- Database is not for everyone!

Database is not for everyone!

Written by Wilfred Ling

Saturday, 27 June 2009

Hi all, I was asked by a few persons why the bogging seems to have stopped. This is because I am making my new blog entries available for all fee-paying clients only. These are the reasons why:

These blogs are just my personal opinions only. They do not constitute any official and formal advice. I have found that many people whom I do not know are reading my blogs and some took it as formal advice. I do not know what they will do with these opinions that I have. So if they would to follow the “advice” I give and benefited from it – well and good for them. But if for some reason the information I provide is taken out of context, they can get into trouble. Since everyone’s financial situation is unique, I cannot be assured that I’ll not get myself into difficult situation. I have come across people who told me that they followed and “acted” on my opinion upon reading my blog. They told me this after many months and even one or two years later! Introspect, what happen if they took my blogs out of context.
Secondly, I want to talk about specific instances and specific products and warn others about certain unethical market practices and dangerous products. But I cannot do this in the open. I did try to mention some products (without mentioning the product name and company name) which to me are not value for money but I got a warning from the product manufacturer threatening to sue me. I don’t think I can afford a lawyer’s fee even if there is no case against us. So those of you must understand what really goes behind the scenes that the big boys will use legal threads to prevent others from giving their negative opinions. One blogger also told me the same that had happened to him and he was threatened with a lawsuit when he gave his negative opinion. Hence, I will only share with clients whom I know and currently have an on-going fiduciary relationship with them.
Thirdly, I also discovered that there are probably a number of financial advisers from other companies reading my blogs and using it as somekind of database. If they are just reading it for casual reading I am alright with that. But it has come to my attention that some of these FA companies provide them with inadequate training and poor support. I concluded that there is a very high chance that these advisers from these companies are relying heavily on my blog to help them in how they advice their clients! I panic into cold sweat when I come to this conclusion. My deduction is not without basis. The basis as follows (a) Being in the industry, I know through grapevine which FA companies are having a crisis (a few are having such crisis now) and most of the time it is due to very poor support for these advisers. The advisers have to figure themselves which products and advice are best for their clients. (b) Some of these advisers from such companies told me in person that they are “faithful” readers of my blogs. I met some of these advisers in fund-launches, insurance products launches, conferences, etc. (c) I maintain a web statistics through SiteMeter. Most of the time the IP addresses are coming from Maxonline and SingNet (indicating home users) but there are a few common IP addresses associated with FA firms and insurance companies. So I know which FA firms are looking at my blog. If these advisers use my website as their primary “database” and these information is taken out of context, I indirectly expose myself to unlimited liability. I cannot control how these advisers are going to use it for their advisory business. If their clients benefited from it – good and well although I don’t get anything for helping my competitors. If their clients lose money or something bad happen, I potentially expose myself to legal troubles. If any advisers in other firms want to tap my brain, they should consult their own in-house support first. If they do not have any in-house support, they must complain to MAS because regulation require companies to provide Competency and Training to their advisers. Of course, such complain to MAS cannot guarantee positive changes. If these advisers still like to tap my brain, they may want to consider to join me in my team and I can help them as team leader. There is no cost for them to engage my help as the company will compensate me. Of course if they would to join other team leaders’ teams, then I’ll not be obligated to help them as priorities goes to those under my care.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to put up educational articles like those I wrote for magazines on this website. These magazines are available from bookstore and as well as those who requested it from my Mailing List link on the left menu. I cannot assure to sent these magazines to everyone due to limited stock but articles written by me are in PDF that can be downloaded at the Educational Articles link on the left. These articles are quite generic and superficial in nature and so I have no fear of people using it out of context. For articles that are deeper in content and not politically correct, it is only available from Clients Only section on the left menu.

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