Update law on copyright

SPH sued Yahoo for publishing over 200 articles that it deemed to have infringe its copyright. I find it odd that a newspaper article, which is widely published and read should be the subject of copyright.
The unclarity of copyright will impede the free flow of information, which is necessary for a thinking society. Our Parliament has a duty to discuss and address this issue and update the laws.

Private tuition for students

A few letters were published in the Straits Times on the need for tuition. Some parents said that they were compelled to give tuition because of the high demands of the education system. Another writer said that it is the decision of the parent and not the system.

There are two issues underlying this debate:

1. Is the standard of the syllabus set too high for each grade, that many students find it difficult to cope?
2. Do parents arrange tuition for their children to pass the subject or to achieve the top grade?

The standard is probably set too high. I remember that a topic that I learned in secondary one 50 years ago was covered in primary 4 about 20 years ago. I wonder if it is now covered in primary 3?

The high demand do not seem to produce better quality students. I find an unwillingness to think or to solve puzzles, even among people who did well in the examinations.

Many parents probably arrange tuition for their children to achieve top grade. This is not necessary.

To change the mindset. we have to make a drastic change to the system. I would consider the following:

1. In the report cards, show only if the student had passed or failed in each subject (and not not aim to show a more detailed grade).
2. The student will be informed of the detailed grade, but it will not appear in the official record.

This will allow the student to identify which are their strong and weak subjects, and make the effort to achieve a pass, without putting in undue stress to achieve the top grade.

Tweaks to the COE system

Is engine power a better way to classify cars? The Minister for Transport, Lui Tuck Yew thinks so. 

I disagree. I do not like the convoluted systems that exist in Singapore today. 

We already have taxes on vehicles that depend on their values. If you want to make expensive cars pay more tax, just raise the direct tax that are based on value.

The COE is a licence to use the road, based on space taken on the road. There is no need to have separate categories for cars, i.e. category A, B or open category and start an argument about how to classifies different models into these categories.

We waste so much time in Singapore over trivial and avoidable matters. That is why we are not able to solve the big problems, which continue to get worse.

Singapore can improve its transport system to solve the problem of high COE prices.
http://c-onyx.com/page/506

Singapore relooks elitist policy

Recent measures show that

the government is not aiming to eliminate,

only to remake,

elitism, which exists everywhere.

 

http://www.thestar.com.my/Opinion/Columnists/Insight-Down-South/Profile/Articles/2013/09/21/Spore-relooks-elitist-policy

 

A positive approach towards internal audit

A slightly edited version is published on 16 September in the Online Forum of Straits Times

12 September 2013

I wish to make some suggestions in response to the letter from Ms Deon Chan Siew Fong (Timely to rethink value of internal audit, ST 11 September).

Ms. Chan said that internal auditors should be a part of the management team and not be perceived as "nitpickers" who sound false alarms over insignificant human oversights. 

I agree with her approach. The problem lies with the current approach, which require the business to lay down its standard operating procedures (SOP) and the internal auditor to audit the activities according to the SOP.

Most SOP are written in a detailed manner and do not provide for flexibility, common sense and judgement in taking decisions. There is too much emphasis on compliance with the SOP and a lack of understanding of the purpose of the business or of the SOP.

The purpose of a business is to make transactions that produce a profit. The purpose of internal audit is to ensure that the employees who are trusted to carry out the transactions act honestly, diligently and responsibly.

The purpose of the SOP is to guide the employees and the internal auditor on what are needed to achieve the goal. The SOP should not be followed blindly, without regarding to the underlying goal. If this is recognized, there is no need to sound alarm over insignificant non-compliance. 

We need to change the mindset and empower internal auditors to approach their work with the aim to find out how the employees are doing right, and not what are wrong. In the process, they will detect what does not seem to be right and can discuss the issues with the relevant people. 

What is not right does not mean that it is wrong. 

By adopting a positive approach, internal audit will be able to carry out its role in a more productive manner. There will be a small percentage of cases of dishonest activities, which are more likely to be identified with a positive approach.

