The South African financial planning industry experienced a rapid growth from its generic beginnings in the 1970’s to the vast levels of specialisation taking place in the 21st century. Financial planning, akin to the medical profession, is arguably one of the most critical areas of influence in the personal lifestyle planning of individuals given the increasing longevity brought about by the medical profession. Early transgressions and irregularities, as in the case of most industries, brought about the introduction of the Financial Advisory and Iintermediary Services (FAIS) Act in 2004 to regulate, transform and restructure the industry. Since the introduction of the Act, compliance with the legislation and obtaining the appropriate qualifications have become a major focus for financial planners. This groundbreaking academic research involves an assessment of the educational needs of graduates in the financial planning industry including an evaluation of the relative importance of the subject fields, management competencies and skills required in the field of financial planning with specific reference to the financial planning programmes offered by the HEIs in South Africa. The purpose of this study can be phrased in a threefold manner: Firstly, to assess at programme level the theoretical and practical relevancy of the HEIs financial planning programme content relative to the present and immediate future normative requirements of the financial planning profession; Secondly, to assess whether the academic programmes address the critical skills shortage in financial planning by determining the appropriate qualification delivery in terms of academic and practical learning to develop the appropriate management competencies; and Thirdly, based on the findings of this research, to address any gaps pertaining to the financial planning programme content and management competency and skills levels, thereby contributing to the body of knowledge pertaining to financial planning education in order to be relevant and responsive in servicing the financial services sector. To give effect to the problem statement and to validate the research propositions, a mixed methods design within the pragmatic research paradigm was used. A relatively new and innovative mixed methods approach, namely Real-time Delphi (RTD) procedures of sourcing professional expert opinion enabled the collection of qualitative and quantitative data for data triangulation. The RTD methodology which seeks the pooled intelligence from a group of selected experts is also capable of determining future requirements rather than only the current practice. This is the first academic study of its kind in South Africa utilising the RTD methodology.

Zugl.: Linz, Univ., Diss., 2008.

Zugl.: Linz, Univ., Diss., 2008.

M.Com. (Financial Management) / In this study, the extent to which performance persistence exists within the scope of South African collective investment schemes was analysed. In addition, the current practices of financial planners were investigated to establish whether or not financial planners use past performance as a criterion for recommending specific investment funds to investors. In other words, the extent to which financial planners are justified in using past performance as a criterion for fund selection was investigated. The study is exploratory in nature and is comprised of two phases, both of a quantitative nature. During Phase A, secondary data relating to the historical returns of South African collective investment schemes was collected to determine the extent of performance persistence over a one- and three-year period respectively. During Phase B, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to determine the practices of financial planners when advising investors on fund selection decisions. The findings revealed that performance persistence does not exist to the extent that past performance is an indicator of future performance. Financial planners, however, tend to utilise past performance as the main criterion for recommending specific collective investment schemes to investors.

True loyalty, which denotes customer's willingness to continue patronizing a firm over the long term, buying its goods and service on a repeated and preferably exclusive basis, and voluntarily giving word-of-mouth referrals to friends and associates, is an extremely valuable asset to the financial service providers - as the customer's motivation for switching to competitive alternatives is reduced. A conceptual model is developed in this paper to present the likely influence of customer relationship quality with the salesperson on the development of true customer service loyalty (dispositional dimension) to the associated financial service provider firm through personal capitalization on a customer's trust, satisfaction, commitment, affective conflict and reduced perceived risk with the salesperson (attributional dimensions) and a customer's positive perceived service quality of the firm (structural dimension). It is suggested that a strong customer relationship with a financial planning salesperson leads to true service loyalty to the principal, as positive attitudes towards the salesperson are transferred directly to the firm. In situations where a strong relationship develops between the customer and only one particular salesperson, true loyalty to the firm will be a consequential outcome of high personal loyalty and, therefore, rely on the continued availability of the salesperson. To assist managers in encouraging relationship development between their financial planning sales professionals and their customers, potential antecedents of relationship quality in the perspective of sales ethics and interpersonal selling behaviours are identified and discussed in this paper. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2006.

