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General Insurance
Whether it is your personal or company asset (home, office, furniture, equipment, cargo, stocks ,etc) or your liability exposures, advisers are able to arrange competitive coverage and take care of your servicing and claims.
We provide the full range of General Insurance:
- Fire Insurance
- Employers’ Liability
- Consequential loss
- Products Liability
- Public Liability
- Directors officers Liability
- Contractors All Risk
- Engineering Insurance
- Fidelity Bond, Guarantees & Credit Insurance
- Marine Insurance
- Money Insurance
- Professional Indemnity
We go through the following process to ensure that you obtain value-added advice and solutions:
- Detailed study of your needs and existing insurance policies
- Sourcing and Quotations
- Selection of policy and placement of cover
- Continuous Service including claims handling
- And ensuring premiums are competitive at every renewal
Our advice and services are provided FREE. We are compensated by commissions by the insurance companies to compete for your business and we have better negotiating power and market information to obtain good terms for you.
Feel free to fill up this inquiry form if you have further inquiries on our services.
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Unit Trust
Investing in unit trust funds has become a very common and popular choice to accumulate wealth. The number of funds available in the market stands in excess of 600 as at June 2004; these include funds offered by insurance companies through their unit-linked policies. This number is set to increase further as the investor community continues to grow. The main advantages unit trust funds offer include the inherent diversification of risk, accessibility to overseas securities, affordable and flexible financial commitment, liquidity of holdings, and management expertise. The fact that the entire investable portion of your EPF account can be invested in unit trust funds underlines the endorsement given to this class of investment.
There are several categories of funds available for the individual investor. In the main, they can be classified by asset classes such as money market, fixed income, equities, or by allocation in terms of geographical regions, industrial sectors, or a combination of the above. In selecting funds for investment, past performances are not the only indicators. The level of risks taken to generate those returns, the fund cost structure and growth potential in the given economic environment, the managers’ investment philosophy and their investment track record are other important factors to consider.
This is where we help and guide you in making good investment decisions. We help you not only in recommending the fund to purchase, but on an ongoing basis, we can help you manage your portfolio of funds to maximise return in the face of changing market conditions.
Before advising you on the appropriate funds to invest, we would take into account your personal and financial situations at the present time as well as your goals and objectives for the future. As independent advisers, our aim is to do what is best for you; your interest is paramount. Our desire is to maintain a long lasting partnership that is rewarding for both you and us.
Please contact us if you would like to know any of the following:
- Your risk profile and suitability of your present investments in unit trust
- Whether there is a need to rebalance your portfolio
- How to invest your EPF savings and cash savings in unit trust
- Which unit trusts are suitable for investing your retirement funds
Feel free to fill up this inquiry form if you have further inquiries on our services.
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Estate Planning
Estate Planning is not just for those about to die, or the wealthy one who have to pay estate duty. Besides accepting death as a certainty, we must recognize its unpredictability. Besides accepting estate duty as inevitable, we must examine whether there are ways to save if not totally avoid estate duty.
The benefits of estate planning are many:
- To save heirs and beneficiaries maximum of your assets at death and to pay minimum duty to the Government.
- To achieve speedy probate process and payment of estate duty thus freeing up your assets
- To distribute ones’ wealth according to ones’ wishes and avoid transfer to unintended beneficiaries
- To protect the estate against creditors
- To achieve family unity and avoid disputes
- To obtain the best terms for asset like business ownership
- To provide sufficient liquid assets so that real property and businesses and shares can remain intact or be disposed at favorable times
There are many benefits of preparing a will even if your assets are not going to be dutiable (i.e. to pay duty for it) Otherwise your assets will be distributed by a prescribed allocation method under Interstate Succession. (i.e. dying without a will) without a will. Do you know that only half of your assets will go to your spouse and the other half to your child (or children)?
If you have a big estate (and this includes cash and cashable assets like cars, jewelry, shares, club memberships etc) you should explore ways to reduce any potential estate duty. There are other ways than giving your money or assets away. And be careful of dying within 5 years of any gift, as these gifts will still be considered part of your estate.
You can consider trusts but there are many types of trusts so you have to be careful about choosing the right one.
If you are thinking of migrating you must be careful about how this will affect your estate.
Contact us if you need to know about any of the following:
- Your current estate net worth and potential estate duty
- Your estate planning needs
- Writing a will
- Setting up a trust
- Insurance plans especially
- Gifts
- Assignment
- Estate planning for proprietors
- Estate planning for partnerships
- Estate planning for shareholders
- Power of attorney
We work with lawyers and accountants on our panel.
Estate planning is just one of the components of a comprehensive financial plan. We provide planning and advice on protection planning, investment planning, tax planning and retirement planning also.
Feel free to fill up this inquiry form if you have further inquiries on our services.
