investment

Pathway gets massive boost
Thirty thousand dollars has been injected into the Rotary Pathway Trust, thanks to the generosity of New Zealand’s charismatic philanthropist, Gareth Morgan, who presented a seminar at the Napier Municipal Theatre recently....
30 May 2007 - Gareth Morgan

Morgan plans a KiwiSaver clean up
Gareth Morgan, the bete noir of fund managers, is plotting a KiwiSaver ambush on the savings institutions he accuses of systematically acting against the interests of their savers....
7 May 2007 - Gareth Morgan

Big Game Part VI : Insurance rip-offs could undermine confidence in the finance sector
Gareth Morgan concludes his investigation into savings and life insurance industry rorts by advocating 3 steps to to bring an end the securities malfeasance and at the same time help the thousands of savers who have thrown their money into this awful industry, get at least some of their property back. ...
6 December 2006 - Gareth Morgan

Big Game V: The Tactics - how the insurance multinationals get away with it
Gareth Morgan continues his series on investment rorts . This article focuses on how the life insurance companies fend off any queries from the public about the care they're not taking with their savings. The tactics are to deny and if an objector is persistent, to burn them off with litigation - even to the extent of creating vexatious litigation to frighten those simply trying to protect their own property. Bullying of the small guy is meat and cheese to these corporates....
30 November 2006 - Gareth Morgan

The Big Game Debate – Letters Exchange
Letter exchange between John Smith, Company Actuary, Fidelity Life and Gareth Morgan...
30 November 2006 - Gareth Morgan

The Big Game IV - Inside the Actuarial Snakepit
Gareth Morgan continues his investigation of investment rorts . At the heart of the problems that life insurance companies have brought to the savings industry is their practice of using reserve funds to separate savers from their money. These companies use actuaries on their staff to provide a thin veil of propriety to the "freeing" of these reserves from the ownership of the savers, making them available ultimately to be owned by the insurance company. The ethical deficit of the so called 'self-regulated' actuarial profession is central to this rot....
21 November 2006 - Gareth Morgan

The Big Game III - Product churn, zombie funds and the renewal cycle
Gareth Morgan continues his investigation of investment rorts. Why do life insurance companies have so many savings products and unit trusts in the market, most of them without much money? Why do they always seem to be closing funds to new money and then some years later wind them up? Didn't you know that for many fund management companies the deliberate obsolescence of a fund is what they plan for? The game is to shift as much of your savings into fund reserves as they can, shut the fund down and then keep the reserves for themselves. Charming ethics. ...
13 November 2006 - Gareth Morgan

The Big Game II
Gareth Morgan continues his investigation of investment rorts. Creation and then manipulation of reserves is a favourite device that funds deploy to get your money. Once your money is set aside in reserves its ownership becomes moot. One thing's for sure you no longer have an unchallenged claim on it so don't expect it back. This article describes the devices the Funds use to move your savings into its reserves....
7 November 2006 - Gareth Morgan

The Big Game I - How the savings industry takes your money and keeps it
How the savings industry takes your money and keeps it, Gareth Morgan investigates, in the first of a six-part series. The methods popular amongst the long term "savings" products peddled by life insurers include bundling savings and insurance together so their actuaries can apply actuarial "discretions" in an unfettered manner to separate you from your money. Another trick is to make you just another unsecured creditor on the fund that has your money in it. Finding yourself at the back of the line when it comes to claiming your savings back, is a gut-wrenching experience for most....
3 November 2006 - Gareth Morgan

Insurance Industry Risk Threatens KiwiSaver
It's sad but Michael Cullen would be better making all KiwiSaver providers prove they aren't fraudsters - so endemic is the behaviour internationally. Perhaps making all the CEO's sign personal guarantees would be a way to fast-track their compliance....
22 March 2006 - Gareth Morgan

KiwiSaver - or Kiwis to the Slaughter?
The scheme is the machinery for future impost of compulsory workplace superannuation. The winners from those can be controversial....
2 March 2006 - Gareth Morgan

Taxing Investment Offshore – Is Something Acceptable in the Wind?
Taxing investors on the EPS of foreign companies is an idea that could work. The issue is whether our policymakers care about preventing savers from foolishly over-investing in NZ....
9 February 2006 - Gareth Morgan

Monetary Policy Frustration
Everybody is convinced our currency is set to plunge. Everybody that doesn't live abroad that is....
8 December 2005 - Gareth Morgan