• Lonpac
  • Chubb
  • MPI Generali
  • Allianz
  • Tokio Marine
  • AIG
  • AXA
  • AIA
  • Takaful Malaysia
  • Great Eastern
  • Prudential
  • Hongleong Assurance
  • Hongleong MSIG Takaful

E

fficiency: prompt delivery of services to our clients

A

ssociation: belief in our partners in working towards a common goal

S

incerity: our genuine belief in your growth

I

nnovation: continuous growth and development, staying ahead of the curve

Insurance adviser? Financial adviser? Which do I choose?

In this industry, we’ve heard some frequently asked questions, especially regarding the different types of wealth advisers or financial consultants. We’ve listed them down here …

COVID19: 4 Ways To Financially Prepare Yourself For A Crisis

The coronavirus outbreak and reports of how it will impact the economy continue to dominate the news. A key concern for many of us is how to manage our finances amidst this global pandemic. There are many questions that arise, whether it’s about making monthly instalment plans or credit card bill payments now or to defer them for a couple of months, or how to plan for the upcoming financial year in the wake of an uncertain economic scenario, or deciding on where to keep our savings in this uncertain market.

In an environment like this, one needs to go back to basics and make sure that we have a sound financial plan in place. The truth is that one needs to plan for an emergency before it hits, but ready or not, here we are.

Let’s look at a few practical pointers that can help as you look to put your finances in order.

1. Have an emergency fund and control spending

Never forget, every cent count! An emergency fund worth three to six months’ expenses are a must in this scenario. Simply put, you must have enough cash to cover your living expenses until the current crisis passes. You may even want to temporarily reduce contributions to your retirement plans and focus on redirecting the money to your emergency fund. You can resume contributions towards your various savings plans once the crisis is over.

Every extra ringgit saved will help you manage through this period and keep you calm. To successfully accumulate emergency funds, you must minimise day-to-day spending. A simple tip — make digital payments especially wherever discounts are available!

On the other hand, government aids are available for individuals looking to manage your personal finance. Instead of using the remainder of what is left in your savings account for day-to-day transactions, register for the monthly RM500 EPF withdrawal allowance if you are under 55.

For those who are being laid off or forced to take unpaid leave, the Humans Resources Ministry has announced that workers are entitled to their salaries throughout the restriction movement order. The prime minister also announced a RM600 monthly cash assistance (up to six months) to help workers who are forced to take unpaid leave.

2. Continue paying instalments, defer only if facing an extreme cash crunch

The six-month moratorium allowed by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) on monthly instalment repayments seems to be a breather for those who had been demanding a deferment due to the lockdown. However, the moratorium provides no interest payment relief to borrowers. If you choose not to pay your monthly commitments, you will be charged an applicable monthly interest rate. If you need to skip payments do it by ranking your payments by the amount and interest rate payable. Credit card debt tends to be at very high rates, so best to pay off on time and minimise expenses. The silver lining is that deferring payments at this point will not impact your credit score.

However, if you are working in sectors like aviation, travel, hospitality, retail, manufacturing and automotive where growth has been badly hit, chances are quite high that there could be severe job losses or pay cuts as it may take three to six months for the businesses to recover. In such a scenario, you can consider contacting your lenders to reduce the monthly commitments pay-out by increasing the term of the loan.

3. Buy health and life insurance plan or update current policies

One of the most cost-effective ways to protect yourself against a possible financial emergency is by ensuring adequate health and life insurance cover. A term insurance cover is a must, it’s a no-frills plan that offers the highest life coverage at most affordable prices.

A health plan is also recommended if you don’t have one so far. Even if you have a cover from your employer, it’s highly advisable to have an individual cover. 

Of course, as a policyholder, you will need to check the terms and conditions as well as the benefits. After all, every insurance company has its own set of policies. If you’re unsure, the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) members include AIA, Allianz Life Insurance Malaysia, AmMetLife Insurance and Prudential Assurance—among others. You can check the list here.

Fast forward to March 2020, the members of LIAM announced that they will be taking proactive steps in providing additional relief measures for policyholders who are affected by the economic slowdown as a result of the pandemic. Additional benefits include RM5,000 cash relief for policy holders who have tested positive for COVID-19, cash benefits or allowance for hospitalisation, and special lump-sum death benefits (ranging from RM5,000 to RM20,000).

4. Don’t wait– Build long term savings through regular investments 

People are often confused about when is the right time to invest. The fact is, there is never a right or wrong time to start investing in order to build your savings. Multiple studies have shown that it is the time in the market that matters rather than when you enter the market. The longer you are building your corpus through a systematic plan, the better you are hedging the risk of market fluctuation and compounding returns.

Have a target savings amount per month in mind and invest that in a disciplined manner. In order to build the right corpus, you can look to invest in Mutual Funds or unit trust Mutual Funds are more flexible and tend to have a wider range of choices. Online unit trust, on the other hand, have advantages in terms of lower cost and tax-free returns for a long term investment period. Unit trust is particularly effective for building savings for your children as they come with a feature that in case of the sudden death of the parent, all future premiums are paid by the insurer. The money thus keeps growing and the child gets the full amount as planned when the policy matures.