Today’s organisation competes in a fast-moving global marketplace. With technological developments, global communications and demanding customers driving increased competition in most sectors, organisations cannot afford to stand still for long (Holbeche, 2004:32). They exist only when their products and services are sold, and salespeople are usually one of the most important elements of making this happen. Organisations’ fiscal health depends on their ability to drive revenue, but without mastering sales management, revenue can quickly decline. Salespeople need to concentrate on sales, not on responsibilities that pull them in different directions (Bailor, 2004:53). According to Clarke (1998:29), for any company to succeed, the various departments must co-ordinate their efforts and work together. The sales team relies on other departments for support; without sales every other department is worthless. The method of selling has also changed and the days of salespeople carrying briefcases overstuffed with brochures and knocking on every door they can find to drum up interest in their organisations’ products are waning. Today’s professional salespeople co-ordinate the resources of their companies to help solve customers’ problems (Weitz et al, 2004:5). For organisations to succeed in this new environment the right organisational climate is vital to create high performance. This is about making the most of employee talents and accountabilities, and managing performance in ways which unleash, rather than constrain, employee potential (Holbeche, 2004:32). 2 The Long Term Insurance Industry in South Africa had to deal with the changing environment and the introduction of the Financial Advisor Intermediary Service Act of 2002 (FAIS). The traditional principles of successful sales are being challenged in a changing South African insurance industry. Sales managers must rethink their philosophies as the Financial Advisory Intermediary Act (37/2002) regulates the rendering of certain financial advisory and intermediary services to clients and provides for matters incidental thereto. Sales managers can no longer simply motivate financial advisors to achieve targets but should also ensure that all new business is compliant and falls within the new legislation. According to Natenberg (2004:1), sales managers must have a purpose to cope with the added challenges and demands because success comes from purpose. Until a sales manager or financial advisor recognises what needs to be accomplished, there will be a lack of motivation necessary to accomplish anything. Financial advisors burn out easily because they cannot visualise the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Everyone wants a driven, highperformance sales team. However, not all sales leaders know how to achieve that. The problem could be motivation. Many sales managers see money as the answer to their motivational problem but money is not everything. For all their commitment to keep salespeople inspired, sales managers would do well to stop and consider the simple things their financial advisors desire. Only then might sales managers be able to craft programmes or work situations in which sales people can thrive (Gilbert, 2003:30). “Too often people let life pass them by. They try hard to achieve something, but when they do, they ask, “Is this all there is to it?” That is because they never 3 take a moment to enjoy how monumental their achievements are. When you accomplish what you set out to do, be proud” (Natenberg, 2004:1). / Prof. Chris Jooste

Financial professionals are advocating a personal counselling framework to deal with financial issues. Many popular magazines are discussing this new persective on financial planning and services offered to clients. This new spin on financial advising finds financial personnel going beyond money and including personal counselling content. Articles from both academic and popular journals support the basis for this new awareness. They point to the fact that financial health and psychological health are connected and interrelated. The problem with traditional financial counselling is that financial personnel are trained to deal with numbers and money, and are not trained to counsel personal issues. Therefore, considering the potential ramifications, it is imperative that financial and psychological professionals work effectively together. The goal of addressing the issue, found within this study, is to increase service delivery to clients, both from financial as well as psychological perspectives. Ultimately, this research aims to determine how to improve, and thus increase the level of referral and collaboration between these two fields. Thirty interviews were conducted with financial personnel currently working in Western Canada. The interview population consisted of Chartered Accountants, and Certified Financial Planners and Advisors. The Financial Personnel Interview was used to collect data and explore the perceptions of the existing processes of referral and collaboration between themselves and psychologists. The interview covered an array of topics including eight parts: Demographic Information, Recognizing and Defining Personal and Psychological Issues, Addressing Personal and Psychological Issues, Roles of Financial Personnel, Referral, Collaboration, Concluding Thoughts and the Client Problem Table. Extreme viewpoints emerged from the data. One is that these worlds are too different, personal counselling is not their responsiblity and there is no need for referral and collaboration. However, the majority of financial personnel believe there is a lack of understanding between the professions, the two worlds overlap and there is a need for referral and collaboration. In order to make referral and collaboration happen, it will have to start with baby steps; it will also take willingness, time and education to move from an unknown territory to a place where clients benefit from both professions. / xiii, 162 leaves ; 28 cm.

