN24) plans for a limited period. From now till 20th December 2010, clients can invest into CPN23 which has a policy term of 2 years and a guaranteed yield of 1.4% p.a. upon maturity. CPN(24) which is for reinvestment of maturity proceeds is available till 15 Dec [...]

in Categories: Insurance

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CAD Needs More Time on Profitable Group

December 10, 2010 by Martin Lee
It looks like investors with Profitable Group will have to wait longer for CAD’s investigations to be completed. In a court hearing yesterday, Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had asked for the company’s bank account to be frozen for another six months so that CAD could complete their investigations. The court gave the CAD three months instead. [...]

in Categories: Business

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Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Real Estate

December 9, 2010 by Martin Lee
The Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Real Estate (US$) was launched by Lyxor recently. This ETF tracks the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Real Estate index (Bloomberg ticker: MXASJRE), which includes real estate investment companies and real estate management and development companies in China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan. The [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Conned into a Regular Premium Investment Plan

December 8, 2010 by Martin Lee
I read this post on a person being conned into take up a regular premium investment-linked plan when she actually wanted a single premium plan. Thinking it was a $60k lump sum investment, the person was shocked when she was asked to pay premiums of $60k the next year. If the facts are correct, the [...]

in Categories: Insurance

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SRS Tax on Investment Gain

December 5, 2010 by Martin Lee
There was an article by Larry Haverkamp on SRS in today’s Sunday Times which argued that SRS works best for the rich. While this is true, I would argue that SRS is beneficial for most people who pays taxes as long as cashflow and liquidity is not an issue. If you can get an immediate [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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Gold Scam Hits Hong Kong

December 3, 2010 by Martin Lee
In Gold we trust? What happens if the Gold turns out to be fake? That is exactly what has happened to some goldsmiths in Hong Kong, people that you expect would be able to detect gold fakes. Jewellers and pawn shops in Hong Kong have discovered at least 200 ounces of fake bullion so far [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Man AHL Trend SGD

December 1, 2010 by Martin Lee
Man AHL Trend SGD is the first systematic trend-following fund to be permitted for offer to retail investors in Singapore. In the past, the AHL strategy has only been available to accredited investors in Singapore. Managed by Man Investments through its AHL division, Man AHL Trend will provide exposure to the AHL Trend Index. AHL [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Property Cooling Measures Working?

November 29, 2010 by Martin Lee
In the Sunday Times yesterday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said that the recently introduced cooling measures by the government was working. In the resale Housing Board market, median cash over valuation (COV) payments in October fell to $25,000, from $30,000 in the previous quarter. Unfortunately, even though COV is dropping, the current formula [...]

in Categories: Property

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Case Study of an Unplanned Hospitalisation Financial Disaster

June 23, 2010 by Martin Lee
Patrick (not his real name) suffered some discomfort late at night. As the normal clinics were already closed, he went by himself to a private hospital to seek consultation. While waiting for the test results, Patrick collapsed and went into a coma. His condition worsened and he ended up having multiple organ failure. Four specialists [...]

in Categories: Featured, Insurance

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Higher Bad Debts Among the Young

May 25, 2010 by Martin Lee
An article in the Straits Times reported that younger Singaporeans in the 21 to 29-year-old age group have the highest default rate compared to other age groups when it comes to loans. According to numbers from DP Credit Bureau, 7.54% of people in the 21 to 29-year-old age group default on their credit card loans [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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Pre-existing Conditions for Medical Insurance

April 8, 2010 by Martin Lee
99% of medical (or hospitalization and surgical – H&S) insurance provides coverage with an exclusion for pre-existing conditions unless the condition was declared and accepted by the insurer. Of course, if you knew of a condition and didn’t declare it, it will still be excluded. Without this exclusion clause in place, people can simply wait [...]

in Categories: Featured, Insurance

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Fundsupermart to Impose Platform Fees

April 3, 2010 by Martin Lee
Recently, Fundsupermart (FSM), a popular platform used by many retail DIY investors to buy unit trusts, announced that they would be charging their users a platform fee with effect from May 2010. The charges will apply to investments made using cash or SRS. Increasing operating costs has been cited as one of the reasons for [...]

in Categories: Featured, Investing

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Alternative Investments Gone Wrong

March 19, 2010 by Martin Lee
In the past few years, we had seen many so-called alternative investments gone wrong. From land banking to oil fields (oilpods) to wine. If you had a bad experience with some of these investments, you would likely have gone through a tough time trying to get any form of recourse including being put on a [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Existing Medical Insurance Cover and She Didn’t Know

March 3, 2010 by Martin Lee
The other day, I was referred to someone who wanted to get some health (or medical) insurance. According to her, she didn’t have any medical insurance cover and wanted to use some of her Medisave to get an appropriate cover. This was a fairly straightforward transaction but usually, what I will do is to double [...]

in Categories: Insurance

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COV for HDB Flats Hit Sky High

January 27, 2010 by Martin Lee
Fresh data from the Housing Board (HDB) showed that the median cash over valuation (COV) for HDB resale units rose to $24,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009. That is double the $12,000 median in the previous three months and breaks the COV record of $22,000 achieved in the fourth quarter of 2007. The top [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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The Year Ahead in 2010

January 7, 2010 by Martin Lee
What a difference a year has made. At the start of 2009, all was dark and gloomy amidst the greatest financial crisis the world has seen. Now, in 2010, there seemed to be a lot of optimism, at least among the people I spoke to who are starting to invest into stocks again. Ironically, those [...]

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