B.S. Detectors

Lie: "People are our most important asset."

Truth:  People are our most worrisome and unpredictable asset. Our most important assets are really our financial assets.

B.S. Detector: This may be the leading lie of our times. When management starts talking about how important people are, you can bet there is going to be an unpopular human resources decision coming soon.

 

Lie: "This was a rational decision."

Truth: "I wanted to do this."

B.S. Detector: People "want what they want just because they want it.

Lie: "We judge people by their performance."

Truth: "I judge your performance based on how much I like you."

B.S. Detector: "Why do most people who keep their jobs keep them? Because the people they work for like them. And you get fired when the people you work for don't like you anymore.

Lie: "This is business, it isn't personal."

Truth: "Everything's personal."

B.S. Detector: "As people, we get mad at each other," says LaFontaine. "Attempts to avoid it are cowardly. So get mad. Then get over it and move on." LaFontaine believes that any disagreement can be handled with an honest conversation.

Lie: "The customer comes first."

Truth: "I come first."

B.S. Detector: "More often than not, 'the customer' is an abstraction," LaFontaine warns. "People take care of customers when it benefits them and ignore customers when they can get away with it. Nobody says 'I come first,' which is what's usually going on."

Wolf In Sheep's Skin

One of the worst effects is that too many "leaders" fancy themselves as grand strategists and visionaries and who are above the "little people" that are charged with refining and implementing those big and bold ideas.  These exalted captains of industry develop the grand vision for the product, the film, the merger, or whatever -- and leave the implementation to others. 

This was one of Carly Fiorina's fatal flaws at HP: she loved speeches and grand gestures like the Compaq merger, but didn't have much patience for doing what was required for making things work.  By contrast, this is the strength of Pixar leaders like Ed Catmull, John Lasseter, and Brad Bird. 

Yes, they have grand visions about the story and market for every film, but they sweat every detail of every frame and worry constantly about linking their big ideas to every little detail of their films.

Liars

Fool me once, shame on you. 
Fool me twice, shame on me. 
Fool me three times – why are you still on the list of people whose calls I return? 

If someone is consistently unreliable, or tells you things that aren’t true, or says one thing to you and another thing to someone else in order to protect themselves….cut them loose. Liars are the worst. 

Liars can create honest-to-goodness legal and moral problems.
The great thing to realize is that you actually have the power to do this.  You don’t need have to these people in your life.  You can kindly but firmly minimize your interactions with them.  And that frees you up to invite wonderful people into your life.

Life Insurance Is For The Living

I live in St. Petersburg, Florida. On May 8th, 2011, my mother, two younger sisters and I drove to a local campsite for our annual Mother's Day camping trip. When we arrived, my mother said that her foot was bothering her. We thought maybe she had hit it on something, so we didn't think much of it. But that night, the pain got so bad she couldn't stand it. She called 911 and an ambulance took her to a hospital.

The doctors thought she had cellulitis, a blood infection, and wanted to keep her overnight to make sure the infection didn't spread.

When Life Fell Apart
 At 6:30 the next morning I got a call from the hospital. When they had gone to check on her that morning, she was blue. They tried to resuscitate her for 45 minutes, but it was too late. She had died from a pulmonary embolism.

Suddenly, at 20 years old, I was the head of the family, and I had to take care of my sisters, who were 15 and 16, on my own.

My aunt came over the next day to help me deal with funeral arrangements. I wanted to bury my mother, like she wished. But when we finished looking through all of her bank accounts and papers, we realized she only had $300 in the bank.  She was completely behind on her bills and had no life insurance.

I knew that our finances weren't great, but I didn't think we could be that bad off. A proper funeral, which costs thousands, was out of the question. I hated the idea of cremation, but that's the only thing the state would pay for. We couldn't even afford to hold a reception, and all of my mother's family members never got the opportunity to gather and grieve together.

I felt devastated. I didn't know where to go or what to do. Within a week of her passing, shut-off notices came for the electricity and water. The bank called every day looking for a payment on the mortgage. Since I was only working part time, paying these debts was out of the question. Even though I explained my situation to the bank, I was told I only had weeks before the house would be foreclosed on and our electricity and water would be cut off.

My aunt and I started looking for resources to get us through the month. At work, where I did customer service for a local newspaper, I asked to have more hours. I tried to get help from the community to help us get through that month and to save the house we had lived in since 2004, but it was a lost cause.

How Did We Get Here?
 I grew up in a middle class family, where both of my parents always worked very hard to provide. My parents got divorced in 2006, and my father was no longer in our lives.