Tan Kin Lian

Future of National Service in Singapore

Read this article by Seah Cheang Nee
http://www.thestar.com.my/Opinion/Columnists/Insight-Down-South/Profile/Articles/2013/09/14/Concern-over-NS-numbers

The writer had written truths about our National Service policy that the policy makers refuse to recognize. It is clear to most people that our NS policy is now not sustainable for the following reasons:

a) It is imposing an unfair burden on male Singaporeans
b) It is contributing to the low birth rate experienced in Singapore
c) There are better ways to handle our national defense priority, such as relying more on a professional army
d) It is possible to reduce the military training to 9 months (as is experienced in other countries) for the rank and file (representing more than 90% of recruits)
e) The 10% or less who are selected as officers can be given additional training and be paid better
f) The annual reservist training and remedial training should be reduced changed to alleviate the continuing burden
g) The wastage of manpower and expenditure on our national defense should be addressed.

I hope that more Singaporeans will come forward to speak out against the current policy and practice.

Dependent Protection Insurance Scheme (DPIS)

There was a letter in the Straits Times that the insurance company rejected a permanent disability claim from an insured person who was paralyzed from the waist down. The insurer claimed that his person could do sedentary work and does not qualify for a claim.

I checked the definition of the cover from the CPF website and found the following:

This Dependent Protection Insurance scheme provides CPF members and their families with some money to tide them over the initial years should the insured members become physically/mentally incapacitated or die.

The website further states: The member becomes physically/mentally incapacitated and can no longer work as certified by a doctor. The scheme does not provide any further guidance to the doctor how to certify that the member "can no longer work".

The DPIS scheme has been in existence for more than 30 years. It is unsatisfactory that there is no clearer definition about what incapacity meant. There must be many actual cases in the past that could be used to provide guidance on how to deal with some specific cases.

Understanding health insurance

Dear Mr Tan

We will like to share with you our latest article that talks about the fine prints commonly included in health insurance. 

Given the recent ST forum letter from a NTUC Income policyholder, we thought this article might prove useful for readers of your blog (especially those interested in personal finance matters).

Article as attached & link for your reference - http://dollarsandsense.sg/the-fine-prints-of-health-insurance/. Being from the industry and organization previously, we believe you might have some thoughts to this matter. We will be glad to hear any insight that you may have in additional to what we have pen down in our article. 

Best Regards,

Timothy

Handling parents' expectations in our schools

I want to share my views on how to manage issues involving parents in our schools. These issues are similar to customer complaints in businesses.

When a parent contacts the teacher or the school, the type of interaction should be identified as follows:

a) seek clarification, i.e. to get facts
b) lodge a complaint

The type of issue would probably falls into the following:
a) alleged mistreatment by the teacher
b) alleged mistreatment by classmates
c) alleged poor performance by teacher, e.g. not teaching the child properly.
d) school facilities or environment

If the parent is in "seeking clarification" mode, the teacher or school staff can cooperate in giving the relevant information. The parent should avoid the type of questions that amount to interrogation or allegation misconduct during this phase.

If the parent wishes to file a complaint, after getting the relevant facts, the process should be done in a formal manner, i.e. a written and signed statement should be obtained, and relevant facts should be provided.

The handling of the complaint by the school can go through two stages:
a) the first stage is to seek an amicable solution without going through too much trouble for all parties. Often, an apology or acknowledgement may suffice. The case can be closed easily.
b) If the matter is more serious, a more formal process may be carried out, e.g. a disciplinary inquiry. This should be quite rare.

We have to accept that in our daily lives, mistakes can be made and they are not serious. Often, these mistakes are unintended and unexpected, and should be excused. We should not expect perfection.

Most of our schools, with the long experience, probably handle the issues from parents well. Perhaps, it is a matter of making better communication with parents and the public.

I hope that these ideas are helpful to the schools, parents and the public.

