ROBERT LAING: Before signing away your money, get clarity on your life expectancy
COMEDIAN John Oliver deserved to beat Jerry Seinfeld, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher, James Corden and Jimmy Fallon in the Outstanding Variety Talk Series award at the recent Emmys because he illuminates important subjects with his humour, subjects that most people would otherwise find too boring to bother about. For those who haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend Oliver’s take on retirement planning.
Echoing a past column of mine, he warns the title "financial adviser" is invariably a euphemism for commission-only salesperson. SA, along with just about every other country, has for decades been trying to get financial advisers to sell advice rather than products. An easy way to tell if your "adviser" is selling worthwhile advice or flogging products is whether he or she kicks off by trying to sell you life insurance. A quick aside on life insurance, since I don’t think it’s among the rip-off industries Oliver has covered yet. Unless you are a man living in 1860 where your wife is ...
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