In 2010, when I was in high school, my mother got laid off from her company in a major downsizing. It was stressful, because I knew we had always lived paycheck to paycheck, and I didn't know if everything was going to turn out OK.

She was collecting unemployment, but by the time we went on our Mother's Day camping trip, it was about to run out and she was looking for another job. Meanwhile, I was working and taking classes toward a degree in education.

Picking Up the Pieces
 On June 1st, through assistance from Catholic Charities and the HUD program, we were able to move into a small two-bedroom apartment 15 minutes away from where we used to live, near my sisters' school.

I had to pack up our entire family home. Since we were moving from a three-bedroom house to a two-bedroom apartment, I had to decide what meant the most to us as a family, and what to let go. I moved through the process slowly, taking box by box to our new apartment. But I didn't move fast enough. The bank came and foreclosed on the house, and they were able to keep what they wanted. We lost a lot.

We also had to give our pets away. Our two dogs went to family members until we could afford to get them back. Our cats went to the shelter.

During that time, a counselor from a local program came to our house twice a week to help us through the grief processing. I decided to change my major to social work, so I could help other young adults who were going through what I went through.

Currently, I work 40 or more hours a week at the newspaper, then attend school full time after that at the University of South Florida. My sisters are in 11th and 9th grade, and I don't want them to work while they're in school. They have enough on their plates.

How We're Getting By
 We still live paycheck to paycheck and struggle. I receive no rent or food assistance. Thankfully, if I run out of grocery money, I am able to borrow from friends and extended family. We never really go out, to movies or anything else. If I have to do without in order for my sisters to have, this is what I am committed to doing.

I do not qualify for Social Security survivor's benefits because I was over the age of 18 at the time of my mother's death. Since my sisters are both minors, they qualify. I put the funds into each of their savings accounts so they can attend college after high school graduation.

Up until last year, I had only a grant from the government that paid for 25% of my school tuition. I also took out student loans, but I was limited to two or three classes every semester, and would go to the library to check out textbooks to use. Still, I managed to get honors every semester.

Last year I submitted my essay to the LIFE Foundation, and won a scholarship which allowed me to take the rest of the classes I need to get my bachelors of science in social work. I'll graduate on May 5th of this year, summa cum laude. That will make me the first one in my family to graduate college. I've applied to graduate school, but I have to take off a year, because you have to get experience before you get your master's. Hopefully, I'll be able to attend school in the fall of 2014.

It Could Have Been Different
 People get grief wrong: You don't move on, you move through it. One day you realize that it is reality. It's almost been two years, and I wouldn't say we've "dealt" with my mother's death yet. Some days it's just not real.

Death is something we tend not to think about and not to prepare for. My mom had a small life insurance policy with her job, but lost it when she was laid off. Because she was only 49, I don't think she ever thought that it was something she needed.

If my mom had had life insurance and made preparations for her death, my life would be completely different. We would have been able to bury her according to her wishes instead of settling for cremation paid for by the state. We would still be living in our family home with our pets and in our same neighborhood we grew up in. I would not have to struggle to provide my sisters with the basic daily needs others don't think twice about.

I am determined to make my mom proud and be the first in our family to graduate college. It is now my responsibility to see that my sisters have as close to a normal life as possible. I am their role model. We are the survivors of the unthinkable, and we are going to make it.

Yes - We will Buy at Wal-Mart

It might seem an odd question, asking people if they are willing to buy life insurance at Wal-Mart or Target. It found that of the more than 2,000 people surveyed, 17 percent said they would buy life insurance directly from a retail outlet.
 

Those who said they would buy a policy at a big retailer offered the following reasons: 63 percent said "reasonable cost," 44 percent said "simple process," 43 percent said it would be "convenient," 42 percent said "no pressure to buy." A majority of consumers still prefer to buy life insurance in person from a financial professional, the survey said.

Last fall, the nation's largest life insurer, MetLife, said it is selling life-insurance cards at roughly 200 Wal-Mart stores in Georgia and South Carolina. The one-year life insurance policies are available in color-coded boxes to mark different prices for four age groups: blue for 18-44; yellow for 45-54; green for 55-59 and red for 60-65. MetLife offers two different death benefits — $10,000 or $25,000 — and price depends on a person's age category.

Typically, a life insurance lasts as long as the policyholder is alive and pays premiums, but the MetLife policies available at Wal-Mart expire after one year. If you don't die, you don't collect.
The cards are sold at Wal-Mart stores, but a customer isn't guaranteed coverage just by checking out. Coverage has to be approved after a potential policyholder calls a toll-free number and answers six questions about his or her health. If the customer is rejected, the card can be returned at Wal-Mart for a cash refund

Thinking Outside The Box For Takaful

Speaking to the media present at the event, David McLean, Chief Executive of the World Takaful Conference said that “the global Takaful industry has been experiencing double digit growth rates with the GCC and Malaysia being the major contributors.