Finding the first job

A young man recently graduated with an accounting degree from Singapore Institute of Management. His preference is to work for one of the Big 4 accounting firms as they give good training and salary. He did not mind the long working hours.
So far, he has been unsuccessful as these firms prefer to hire graduates from the other three local universities.
He asked for my advice. 

Here are my views:
1. Look for a job that needs you more than you need the job, e.g. a small company that has messy accounts and administration.
2. Do not worry about the lack of training. You have already spend 4 years in full time university and do not need further training. It is time to learn by applying your knowledge to the job.
3. When you encounter a problem, differentiate between what is important and what is not. Discuss with you boss or colleagues on the important matters. They will appreciate being consulted.
4. Do not bother them with the unimportant matters. Take your own decision, even if it turns out to be wrong. The consequence is small, and you can learn from experience.
5. Do not worry about making mistakes. You won't get sacked. Remember, your boss needs you more than you need the job.

I hope that this approach works for the young man.

A truly mobile website

1.       Introduction

A recent survey showed that 89% of users access the Web using a mobile device. Most of them use a mobile phone with a small screen.

Is your corporate website designed to be easily read by these users? Do you want to reach out to these consumers and tell them about your products and services?

2.       Mobile friendly website

Many businesses are now converting their traditional website (designed to be read by a desktop) to be mobile friendly, but this is a wrong approach. Why?

It is better to design your new website to be truly mobile friendly, and to design every page from scratch.

Remember – many users read your webpages using a 3G connection or shared Wi-Fi in a public place, and the connection can be quite show.

You should design each page to be small, so that it can be loaded quickly.

You should also want to make it easy for them to get the desired information easily – and that means an easy search and fast navigation.

3.       Integration with Social Media

You will also want each page of your website to be easily accessed from the social media – Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Wordpress and other platforms. This requires each page or each tag (i.e. collection of pages) to be numbered for easy access.

4.       Fast to develop

Your new website, which can be truly mobile friendly and comprise of a hundred pages, can be developed quickly in just a few days using the Onyx template (developed by Tan Kin Lian & Associates).

As an example, I want to refer you to my website, www.tankinlian.com/mobile was created in just three days. Currently, it contains more than 70 newly designed pages.

I will be transferring a few hundred pages from my traditional website (www.tankinlian.com) to the mobile website soon. After that, I will take down my traditional website.

You can create a trial website on the Onyx platform (www.c-onyx.com) to see how easy it can be done, and to view how the pages look like on a mobile phone or a desktop.

If you keep you website on this platform you can use a redirection to this website. For example, visitors to be mobile website can type www.tankinlian.com/mobile and will be redirected to www.c-onyx.com/3

5.       Your own domain

If you like the Onyx website, you can transfer it to your own domain.

For example, the Onyx website can sit on www.abc.com or www.abc.com/onyx.

6.       Enquiry

If you are interested to have a trial of the Onyx website, send an email to ceo@tankinlian.com

The heavy cost of neglect

By allowing scams to continue unchecked, the Government is causing more harm than just financial loss to the investors - families can be broken up.

I want to share the cases of two women who were cheated by scams. They dared not tell their husband, as it would lead to a breakup of their marriage. They had to suffer the anguish on their own and keep the secret from their husbands.

It is likely that if the cheated person is the husband, many would not dare to tell their wives.

It is easy for the Government leaders to say - you have to be more careful, but they have to realize that the ordinary folks are easy prey to the crooks. It has happened over the decades.

This is why any decent Government has to take responsibility to make the laws, to investigate and to enforce the law. By doing nothing, the Government is neglecting its primary duty.

Learn to identify the scams

When I post a story about a potential scam, I do not show the name of the company or product. Instead, I give details that explain the circumstances, so that the public will be able to identify the scam, or similar products that may be offered to them. 

I often get requests to disclose the name, so that the public can avoid the company or the product. This request usually comes from a person who is lazy to think, and only wants to be spoon-fed.

It is better to learn how to identify similar scams and avoid all of them. It requires you to spend some time to read, to understand, rather than be given the name of the company. Remember - other companies may be offering similar products to trap you, and you can fall into their trap.