This thesis used the events of the 2007 financial crisis as a means of being able to add to the research already done on South African unit trusts. The objective was to study the risk-adjusted performance of South African general equity unit trusts against the market during the period between 2005 and 2014. This period took into account the bull market preceding the financial crisis, the market crash of 2007 and the subsequent market recovery that followed. Data was obtained online through the I-Net BFA data base and included 161 general equity unit trusts that contained a full data set. In addition to the general equity unit trusts, the Satrix40 was studied to compare a passive unit trust against those that are actively managed. The 10 year Government bond was also used as a risk-free rate to add to the comparisons of performance results. The Sharpe, Treynor and Jensen measures were applied to the data with the results adding more support to the opinions that markets are fairly efficient and active investment strategies are being challenged by consistently well performing passive investments. Throughout the duration of the study, taking into account the varying economic cycles, the Satrix40 passive investment showed the best average overall return on simple return calculations as well as during the risk-adjusted measurements. In support of active investment management, unit trusts showed their best relative performance figures during the period of the financial crisis. This suggested that active financial managers were able to make the active calls necessary to weather the storm of the financial crisis. While the study did have its limitations, the results it produced are intended to offer investors further knowledge in enabling them to make more educated investment decisions in the future.

PhD (Financial Management) / Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics / See the attached abstract below