However the latest industry data reveals a slight deceleration in the growth rates.

A critical factor that will determine the success in taking the industry to the next level of development is the existence of players with the right quality and calibre, as well their readiness in terms of capacity and capability to formulate and execute successful strategies in response to new market opportunities. To achieve this, it is essential that key players in the industry remain profitable in the long run and the current slowdown makes it even more challenging for Takaful operators to maintain momentum while boosting profitability.

This calls for taking proactive steps and rethinking strategies to overcome diverse challenges to sustain the forward growth momentum.”

Takaful Insurance Rapid Growth

Milliman today (15 April) released the 2013 Global Family Takaful Report at the World Takaful Conference in Dubai. Milliman’s Global Family Takaful Report, which follows an inaugural study issued in 2011, points to a sharp increase in the use of family Takaful products in the coming years, with contributions to these products expected to grow from $2.2 billion in 2011 to an estimated $5.6 billion in 2016.


Milliman claims its report is unique because it is the only analysis that focuses on family Takaful. “Other research typically views family Takaful and general Takaful together, when in fact the unique aspects of each product call for separate analyses,” said a media statement. “The underlying drivers for family Takaful and general Takaful are markedly different and a viewpoint that combines them tends to lead to distorted results. Given profitability challenges and a soft market for general Takaful products, family Takaful may represent the more sustainable proposition in the long term. This report addresses the increased need for a pertinent reference source to help industry leaders navigate the evolving family Takaful landscape.”

”The growth of family Takaful outperforms the growth in conventional life insurance,” said Safder Jaffer, Managing Director of Milliman, Middle East & Africa. ”Over the past five years, growth in family Takaful has increased at a compound annual growth rate of 32 per cent. Growth of family Takaful in Asia and Indonesia in particular is increasing at far higher rates, and Malaysia continues to provide global family Takaful leadership on all fronts. In the Middle East, family Takaful penetration has not been as rapid, though the region has all the necessary ingredients to make family Takaful more viable and profitable than general Takaful.”

Milliman said the report offers quantitative and qualitative analyses of the family Takaful industry by key regions. The report tackles topical issues, examines distribution channels, and provides a regulatory summary for each region. It also includes a special feature on the growth of family Takaful in Indonesia (Syariah), which appears to be the fastest growing market.

Affin Bank Mudharabah Account

Affin Islamic Bank Bhd has launched the Affin Barakah Charity Account-i, a Mudharabah saving account designed with a unique feature of charity. Mudharabah saving account customers would have the opportunity to donate a certain percentage of their monthly-earned investment profit to a worthy cause.

Mudharabah saving account provided a convenient platform for the customers to donate consistently as the donations would be transferred automatically every month. Customers are able to choose the percentage of the earned profit they wish and are given flexibility to change the percentage of their contribution at any given time.

Takaful For All

Contrary to belief that Takaful insurance is solely for Muslims, reports have shown that South-Easterners who are predominantly Christians now have the highest subscribers' rate of the products (as disclosed by the Vice-Chairman, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) Oyo State Chapter, Babatunde Omosola) due to its simplicity.

He noted that though Takaful which means joint guarantee or share responsibility in Arabic, operates in accordance to Islamic laws, the products are designed to carter for Muslims and non- Muslims alike, adding that the products are meant to encourage saving culture and build capital, over a period of time to meet personal or business needs.

He said, "Under Takaful plan, you can save regularly for a fixed period that is convenient for you. The accumulated targeted amount can be used to fund obligations such as purchase of land, house, marriage or hajj. It could also be used to meet other long term financial objectives, such as retirement, children education, travelling expenses as well as expected commitment."

According to Omosola, reports have shown that in many countries, Takaful products have been bought by non-Muslims due to some of its attractive features, which are not offered under conventional insurance, adding that the implication of this trend is that there is a promising market and potential growth for Takaful business.

He said investment of Takaful funds is done in compliance with sharia law which prohibits gambling and profiteering and consumption of alcohol, including brewing alcohol, noting that the fund should not be invested into economic activities that negate Islam and sharia laws.

Sugar Is Poison

Most of us can't help having sweet feelings towards a slice of birthday cake, or a piece of after dinner chocolate. Unfortunately, many of us are unaware of the dangers that lurk behind the processed white sugar in these products.

