The worlds markets are at their highest levels in history, or at least they are as I write this column. So without repeating the usual rhetoric of the radio, tv and newspaper doom merchants what does this mean to us, the people who advise the general population?

If you are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for me to solve the most burning question of the last six months, namely ‘should we go into the markets at these high levels or stay out?’ then please do one of two things, (a) prepare to be disappointed or (b) make a cup of tea and prepare to hear just another man’s opinion.

When is a contract not a contract, when does acting in a fit and proper manner not apply, and when does acting in a fit and proper manner still lead to debarment?

I will allow you to mull over that thought for a while and then put you out of your misery, or possibly cause you some more!

We are all working in the same industry “financial services”, but one would have to be a fool, or at the very best naïve, to think that following FAIS and the huge changes that have occurred in South African financial markets we are now all operating on a level playing field. Life is never “fair” or “equitable”, we can just hope to make things better and we must admit that we have now come quite a distance over a relatively short period of time.

It is they say twenty times harder to win a new client than it is to keep an existing client, I believe that 100%.

So why is it that people continue to make the same mistakes and why do many find it hard to deliver on promises even when they are being paid to deliver a service? There is in South Africa a sad truth that many people who offer a service think they are the one’s doing their “Customers and Clients” a favour, how totally misguided can they be, do they seriously think that they are the only provider available?

Whenever we enter a New Year there are always discussions about a new or changed way of living, resolutions are made and more often than not broken, diets, smoking, drinking, exercise all become brief hot topics as we choose to cease or increase any one of these hollow intents. Then gradually we settle down, we start writing and referring to the correct year, we stop having to say happy New Year (in my opinion it should be illegal to say “Happy New Year” after the 10th January!).

Life returns to normal and we find that we are pretty much the same people living the same life as we lived in the previous month, back in that other country now known as “last year”. This year, however, I have made one financial services commitment that will not change and by making it now and backing it up with the required funding, I know it will be a reality, it’s not exactly a “hot” or “sexy” topic, but it is crucial!