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Tax Planning
Besides accepting death and taxes as certainties, it pays to examine whether there are legitimate ways to save on taxes. I.e.: Tax avoidance but not tax evasion.
There are a number of potential avenues to save on taxes, some well known and some known only to the initiated. We help clients to identify the potential areas of tax savings which they can benefit from consulting our panel of tax consultants. Just to name a few areas:
- Separate assessments
- Child relief
- Insurance and Security
- Business Insurance
- EPF deductions
- Maid levy
- Capital Gains
- Trust
- Rental and Interest
- Incorporation
Tax planning is just one of the components of a comprehensive financial plan. We provide planning and advice on protection planning, investment planning, retirement planning and estate planning also.
Feel free to fill up this inquiry form if you have further inquiries on our services.
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Education Planning
“The Best Education plan is always a good Insurance Plan on the Parent.” This must be remembered always. Many parents tend to purchase Education Plans without considering proper coverage for themselves. If the Parent still insists on the Education policy for the child, OBLIGE, but package enough term cover on the parent’s life to ensure that the family will receive income when calamity strikes.
This presentation is meant to help you put together a package consisting of a regular Endowment/Education Policy with an Anticipated Endowment policy (if the Budget is large enough). Ultimately however your Goal must be to help the Clients achieve their Accumulation Goal for their Children’s Education.
- The Anticipated Endowment’s regular Cash Payout is what is termed ‘REGULAR GRANT’ in the presentation.
- The ‘Annual/Monthly Income’ is an Income rider. Alternatively you may add on a Level Term/ Critical Illness rider/ policy which will provide a lump sum of Cash in the event of Death, TPD and Critical Illness.
The Cost of Education has been rising ahead of inflation, at approximately 5% to 6% per annum. It is also noted that many parents are intending to send their children overseas because of the high level of stress in the local scene or the inadvertent need to get a “better” qualification in order to compete in the job market.
It is important for you to find out how your prospects feel about local education and why they may/may not consider sending their children overseas. If an overseas education is desired, you should find out where in the world they would like to visit for their children’s graduation.
Note that Endowment Plans alone may not be able to fulfil the prospect’s goal. Other plans, such as Single Premium policies (Bonds, Unit Trusts, etc) should also be considered.
Feel free to fill up this inquiry form if you have further inquiries on our services.
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Investment Planning
People often mistakenly think of savings and investing as being synonymous, or as different words for the same thing.
The fact is that we should differentiate between the two and make conscious effort to address both aspects in managing our finances.
Savings is putting money aside for an expected or contingent expenditure. This may be money reserved for the next six mortgage repayments, or money to standby for a medical emergency; basically the certainty that money is available when it is needed becomes important. Critical factors are safety and liquidity (i.e. ease of converting into cash) in order that cash flow problems would not arise. In reality, the safety factor no longer exists when bank interest rates are persistently lower than the inflation rate, like what we are experiencing these days. While the amount of money can be preserved, its value (i.e. purchasing power) will decline over time.
Investing, on the other hand, is focused on growing your wealth rather than just maintaining value. To grow and accumulate wealth, you would need to acquire assets that are expected to appreciate in value over time. These expectations, however, are mere expectations. There is no certainty that the expectations would materialize, and that is the risk that you as an investor must be prepared to take on. The level of risk would typically commensurate with the level of return expected; the higher the reward desired, the higher the risk is required, which in turn, corresponds to the type of asset. A critical success factor is managing investment risk at an appropriate level through proper allocation of different asset classes. Another factor is the ability to respond appropriately to the changing conditions in the financial markets.
This is where professional would help to guide you in making good investment decisions, not just once, but on an ongoing basis.
Lal & Partners is licensed to advise and transact in insurance products and unit trust funds. Before advising you on the appropriate products to invest, we would take into account your personal and financial situations at the present time as well as your goals and objectives for the future. Our aim is to do what is best for you; your interest is paramount. Our desire is to maintain a long lasting partnership that is rewarding for both you and us.
Please contact us if you would like to know any of the following:
- Your risk profile / tolerance
- Suitability of your current investments
- Ideas on how to invest your CPF savings and your cash savings
- Ideas on how to invest your retirement funds
Feel free to fill up this inquiry form if you have further inquiries on our services.
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Protection Planning
Protection Planning is the foundation of a comprehensive financial plan and is a must before you embark on the other components like investment planning, retirement planning and estate planning.
All of us face risks of premature death, disablement, hospitalisation, surgery and long-term illness. It is the financial consequences like loss of income, medical expenses and ancillary costs that need protection. A good protection plan comprises a combination of insurance policies possibly to cover all the risk exposures. We do thorough fact-finding and financial needs analysis before making recommendations according to the requirements of the Financial Adviser Act. We source for the suitable products which available to give to our clients wider choices and better value.