 

The Sugar Conspiracy
In the 1970s, a number of different studies emerged linking sugar to diseases such as diabetes, heart problems, inflammation, and other serious illnesses. People began eyeing sugar more hesitantly, and the sugar industry began losing sales. To turn this loss around, the sugar industry spearheaded a massive public relations campaign. Their mandate was to suppress papers highlighting the dangers of sugar, and to change the public's perception to ensure that sugar would not meet the same fate as tobacco. 

 

The Bitter Truth About Sugar
Refined sugar causes various health problems, and they start right at the mouth. When the normal bacteria inside your mouth come into contact with sugar, acid is produced, which destroys tooth enamel and eventually results in tooth decay.

Eating excess refined sugar causes the pancreas to over-produce or under-produce insulin, resulting in hypoglycaemia (the sugar blues), or diabetes mellitus (sugar diabetes). These conditions eventually exhaust your liver, pancreas and adrenal glands as they try to keep your sugar levels in balance.

Furthermore, when the insulin levels in your body are high, certain short-lived hormones in our cells become pro-inflammatory. This leads to a growth of hidden inflammation, which is now seen as one of the biggest causes for heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases.

To compound issues, a lot of vitamins and minerals are used up in the digestion of refined sugar. This process can deplete B-vitamins, calcium, and magnesium stores from your body which can lead to fatigue, depression, anxiety, osteoporosis and even arthritis.

Sugar, By Any Other Name...
The Industry created a sweet solution - called High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), which is a liquefied version of sugar. The sugar industry put its advertising team to the test once again, and successfully convinced the public that HFCS was the safe alternative to sugar. As HFCS was cheaper to produce than processed sugar, manufacturing companies quickly switched from pricey sugar to the cheaper high fructose corn syrup.

Researchers soon found that long-term consumption of the HFCS led to increases in body fat and higher levels of triglycerides. They also found that individuals who drank beverages containing HFCS had higher levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) and higher levels of triglycerides than those who drank sucrose-sweetened beverages. Both LDL and high triglycerides are associated with the development of heart disease, diabetes and even liver fibrosis.

As people began pushing back with doubts about the safety of HFCS, the sugar industry is now pushing back with a "healthier, more natural alternative" to HFCS, called glucose. Can you guess what glucose is? It's good old-fashioned sugar.

 

Slow Poison
In 2009, a pediatric endocrinologist named Robert Lustig shocked the health world by posting a public lecture titled 'Sugar: The Bitter Truth' on YouTube. Lustig state that sugar is bad for us; he also states that it's a toxin—a poison—that's just as bad for our health as tobacco or alcohol. He claims that sugar is dangerous because of the way that the body processes it.

Sugar is processed by the liver, causing it to work over-time. An over-worked liver means a fatty liver. And fatty liver can be dangerous. When liver cells die, these cells are replaced by scar tissue (called fibrosis). Severe fibrosis can cause liver failure, which includes symptoms such as jaundice, severe fatigue, or even coma. Amazingly, 20-30% of adults living in Western countries have been diagnosed with fatty liver.

The evidence speaks for itself: liver failure, heart disease, diabetes, inflammation and obesity. Call it high fructose corn syrup, glucose, or just plain old sugar: whatever the name, an over-consumption won't leave you with a sweet taste in your mouth. Do yourself and your body a favor: Avoid refined sugar altogether. Doing so will lead to the sweetest victory of all; your health.

Takaful Insurance

Takaful is an insurance contract that is compliant with Shariah, the body of Islamic law. The name derives from the Arabic verb “kafalah” that means mutual guarantee. Islamic insurance is based on the principle of mutuality where policyholders own the company and share in its profits. There are three main types of takaful: mudharaba, wakala and a hybrid of the two.

Religious Prohibitions

Islamic law forbids “riba,” a concept that means interest, usury and the exploitation of the poor. It also prohibits “gharar,” meaning risk, uncertainty, hazard and deceit. “Maysir,” which is the acquisition of wealth by chance, or gambling, is also proscribed. Conventional insurance works on the concept of risk transfer where an insurance company accepts a risk from a policyholder in exchange for a premium. The company invests the premiums on capital markets to make further profits. In Islamic jurisprudence, this is viewed as gambling on uncertainty and in the process, exploiting a policyholder by making money from money.

Policyholders' Fund

In an arrangement that bears some similarity to mutual, or cooperative, insurance, takaful policyholders pay premiums into a policyholders' fund. Administrative expenses and reinsurance are paid from this fund. Any surplus at the end of the financial years is the underwriting profit. This may be allocated in part to a policyholders' reserve fund, and in part distributed among policyholders as a dividend. Underwriting losses in the policyholders’ fund are covered by an interest-free loan from a shareholders’ fund.

