- Have you donated to a fake posing as needy?

Have you donated to a fake posing as needy?

Written by Wilfred Ling

Friday, 10 April 2009

Scandals involving misappropriation of money from charities and religious organizations are now old news. I remembered that when NKF’s fiasco hit the headline, everybody was so surprised that a reputable charity was in the news for the wrong reason. To be fair, NKF was not the only one hit by news of the wrong kind. There were other charities being hit too. The latest one is the ex-CEO of Ren Ci Hospital and is now currently in legal proceedings. But behind these scandals, are many donors who have been disappointed and outraged.

Many donors make contributions to charities not merely one or two times but on a regular basis through GIRO. To see their supported charities in the news for the wrong reasons will naturally and rightfully cause disappointments and disillusions. The question is – will these donors continue to give generously? They may cease giving to the original charity but will they rechannel their money to another one? I am not surprised if they felt so betrayed and hurt that they stop giving altogether. It seems justified that they could just stop giving to any charities after all why bother to give money away only to be hurt – not just one time, not just two times, but potentially endlessly. These donors who now have learnt to shut their doors to “fakes” and pretenders are also shutting their doors to those who genuinely needed their help. Who than are going to help those who are truly needy?

The sense of feeling betrayed and of giving money away for reasons other than the intended reasons is also felt by many people’s encounter with certain financial practitioners. I felt so sad always hearing how some of my clients who thought that their hospitalization and surgical bills are well covered by their insurance only for me to uncover that they had actually bought a whole life policy with critical illness. On some occasion, the whole life policy did not even come with critical illness. And in another occasion, I stumbled upon a national serviceman who suspected that his father had bought a whole life policy when the original intended purpose was to fund his university tuition fees. When I examined the policy, I confirmed that the policy was meant to be kept for life and is not suitable to fund the university tuition fees. Some advisers mis-sell products intentionally and others do it unintentionally but deliberately.

Is it possible to betray the trust of a client unintentionally but deliberately? Oh yes, it is quite possible. Many advisers knew right from the start that their firm has a culture of pushing their staff to sell selected products for each month. These advisers – being not born just yesterday – knew that there is a large conflict of interest in pushing products in this manner. How could an adviser deny any wrongdoing if has asked a retired person to put 90% of his or her money into say a structured product or a unit trust? The main issue here is with the “90%”. But many advisers focus on the benefits of the product rather than on the client’s overall portfolio. Of course all products have its benefits afterall if a product has zero benefit, how could it be sold? But there will also be a flipside to it which has to be managed through diversification. Nevertheless, whether advisers intentionally or unintentionally betray the trust of their clients, the hurt which the clients experienced and the financial lost will only increase their suspicious.

Whether a person who has been betrayed by giving to fake needy persons or money lost due to be overly trusting a financial practitioner, the person will be hurt and probably is going to give less to others. Giving less to others may not just be in monetary term but in terms of other intangibles such as a listening ear, spending less time with colleagues and simply not wanting to enter into deeper friendships. Such reaction of not wanting to love others is a result of feeling betrayed. It is tempting to think that since loving others are not worth the loving effort, one should focus on loving those within the family such as our kids and spouse. But wait a second, everyone knows that those who hurt us most are often and usually own kids and spouse! The reason is because we have a high expectation of our kids. We expect them to do well with their studies and to be like us – hard working and keep away from bad hats. We also expect our spouse to spent time in the family and also to bring home the dough. Then we suddenly discovered that we had married to mere mortal humans, not that superman or superwoman.

So what now, do we love or do we not love others despite being hurt and knowingly will continue to be hurt?

Today is Good Friday. What is so “good” today? Christians throughout the world remembered that Jesus was crucified.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” John 3:16

Today we remembered that God loved the world – not with words, not with empty promises – but with actions by giving his one and only Son to die for our sins. He showed love to us despite Him receiving no love from us when he was at the cross at Calvary.

So what if God love us? Is it not better simply to enjoy the best of both worlds by receiving God’s love and cease loving others (i.e. let’s eat the whole pie)?

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:10-12

The question now remains: What is meant to “love one another”?

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