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Small and medium enterprises have an important role to play in the South African economy. The success of SME’s will lead to economic growth, that will play a major role in reducing unemployment in South Africa. It will also be the main driver for black economic empowerment. As elsewhere in the world one of the main problems that SME’s face is the need for finance and access to finance. Banks play a major role in providing finance to SME’s by providing different forms of finance to SME’s. The finance that the shareholders / directors can access in their personal capacity plays a critical role in the provision of finance to SME’s. Banks will require security when advancing credit facilities and the security that is offered by the shareholders / directors play an important role in the decision of banks to advance credit. The risk that the banks carry when granting credit facilities to SME’s is reduced when personal suretyships of the directors / shareholders are required. The personal assets of the shareholders / directors are used as security to obtain credit facilities for the SME’s. If the SME’s should fail, the banks will liquidate the personal assets of the directors / shareholders to settle the credit facilities that were granted to the SME’s. Customers are not aware of the dangers when signing surety. Banks have fiduciary duties towards their customers to inform them of any risks and what possible solutions might exist that will minimize the adverse financial effect of such risk consequences. If the surety should die, the bank will have the option to liquidate the assets of the sureties to settle the debts of the entities for which the surety has signed personal surety. Life cover can be affected on the lives of the sureties that will provide the necessary liquidity to settle the debts of the entities without the bank having to liquidate the personal assets of the sureties. Consumer protection has become widespread where the phrase caveat emptor has been replaced by caveat vendor – let the seller be aware. In addition to this the South African Government has also enacted legislation that banks have to adhere to that will lead to customers making informed decisions. The National Credit and the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Acts have been introduced to afford the customer more protection. The banking industry has adopted the Code of Banking Practice which places responsibility on the banks to fully disclose all risks to their customers. It is especially the surety, the person that provides security for the debts of others that now enjoys increased protection. The National Credit Act affords a surety the same protection as the principal debtor and the Code of Banking Practice also contains very specific references with regards to sureties. Banks have become a business and the traditional notion that holds that business ethics and absolute adherence to legislation, industry codes and its own code of ethics will have an adverse effect on business, no longer holds. Many reasons have been given by ABSA Bank as to why the financial planners of ABSA Brokers should not be part and parcel of each transaction where credit facilities are extended to their customers. The reality however is that the Financial Planners must be made part of the process when credit facilities are extended. The Financial Planners must provide a financial needs analysis to the customer that will enable the customer to make an informed decision as to whether to implement life cover or not. By making the financial planners part of the process ABSA Business Bank will ensure adherence to legislation, industry codes and most importantly, it will fulfill the fiduciary duty that it has towards its customers. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Klein en medium ondernemings (KMO’s) speel ‘n belangrike rol in die Suid-Afrikaanse ekonomie. Die sukses van klein en medium ondernemings sal lei tot ekonomiese groei, wat sal bydra tot ‘n afname in werkloosheid in Suid Afrika. Dit sal ook die hoof drywer wees van swart ekonomiese bemagtiging. Soos elders in die wêreld is een van die hoofprobleme wat deur KMO’s in die gesig gestaar word die behoefte aan finansiering en die toegang tot finansiering. Banke speel ‘n belangrike rol in die verskaffing van finansiering deurdat finansiering in verskeie vorme aan KMO’s beskikbaar gestel word. Die finansiering wat aandeelhouers / direkteure in hulle persoonlike hoedanigheid kan bekom speel ‘n kritieke rol in die verskaffing van finansiering aan KMO’s. Banke vereis sekuriteit wanneer kredietfasiliteite beskikbaar gestel word en die sekuriteit wat deur die aandeelhouers / direkteure aangebied word speel ‘n belangrike rol in die banke se besluit om krediet te verskaf. Die risiko’s wat banke loop wanneer kredietfasiliteite aan KMO’s beskikbaar gestel word, word verminder wanneer persoonlike borgskappe van aandeelhouers / direkteure vereis word. Die persoonlike bates van die aandeelhouers / direkteure word gebruik as sekuriteit om kredietfasiliteite vir KMO’s te bekom. Indien die KMO’s sou misluk, sal die banke die persoonlike bates van direkteure / aandeelhouers te gelde maak om die kredietfasiliteite wat aan die KMO’s beskikbaar gestel was af te los. Kliënte is nie bewus van die gevare wat hulle loop wanneer hulle borgskappe verleen nie. Banke het fidusiêre pligte teenoor hulle kliënte om hulle in te lig aangaande enige risiko’s en watter moontlike oplossings daar bestaan wat enige nadelige finansiële gevolge sal beperk. Indien die borggewer tot sterwe sou kom, het die bank die opsie om die bates van die borggewer te gelde te maak om die skulde te delg van die entiteite waarvoor die borggewers persoonlike sekuriteite verskaf het. Lewensdekking kan aangegaan word op die lewe van die borggewers wat die nodige likiditeit sal verskaf om die skulde van die entiteite te delg sonder dat die persoonlike bates van die borggewers te gelde gemaak hoef te word. Verbruikersbeskerming geniet hedendaags voorrang waar die frase 'caveat emptor' - laat die koper op sy hoede wees - vervang is deur 'caveat vendor' – laat die verkoper bedag wees. Hiermee saam het die Suid-Afrikaanse regering ook wetgewing in plek gestel waaraan banke moet voldoen wat daartoe sal lei dat kliënte ingeligte besluite kan neem. Die Nasionale Kredietwet en die Finansiële Adviseurs- en Tussengangerswet is in werking gestel om meer beskerming aan die verbruiker te verleen. Die bank industrie het ook die Kode van Bankpraktyk aanvaar wat groter verantwoordelikhede op banke plaas om alle risiko’s ten volle aan hulle kliënte te openbaar. Dit is veral die borggewer, die persoon wat sekuriteit verskaf vir die skulde van ander persone / entiteite wat groter beskerming geniet. Die Nasionale Kredietwet bied aan die borggewer dieselfde beskerming as die hoofskuldenaar en die Kode van Bankpraktyk bevat ook spesifieke verwysing na die regte van borggewers. Bankwese het ‘n besigheid geraak en die tradisionele siening dat sake etiek en streng onderworpenheid aan wetgewing, industrie kodes en banke se eie etiese kodes ‘n negatiewe effek op besigheid sal hê, dra nie meer water nie. Verskeie redes is al deur ABSA Bank aangevoer oor hoekom die finansiële beplanners van ABSA Makelaars nie deel moet wees van elke transaksie waar krediet aan kliënte verleen word nie. Die realiteit is egter dat die finansiële beplanners deel van die proses gemaak moet word. Die finansiële beplanners moet ‘n finansiële behoefte ontleding aan die kliënt beskikbaar stel wat die kliënt in staat sal stel om ‘n ingeligte besluit te neem om lewensdekking te implementeer al dan nie. Deur die finansiële beplanners deel van die proses te maak verseker ABSA Besigheidsbank nakoming aan wetgewing en industrie kodes. Wat egter meer belangrik is, is dat die bank dan ook sy fidusiêre plig wat die bank teenoor sy kliënte het, sal nakom.