2013 Annual Letter to Clients and Friends 2013致客戶及朋友的年度信

Dear Clients and Friends,

Hello all, 5 Years is gone without a trace, I am happy I am still able to serve the majority of you, according to the statistic provided by government, businessman who can survive more than 5 years in Hong Kong is about 3%, that’s why you know how much I thank God to make me go this far.

Anyway, each year this time I will write to my clients (some of you are my long term friends) mainly for two reason, 1. Tell you I am still in the industry 2. Simply explain what I have learnt in the last year.

Life is full of uncertainties, I always thought I knew, this is such a common sense, but the longer I work as an insurance agent, the deeper I feel.

After I graduated and back from England in 2008, I have attended 23 wedding and 18 funerals in 5 years; it’s good to know life is winning over death. A lot of my friends I know for years have been married and have children one by one, as well as my elder relative or family friends are retiring, some such as my grandma have passed away. I visited her last year in USA, I had doubt whether I should go so far away, I thought maybe I should wait for her to visit Hong Kong instead, I am glad I did choose to fly in the end, because it was the last time I saw her, she passed away only a week after I left USA. This really taught me sometimes you cannot expect there is a lot of time to do things in life, because nobody can know what will happen, it also made me treasure what I have now more, not just focus what I might get in the future.

Thus I encourage you if you want to do something, whether it is a career move, visit someone you want to see, tell someone you care, be with your family, go travel, do it now, don’t try to wait because you are busy, after all, who will say: “I have all the time now to do whatever I want!” when we are too old to do anything?

In general I am quite happy in the last 5 years, I have learnt so much in term of human relationship and risk assessment, not to mention most of my clients have gain from their MPF or investment, because this is such a huge tropics in Hong Kong, many citizen have a very negative view towards the MPF system. I am glad none of my clients are one of them. One of my relatives transferred 100k to Manulife MPF 3 years ago after she retired, she has decided to withdraw the money out in July, without any further contribution, she have found out her asset have 24% gain, she was really happy.

But on the other hand, the sad news is one of my clients suddenly passed away in April due to heart attack, each year I said I will be extremely happy if none of my clients (so far about 270) need to make critical illness or death claim within my first 5 years of career, but it seems my “unbreakable record” has finally been broken just 2 months before it hit the target. He is my first client from mainland China, he have brought 3 million life insurance from me 3 years ago when he was only 40, unexpected he now have left his young wife and two children, the only consolation is that his family do not have to worry about their finance while grieving, and his two daughters can afford to continue their education in Hong Kong. This event have once again made me feel how unpredictable can be.

Last but not least, I wish you all healthy and happy life in the coming year.

Best regards,

Calvin
07/08/2013


親愛的客戶及朋友,

大家好, 5年眨眼就過去了, 我很高興我仍然可以繼續服務你們, 根據政府的統計數字, 在香港只有3%的生意可以生存5年以上,　可想而知我是如何感謝上帝令我可以走到這麼遠.

無論如何, 每年這個時候我都會寫一封信給我的客戶 (有些是老朋友)　是基於兩個原因, 一, 告訴你們我仍然在這個行業內 , 二,　簡單 解釋在過去一年我學到甚麼．

人生總是充滿不確定性, 我一直都以為自己已經知道了解, 因為這是很普通的常識吧, 但我在保險行業做得愈久, 我的感受愈深.

當2008年在英國畢業回港, 在短短5年我已經一共参加了23個婚禮18個葬禮; 可幸的是生命都是大終死亡. 身邊很多的朋友都已經一個個結婚跟生小孩, 同時我有些年長的親戚跟家庭朋友都開始退休, 有些像我的婆婆已經過身. 我上年到美國探望她, 我去之前曾經猶豫不定是否應該走這麼遠, 我想其實可以等她下次回港才探望她, 興幸我最後飛了去美國, 因為那是最後一次見到她, 婆婆在我離開美國後一個星期就去世了. 這次的經歷令我更深感到, 人生中你不能經常期望可以有很多時間做各樣的事, 因為沒有人可以知道將會發生甚麼事情, 這也令我更加珍惜我已經擁有的東西, 而不是只關心我將來可能得到的東西.

為此我鼓勵你如果你有甚麼很想做, 不論是事業上, 探望你想見的人, 告訴你關心的人, 跟你的家人在一起, 去旅行, 現在就行動, 不好說因為我很忙所以要多等一會, 說到底, 誰會在我們老到甚麼都做不到的時候才說: 「我現在有世界上所有時間做我想做的事情!」?