Contact us if you need information on any of the following:
- Am I adequately protected?
- Are my present policies suitable for my needs?
- Are my assets sufficiently protected?
- Are my loans and other financial liabilities sufficiently protected?
- Are my medical risks sufficiently protected and my present policies coordinated most efficiently?
- Are all my potential liabilities adequately protected?
- Are my business risks adequately protected?
- Am I getting the best value in terms of coverage and premiums from my present company insurances?
- What benefits will a risk audit bring me?
Making better investment returns can make a small difference to your lifestyle. Not protecting against life’s risks can destroy you and your family financially.
Feel free to fill up this inquiry form if you have further inquiries on our services.
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Personal Planning
We need to sit down to think through our objectives and strategies.
Personal planning usually starts with drawing up of simple financial statements like a personal income-expenditure statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. It is very important to be able to save in order to invest and protect one’s investments.
Please contact us if you are interested in any of the following:
- How can I assess my personal financial health?
- How can I generate more savings?
- How can I get better return from my investments?
- Are my present insurances adequate in terms of scope of coverage and quantum?
- What are my financial objectives and roadblocks?
- What financial benefits can I obtain from tax planning?
- What is the worst that can happen to me?
Statistics show that the vast majority do not have any personal financial planning. No wonder not many have achieved financial freedom or independence.
Feel free to fill up this inquiry form if you have further inquiries on our services.
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Life Insurance
While the fear of dying too soon is a major reason to insure oneself, life insurance is much more than that. It covers other fears like suffering disability and contracting dread disease and in the case of retirement, living too long.
Life insurance has been described as a modern miracle which provides money when it is most needed. It is also described as a love letter since the primary motivation is love and concern for one’s family.
Life insurance is the only financial product which allows you to create an immediate estate. It is also an effective way of savings with a return which is attractive compared to other safe savings schemes like fixed deposits and bonds. While the products may be described as whole life, endowment and term life, there are differences in the terms and benefits and premiums.
It is extremely important to know what you need and what best meets your needs.
Please contact us if you need information on any of the following:
- Appropriateness and adequacy of your present insurance portfolio.
- Insurance risk audit.
- Who will benefit from your policy proceeds?
- Will your insurance provide sufficiently for your retirement?
- Will your insurance provide sufficiently for your children’s education?
- How investment-linked policies compare with unit trust?
- Whether your insurance qualifies for tax deduction?
- Whether you can take a loan on your policy or use it as collateral for bank loan?
Feel free to fill up this inquiry form if you have further inquiries on our services.
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Retirement Planning
Looking forward for retirement is not enough. You need to plan ahead what you want to be and what you want to do. Where do you want to live and with what kind of lifestyle? And you need to ensure that you have sufficient financial resources to be able to enjoy your retirement years
The Governments’ advice is “Take Charge and start early”. This is because ours is not a welfare estate with social security and it takes time to save the large sum required for retirement. The general warning is that EPF amount for retirement is not enough for the majority of people because much of it goes into home loan repayments. That is, some will be asset rich but cash poor. The startling statistics is that the majority of people will not even have the “minimum sum” set by EPF for one’s retirement. Earlier generations depended on their children to support them. With smaller families today and higher cost, can parents look to their children to see them through thirty years of retirement?
Retirement is supposed to be a time of rest from work but turns out to be the most difficult years for many. How can I prepare for retirement? What is enough for my retirement? How to determine what is enough depends on several factors like your desired retirement lifestyle, your expected life span and investment and inflation rate.
Its comes as a shock to many that one million dollars may not be sufficient to support their desired retirement lifestyle. Migrating to a country where your retirement savings can go further because of your stronger currency must be considered carefully against you being further from your homeland and possibly family as well. How can you save for your retirement? How can you invest what you have now and what extra you can set aside each year to accumulate the funds for your retirement? These are questions we help you to answer considering your objectives, your risk tolerance and your financial resources. For those who are about to retire or have retired and have funds to invest, we help you identify product investments for your hard earned savings whether it be pension, gratuity or EPF.
We all know too well stories of how hard-earned money can be wasted or lost in ill-chosen business or investments. The great financial fortunes of the 20th century were built on the 19th century fear of dying too soon. The great financial fortunes of the future will be built on the 21st century fear of not dying soon enough.
Take charge and start early.
Contact us if you need to know about any of the following:
How to compute your retirement needs
- Supplementary Retirement Scheme
- EPF Minimum Sum Scheme and Withdrawal at Age 55
- Insurance products for retirement
- Investment products for retirement
- Reverse Mortgage
- Advanced Medical Directive
Feel free to fill up this inquiry form if you have further inquiries on our services.