Dear Clients & Friends,
Another year has passed, if you are new to this, I wrote an annual letter to my clients around July every year, which is my career anniversary. I have joined this industry and Manulife on the 7th, July, 2008, so this is my completion of 6 years and the beginning of my 7th year.
In the past year, I have met many new friends; my knowledge and experience in financial planning have also growth exponentially, so I am quite happy with my progress here.
However in the beginning of 2014, one of my biggest business client have been “stolen” from an agent of my own company I do not know, it made me lost about 150 employee of that business client, although I haven’t met most of them, it is sad not because I have lost a business client, but I am disappointed with the company management, since they cannot see the value of the service I am offering, instead they only focus on low cost. On the bright side, it made me feel the great competition in Hong Kong, and the customers’ expectations are rising every year.
Over the years, I have helped many citizen (including friends and family) to settle a much more secure retirement planning, if we look at the Hong Kong in macro view, this city is expanding like crazy, and the chance of relying on our government’s support is very low, people need to take care of themselves.
On one hand, our local birth rate is decreasing, but with the new immigrants from China, we expect Hong Kong population will exceed 10 million in the next 15 years, talk about the space we will have!
On the other hand, the aging population also increasing, similar to Tokyo, Japan, Hong Kong has one of the city that have the longest average life span for both males and females, it puts an enormous burden onto our society.
In the old days, people used to be afraid of dying too early, but now it seems the tide have turned, many are afraid of they will be living too long. Retirement planning used to be for 50-60 years old, but now some of my young clients (30-40 years old) have already started their retirement planning, it worries me and makes me understand the importance of planning ahead.
On top of that, there are a lot of politic arguments in Hong Kong lately, it has created a lot of uncertainty for our future, I do not want to spend too much time to address politic issue here, yet I have to state that Hong Kong is a very unique city, it “survives” in-between the “gap” of western world and China, so we have to deal with the value difference, while establish our own life style.
Never the less, I still have full confident in our future, and I keep encouraging my local clients and friends (both personally and business-wise) to be more open-minded, willing to take challenges, and achieve more in life. As for my foreign clients, I will continue to assist your business in Hong Kong so you can take full advantage of the uniqueness and economic freedom of this city.
Last but not least, we can forecast the medical expense in Hong Kong will follow USA and Europe to be much more expensive in the future, although quality and standard rise, so will the price. Through insurance industry, I have seen many people have been working hard for their families, yet spent most (if not all) of their saving when they get sick, health and critical illness insurance is the most cost effective way to hedge such risk. Therefore I advise you to sort out your personal medical insurance, before you go ahead with all these fantastic investment, business opportunities, retirement , do not rely on government nor your company, take responsible of your own life.
Yours Sincerely,
Yim Tien Ho Calvin (Insurance agent Reg. No.: 08190273, MPF Reg. No.: 074240)
16th of July, 2014
尊敬的客戶和朋友，
又一年過去了，如果你剛剛才成為我的客戶，我其實每年都會在七月左右寫年度公開信給我的客戶，因為7月是我職業生涯的週年。我在2008年7月7日加入這個行業及宏利，所以這是我完成6年，及第7年的開始。
過去一年, 我接觸了很多新朋友，我財務規劃的知識和經驗也倍增，所以我很高興在這裡的進展。
但在年頭，我其中一個最大的商業客戶，被同公司一個我不認識的經紀「搶」了，這讓我損失了大約150員工，雖然我還沒有見過大部分的員工，但可悲的不是因為我失去了一個企業客戶，而是我為公司管理層感到失望，因為他們看不到我提供的價值，相反，他們只專注於低成本。但正面去看，這讓我感到香港的競爭十分激烈，而客戶的期望每年都在上升。
多年來，我已經幫助許多市民（包括朋友和家人）確保一個更安全的退休規劃，如果我們宏觀地看看香港，這個城市正在像瘋了似的擴張，我們能夠依靠政府支持的機會是非常低的，人們需要自己照顧自己。
一方面，我們本地的出生率正在下降，但來自中國的新移民，我們預期香港人口未來15年將超過1千萬，談談我們將有空間！
在另一方面，人口老齡化也越來越嚴重，香港像日本東京，成為男性和女性最長平均壽命的城市之一，它為社會帶來沉重的負擔。
在過去，人們習慣害怕早死，但現在潮流已經轉向，許多人都害怕他們會活得太久。退休規劃曾經是50-60歲的事，但現在我一些年輕客戶（30-40歲）已經開始了他們的退休計劃，這讓我擔心，但也讓我更明白提早規劃的重要性。
最重要的是，近來香港有很多政治爭論，它創造了很多關於我們未來的不確定性，我不想花太多時間在這裡討論政治問題，但我必須指出，香港香港是一個非常獨特的城市，她「生存」在西方世界和中國兩者之間，；所以我們必須處理兩地的價值差異，而建立起自己的生活方式。
雖然這樣說，我對香港的前途有完全的信心，所以我一直鼓勵我的本地客戶和朋友（無論是個人上或生意上），能擁有更開放的態度，更願意接受挑戰，並實現更多的人生目標。至於我的外國客戶，我會繼續協助您的生意，令你可以充分利用這個城市的獨特性和經濟自由。
最後但並非最不重要的，我們可以預測，在香港醫療費用將按照美國和歐洲的步伐，在將來會更加昂貴，雖然質量和水平都會的上升，但價格也一樣。通過保險業，我看到很多人，花了很多時間為他們的家庭努力，但當不幸運生病時，就消耗了他們大部分（如果不是全部）的儲蓄，健康和重大疾病保險是最符合成本效益的方法來對沖此類風險。所以在開始你的美妙投資，無限商機，退休計畫之前，我建議你先處理好你的個人醫療保險，不好打算依賴政府或公司，為你自己的生活負責。
此致，
嚴天浩（保險代理註冊號：08190273，強積金註冊號：074240）
2014年7月16日
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