Search results

  1. W

    Buying a burial plot in advance - what happens if the graveyard goes bust?

    Does anyone have answers to the questions raised earlier about the security of amounts paid in advance to Kilternan Cemetery?
  2. W

    Minor accident on holiday in Italy

    Thanks all. I've relayed that advice to her. Don't know if it's now more than 24 hours since the tip. (I was late checking for replies).
  3. W

    Minor accident on holiday in Italy

    I would appreciate advice from anyone with experience of motor insurance in Italy. My daughter just rang me. She's on holidays in Italy and had a minor accident. Scratches on both cars, not major, I gather. Her fault. Has given insurance details to other driver, also a hired car. Everyone...
  4. W

    Renewing Netflix subscription - which option?

    @Groucho and @MugsGame, thank you both for your advice. I think I'll go for the basic package. It's most unlikely that more than one program will be watched at the same time.
  5. W

    Renewing Netflix subscription - which option?

    Hi I cancelled Netflix some time ago, but I'm now under pressure from the other half to renew it. There are three options: Basic, Standard and Premium. The video quality is "good", "better" and "best". It's the last bit that confuses me: "resolution", which is 720p, 1080p or 4K +HDR. I...
  6. W

    Buying a burial plot in advance - what happens if the graveyard goes bust?

    Like @Glencarraig, my wife is keen to talk to them, but I fear that our money could disappear well before our time above ground is up. It's over 6 months since the last post. Does anyone have an update since then?
  7. W

    Inaccurate LPT bands

    I have the opposite problem to that recounted by others! I visited the Revenue's website. The value they put on houses in my estate is less than 60% of what I have self-assessed our house to be worth, based on what I'm paying. The value I put on it for tax purposes looks reasonable as an...
  8. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    Some people just don't get it. First of all, you are conveniently ignoring the initial commission, which could be as high as €12,500 on a €250,000 investment, in addition to the trail commission. That is unconscionable. Most important, however, referring back to The Duke's analogy with a...
  9. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    @Duke of Marmalade showed why it's completely inappropriate to compare what's happening with ARF's to other service businesses. This is what we should be discussing, not trying to distract from the core issue by comparing to the cost of a car, a piece of sports equipment, or whatever, from...
  10. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    Of course I'm not 'happy' with any level of charge. You seem to be arguing that I picked an extreme example. I did not. I chose a bog-standard document from a leading life company. It says in bold at the top: "This is not a customer document and is intended for Financial Brokers and...
  11. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    The trail commission either goes into the client's pocket, or it goes into the broker's pocket. There is a straight trade-off. I'm looking at the product details for the ARF product for a leading life company. The client pays a management charge of 0.75% a year if there is no trail...
  12. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    The legal contract is between the insurer and the client. The intermediary has no role, no responsibility in the legal contract between them. They can disappear off the face of the earth the day after the product is sold. The insurer must be there to pay the income as it falls due, to deliver...
  13. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    @time to plan Thanks for posting. I really liked this sentence: In some cases, the “best” advice may require sacrificing financial gains for other ends (e.g., psychological comfort), which means the “best” advice could be wealth-reducing! Never a truer word was spoken. If someone is as...
  14. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    Good old @Marc I knew you wouldn't let me down, that you'd be sure to produce a graph or two - or three or more. Not sure what they mean, but that's irrelevant. They always look good.
  15. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    I agree that it's ridiculous that the industry hasn't produced more recent figures on the asset distribution of ARF's. Hopefully Insurance Ireland will have someone watching this thread and nail the lie, if that's what it is. Do you think they will? The conclusions from the Society of...
  16. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    I'm blue in the face trying to tell you it's the only figure I can find. Can you give me a more up-to-date figure? As I said, the likelihood is that brokers have gone even more cautious since 2015, given how the market has powered ahead in the last few years. Therefore, if they thought it was...
  17. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    Put it the other way round, have you any evidence that brokers changed their approach between 2015 and 2021? If anything, the fact that we have had six years of growth since then would have made them more likely, not less likely, to be pushing people towards "safe" options now than they were...
  18. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    @Steven Barrett. I too enjoyed the story of Lyndon Johnson trying to make his opponent deny he had sex with a pig. It's a sad lookout, though, if you consider that a request for insurance companies to ascertain customer outcomes is in the same category as Johnson's opponent having sex with a...
  19. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    @Duke of Marmalade You have just (maybe inadvertently) provided support for my earlier comment: @Dave Vanian disagrees: To prove my point, suppose we look at a level rather than an index-linked annuity. The website pensionchoice.ie tells us that a €1,000,000 lump sum will buy a level...
  20. W

    Why do insurers allow advisers to choose ARF commission rate?

    @Gordon Gekko, could you point us to where we can verify that assertion? A friend who knows the pensions business says that the opposite is the case, that brokers have made far more out of ARF's than their clients. He says that, over the last ten years, total commission (initial and trail)...
Back
Top