Shareholders' Fund

The shareholders’ fund consists of paid-up shareholders’ capital and reserves together with investment income. All investments must be Shariah-compliant, meaning that these should be on a profit-and-loss sharing basis rather than speculative investment in capital markets. The shareholders are liable for the losses of the policyholders' fund, but this liability is limited to the amount of equity they hold in the company.

Mudharaba

Mudharaba is one of the oldest concepts in Islamic finance and is based on profit-sharing. This type of takaful is practiced widely in the Asia-Pacific region. The company’s management is paid from the profits the company makes and shares in the surplus and losses. The ratio of profit-sharing is pre-agreed on the basis of the company’s performance.

Wakala

The wakala version of takaful is an arrangement where an agent manages the company and receives a fee for his services. The fee is pre-agreed at the beginning of a financial year and may be a fixed amount or an agreed share of investment profits or shareholder or policyholders' funds. The agent does not share in any of the company’s liabilities. This type of takaful was developed in Sudan.

Hybrid

The mudharaba and wakala models can be combined to produce a hybrid type of takaful. The managing agent of the company receives a fixed fee from policyholders’ funds as in the wakala model and also a share of the profits on the basis of the mudharaba model, but from the company’s investments only. The policyholders have a right to share in both the underwriting profits and in investment profits.

Agents Manpower Dropped

Over 2,000 life insurance agents have lost their jobs in the first three quarters of last financial year.

The number of direct employees in the 24 life insurance companies too came down by over 2,000, as per the data available with the Life Insurance Council.

 

The number of agents fell to 21,620 as at end-December 2012 from 23,780 in the same period last year.According to a top functionary of a private sector life insurance company, downsizing and cost-cutting by many players were behind the trimming of the agent force.

 

Unfavourable regulatory environment, which began with new norms for unit-linked insurance plans in 2010, is largely responsible for this situation. Industry experts feel that some agents might have also left the profession due to shrinking commissions.

 

In the first nine months of FY 2012-13, about 1,000 branches folded-up. The dip in new premium income since the third quarter of 2010-11 due to new norms for ULIPs has been forcing the insurers to cut costs.

Lower Projection

SINGAPORE] A projected annual investment returns figure that has been used to market life insurance products for more than 11 years might be coming down.

The Business Times understands from various sources that from July this year, the figure could drop from its current 5.25 per cent by possibly half a percentage point.

BT also understands that an annual review might take place on this figure in line with the push to improve standards in the financial advisory industry.

The change will not affect the actual values of existing or future insurance policies. But it will give a more realistic picture of how life insurance policy cash values grow over time.

IFSA Launched

Although the Islamic Financial Services Act (IFSA) is expected to see some takaful players, especially those with a composite licence, split their life and general operations, it has not deterred their gameplan to strengthen and grow their takaful business amid the growing and competitive Islamic insurance landscape.

The Financial Services Act (FSA) and the IFSA are likely to come into effect by mid this year and would, among others, require conventional and takaful insurers to relinquish their composite licences, and conduct their life and general insurance businesses under separate units or subsidiaries.

The new ruling could have a “huge impact” on insurance firms, especially takaful players like Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd and Takaful Ikhlas Sdn Bhd. The impact would be felt more deeply in the takaful industry due to the higher number of composite licences issued to them compared with their conventional insurance counterparts.

The brokerage said, however, the rules would not apply to the four takaful companies that secured the latest family takaful licences in 2010. They four are AmFamily Takaful, Great Eastern Takaful, AIA-AFG Takaful and ING-Public Takaful Ehsan.

AmBank Group

AMMB Holdings Bhd, fresh from absorbing acquisitions of Kurnia Insurans (M) Bhd and MBF Cards (M) Sdn Bhd, is now gearing up to get a strategic foreign partner for its life insurance business AmLife Insurance Bhd.

Aiming for a slot among the top five in each of its business segments, the group is evaluating interests pouring in from global bigwigs for a share in AmLife Insurance. Selection of a strategic partner with a global presence and Asian experience will take almost three months before the group has a “clear picture” of its potential partner, said its group managing director Ashok Ramamurthy (photo).

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ), which came on board AMMB in 2007, now holds a 24% stake in the AMMB group.

In a separate press conference last Friday, AmBank chairman Azman Hashim said the banking group is in the middle of a negotiations to sell its conventions and Islamic insurance units to a new partner.
Ramamurthy said the company is open to selling a stake in the life insurance arm; however, it intends to keep a “reasonable” stake in the business.

Foreign companies can acquire as much as a 70% stake in Malaysian insurance companies. The restrictions on foreign ownership was eased from a 49% level in 2010 under the financial sector liberalisation plan.