Apart from this reason, I cannot tell you the name of the company - because they will get a lawyer to sue me for defamation. It will be difficult for me to prove my "facts".

To avoid being cheated, it is better for the public to spend some time and money to learn about the scams, and how they work, so that the public can identify similar scams based on the scope of operation.

Learn by doing; trust your common sense

I want to share a story to illustrate an important point - by adopting a different approach, based on common sense, it is possible to get significantly improved results.

In the early 1980s, my company installed a new computer system. It is an in-house online system. Remember, this was long before the advent of the Internet.

I was in charge of computer strategy. I transferred a few internal staff to the computer services department and gave them training in software development.

There were tasked to develop the most common functions required for an insurance company, i.e. the data entry of computer applications, issue of policies, sending out of premium notices, updating of premium payment and payment of commission to agents.

These were the familiar and most common functions, which do not require much analysis. The computer system was ready in less than 6 months and put into operation.

We left out the complicated tasks such as underwriting engine, handling of complicated products and administration of claims. These continued to be handled "outside the system" using manual decision making. They were implemented in the system gradually, at the later stages.

The common approach at that time was to carry out a full system study and discussion with the users and get approval before developing the system. This typically took 3 to 5 years and required a large budget. We did not adopt the common approach.

A computer expert later described the approach used by us as "prototyping".

I like to share these points in our approach:
1. We did what we know
2. What we did not know (i.e. in putting into the computer system) continued to be handled outside the system, by the experts
3. When we had time later, we implemented the additional tasks, one at a time
4. We learned by doing. After implementation, we encountered the real problems and fixed the important ones.

I want to share this story, so that more people will be bold to adopt the prototyping approach, and to implement changes more quickly and achieve better outcomes.

Cost of living and minimum wage

The minimum wage in Jakarta was 1.5 million rupiah per month (about SGD 200) last year. It was raised to 2.2 million rupiah this year by Governor Jokowi.

Even 2.2 million is not enough, as the cost of living in Jakarta is quite high. Some experts have calculated that the minimum wage should be raised to 3.5 or even 4 million rupiah. 

Recently, the Jakarta administration set an example to employsome people at a salary of 4 million rupiah - just to show the point.

While businesses want wages to be as low as possible, they have to realize that the wages should be sufficient to meet the cost of living and give people a decent life, and have some savings for the future.

Singapore should also address the issue of the cost of living and the minimum wage. We cannot just pretend that the problem does not exist, or can be left to be sorted out by the market.

If rentals, government charges, top management salaries and excessive profits can be kept under control, the increase in consumer prices due to higher wages can be moderated.

This will lead to a better balance in our society, and a smaller gap between the top and low income brackets.

Keep in touch with your classmates for a lifetime!

I want to introduce the concept of the Facecard, especially to young people who are still studying in secondary and tertiary institutions.

Facecard is a personal card that you can create and store in the Cloud. You can put in your name, telephone numbers and e-mail and exchange them with your classmates.

The exchanged cards are stored in your virtual contact box that is also kept in the Cloud.

You may want to keep the contacts, especially your closed friends, in your mobile phone, but the Facecard in the Cloud is a useful backup, in case you lose your mobile phone or it get spoilt.

More importantly, you may lose contact with your friend when they change their phone numbers or e-mail addresses and don't tell you, or their message went into your spam box.

Even if you tell your friends about your changed contacts, they may overlook to update their record, so you will lose touch with many of them quite quickly.

These troublesome updating is not required when you use Facecard. When you update your Facecard, all of your friends are notified immediately, without any need for them to do any updating.

When your friends update their Facecard, the updated details appear in your contact box instantly. No need for you to do any updating.

You can also keep in touch with old classmates and friend when they change jobs. You will know their latest title and company, when they update their Facecard.

It is easy to exchange Facecard at a meeting. Go to "Nearly" and see the Facecard of people at the same event and ask to exchange cards. It is better than collecting the physical cards (especially, if you don't have any, or have forgotten to bring them).