To conclude, these are very uncertain times and it is natural to be worried about your finances. Stick with the basics — have an emergency fund in place, spend only on what is absolutely needed, ensure that you have insurance to protect your family from any unexpected event and finally, keep investing regularly to build your long-term savings. Stay safe and remain positive. 

Top 4 Corporate Finance Strategies And Solutions During COVID-19

Hit by the Covid-19 slump followed by social distancing and a nationwide lockdown, businesses in Malaysia (and globally, for that matter) are experiencing major impacts.

According to a recent survey, around 33.3% of SMEs stated they only have enough cash flow for March 2020, while 37.8% can only sustain up to April 2020.

Therefore, during such testing times, businesses will have to adapt to a new set of rules and be mindful of the following aspects to alleviate risks and to survive the slowdown caused by the impact of Covid-19.

1. Managing cash flow and liquidity 

Maintaining healthy cash flow is essential for a company to stay in business as prolonged negative cash flow may lead to a bank overdraft, or worse —bankruptcy. Since the outbreak started, it is difficult to keep positive cash flow for most businesses and the change in customers’ behaviour has forced companies to move at an unprecedented speed to serve their customers with quality while caring for their employees with compassion. Therefore, one key measure to cash management is to limit cash outflow by reducing costs. This can be achieved by making your assets more liquid. Having assets with high liquidity has been proven effective in settling short-term expenses and debts because of its ease in conversion to cash at a short notice. So, business owners should improve their asset liquidity by financing through factoring or negotiating longer payment cycles with vendors. Companies should also start focusing on the disposal of inventories and non-core assets. The amount of cash raised through divestment activities may be used to reinvest in other parts of the business.

2. Reduce debt

With the new reality being that the labour market has a surplus of workers as an aftermath of the ongoing demand-deficient recession COVID-19 has caused, it is the best decision for fellow Malaysians companies to capitalize as much of the government aid as one is eligible to. For instance, business owners can reduce costs and liabilities through the discounts in rent, water, and electricity bill included in the government package . Moreover, those owning businesses should look into a loan, especially since the interest rate has dropped to 0%, in order to fund whatever business expenses which still occurs (such as machine running costs) despite a null in revenue. They should also capitalize on the RM800-1,200 monthly wage support  if they are employing 75 or fewer people. Indeed, we shouldn’t be shy to receive help from the government, more significantly if it meant detrimental losses.

3. Reduce expenses

In a time when our economic situation almost matches that of the 1929 Great Depression, we should take precautions and sometimes, ill-disposed steps to keep our business afloat. That means cutting down costs in unnecessary areas. Business owners should look back into reducing production, manpower, processing costs and halt activities which drive the most expenses in the business, especially when said activities are not essential and bring little profit to the firm. Furthermore, business owners may need to re-consider to hold any future investments not only because of the economic uncertainty of the future but also because it is extremely risky to continue with any type of projects when there is negative cash flow. Therefore, it might be a better decision to focus on minimizing your losses rather than embarking on new projects. 

4. Create new revenue streams

Indeed, what has become apparent to business owners is that they could not rely on a singular stream of income because it is more prone to collapse in a recession such as the one we are currently facing. It is significantly vital in providing a safety net not only for you as a business owner, but for your other businesses as well. For example, the profits obtained from one successful business may be utilized to fund another business from going bankrupt. Moreover, business owners should realize by now that the money is in online commerce. Social distancing measures presented online entrepreneurs an opportunity to push their contactless services to consumers looking for a way to spend in regards to coping during the pandemic or even post-pandemic. Furthermore, if neither government aid nor creating new revenue streams are sufficient in keeping your business afloat, now might be the time to release any trapped cash you have stored overseas. 

Conclusion

In a nutshell, in order to set your financial planning straight, you need to manage your cash flow. It is acceptable that you face losses in the upcoming months, but it is vital that you keep them to a minimum by reducing your expenses in unnecessary areas, capitalize on government aid, and halt any future investments for the time being. Besides that, business owners should improve their cash flow by creating multiple sources of income, especially ones that require little human contact. All steps are necessary as starting from now, we should plan for the worst-case-scenario and also for post-MCO whereby the economy recovers. At the same time, we should allow for some flexibility in our plans and actively adapt according to the dynamic business environment, at least until things begin to settle down.

 

If you need assistance on how to re-structure and plan your corporate finance for this critical period, do contact Easi Wealth for a free consultancy. 

“ Yoong Chern Chai ”

My daughter has a squint condition, diagnosed when she was three. Four months ago, my daughter underwent eye surgery for both eyes. We were hoping the high cost would be covered by insurance, but our claim was rejected. We were told it was a congenital condition. I almost gave up, but my insurance agent told us to make a second claim, and he guided us throughout the process. Three months later, I was surprised when I saw the amount in my bank account. The claim was refunded! I called my agent to thank him. We appreciated the good work he and his team did. Thank you very much!
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