You can create your Facecard at www.cfacecard.com. Go to "Register" to create the card and click on the "How to use Faceard" link to read the instructions.

Create your Facecard now, and keep in touch with your friends for a lifetime!

I am advertising this post in Facebook Ads. If you are coming to my Page for the first time, remember "like" my Page, so that you will be notified of new updates. Also, please "share" this post, so that your friends can come in as well.

Important message for young people

Many young people focus on their jobs and do not pay much attention on their financial planning.

Most of them are approached by their friends to take up a life insurance policy to save for the long term.

The life insurance policy is likely to give them a poor yield due to the large sum that is deducted from the premium to pay the high marketing and other expenses, and the profit of the insurance company.

This large deduction is shown as "effect of deduction" in the benefit illustration, but most consumers do not understand what it means. The effect of deduction could be more than $100,000 or even $200,000 in some cases.

If you know how to buy the right type of insurance and to invest your savings, the actual cost of the insurance cover and investment service should be less than half of the "effect of deduction".

It is very important for you, as a consumer, to spend some time to understand this important concept. For a start, you should read the articles posted under "Ask Mr. Tan" in this website, www.tankinlian.com/mobile.

There are about 10 articles here, but the most important is the article on "Financial Planning, which can be found at http://c-onyx.com/page/33. You can also take the financial awareness test.

If you realize that you are quite naive about insurance and investment, you should act immediately to buy the book on financial planning ($6 only) and to attend the FISCA talk on financial planning ($10 for members). They can make a lot of difference for your future.

Do spend the time to read the other articles in the website and to attend the other talks by FISCA.

I am taking an advertisement in Facebook, targeted at young people between 20 to 30 years.  While it cost me some money, I hope to be able to reach out and help some of the young people to avoid being taken for a ride.

If you fall within this group, this message is for you. If you are older, please help me to spread this message to your children or younger siblings (in the target age gropu), so that they become aware of making the right financial decision.

Tan Kin Lian

Learn about financial planning the low cost way

Mr Tan, 
I have a happy family with 2 young teenagers. Both I and my wife are working and our income are at typical sandwich level. As we are growing old, we also feel uncertainty. We like to know how to make a wise financial planing and wise and low risk investment. Please advise. 

REPLY
You can get your answer here
http://c-onyx.com/page/33

Look into http://c-onyx.com/tag/5 for answers to other topics.
If you want individual consultation, my fee is $150 per hour.

Non-regulated products sold by financial adviser

A consumer approached me for help. She had invested $28,000 in an investment plan that was supposed to give her a monthly payment of $375 for 24 months and the full refund of her investment.

The plan was sold to her by a financial adviser working for a large, reputable life insurance company.

After receiving the payment for a few months, the payment stopped. She wanted to ask for a cancellation of the contract and a refund of her money. She was given a post dated cheque and after waiting for the due date, she was told that the company did not have the funds to pay her.

The documents for the contract showed that she had actually purchased 6 magnetic bangles which was supposed to be rented to users and the monthly payment was the rental fee for the bangles.

She had done some investigation and learned that the company promoting the scheme had been operating under various names for the last 20 years. She was surprised that they were allowed to continue for so long, cheating many people.

In her case, she was misled because the financial adviser, which is regulated by MAS, had recommended the investment to her and assured her that it was a safe and good investment to give her a retirement income. Instead, she lost her capital.

She allowed me to share this story to warn other consumers to be careful about the non-regulated products that are being marketed by financial advisers. The consumers could be easily misled.

She is keen to find a way to get back her money. I asked her to file a complaint against the financial adviser and also approach the Small Claim Tribunal to get her money back from the company that promoted the scheme.

Any helpful suggestions will be welcomed!

Class action on the Pinnacle Notes

Here is an update of the class action being taken by Singapore investors against Morgan Stanley on the Pinnacle Notes case.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/top-stories/morgan-stanley-loses-fresh-bid-dodge-pinnacle-notes-suit-20130827

The judgment, up to now, has been in favor of the Singapore investors. The delaying action by Morgan Stanley is deplorable.