一般來說過去5年都算過得愉快, 我學到很多關於人際關係及評估風險的學問, 更不用提大部份的客戶都在他們的強積金及投資中獲利, 因為這在香港是個大題目, 很多市民都對強積金有非常負面的評價, 我很高興我的客戶不是他們其中一員. 其中一個親戚在3年前退休後將她10萬元的強積金轉入宏利, 她在7月決定提取, 發現在沒有供款的情況下, 資產淨增加了24%, 她當然很高興.

但同時也有傷感的事,其中一個客戶在4月突然因心臟病發過身了, 我每年都說如果在頭5年的保險生涯內, 沒有一個客戶(到現時為止有270個左右) 需要得到危疾或死亡賠償, 我就會十分開心, 可惜我的「完美記錄」在達標前2個月被打破了. 他是我的第一個大陸客戶, 3年前當他只有40歲, 他從我那裡為自己買了3百萬的人壽保險, 意想不到現在已經離開了他的年輕妻子跟兩個小孩, 唯一的安慰是他的家人在悲痛中不需為到經濟拮据而擔心，他的兩個女兒也可以在香港繼續學業．這件事令我更感到人生無常．

最後但並非最不重要的，我希望各位在未來的一年都是健康及快樂的．

最好的問候，

嚴天浩
２０１３年８月７日

人壽保險淺談（一）

寫了保險隨筆繼繼續續已經4個年頭了, 很多時都不是寫關於保險的東西, 最主要的原因是, 成立保險隨筆的目的本來就不用來推銷保險, 而是希望分享一些因為接受了這份工作才可看到的點滴, 碎片, 同時間也方便將來可以追溯自己的改變.

但今天我還是打算寫小小關於人壽保險的通識, 特別是看到香港普遍對保險的無知程度是十分可怕.

在開始「發炮」前, 也先允許我講一句, 如果我不是進入保險行業, 我對保險也是興趣缺缺, 當然我現在認識到保險的價值, 但也很難說保險對一般人是很有趣的東西, 保險有點像你阿媽對你說, 喝多一點湯, 但你還是覺得喝可樂比較有吸引力.

首先, 我要跳過那些對保險的無謂偏見, 如: 保險都是騙人的！那個經紀又說有得賠，結果又冇得賠！保險公司都是邪惡的金融機構！那些推銷員真的很不良！那些推銷員真的很煩人！又打電話來！等一千個你每天都會聽過的理由…

這些都可歸咎於同行的一些敗類，一些不良的推銷員，一些善心但未有足夠推銷技巧的從業員，最後當然是一堆一廂情願的消費者。現代的社會已經進步到法例通常都是保障消費者，而對金融機構的監管卻愈來愈嚴格，希望騙保險的消費者也大大多於想騙消費者的公司。 但保險本身是沒有罪的，可是人就是喜歡怪這怪那，除了怪自己。

廢話少說，人壽保險是甚麼？就像「阿媽是女人」一樣，大多數人都以為自己知：死左有得賠。可是人壽保險又像「阿媽是女人」，沒幾個人會對待自己阿媽真像個女人。

最想見的是對保障觀念的混亂，例如：老公幫太太買了一份人壽保險，太太很感動，因為先生花錢在自己身上，保障了自己。可是實際上發生了甚麼事呢？

人壽保險有三個主要人物：受保人(Insured person)，保單持有人(Policy owner)及受益人(Beneficiary)。

如果老公幫太太買了一份人壽保險，先生是保單持有人，也就是說他對這份保單有控制權；而太太是受保人，也就是說如果太太去世，保險公司就要賠錢給受益人；而受益人是誰，就看保單持有人寫誰上去，通常都是寫自己，因為是最親。所以在這個「先生幫太太買了一份人壽保險」的情況下，受到保障的是先生，而不是太太，因為是太太死了，先生才會得到賠償。

所以一般的情況下，我說一般是男人成為家庭的經濟支柱，應該是男人自己幫自己買一份人壽保險，如果女人才是家庭的經濟支柱，上述情況才算合理。

保單持有人可隨時更改受益人，或轉移自己保單持有人的權利給新的「話事人」，但受保人是永遠都不可以更改的，因為保險公司核保(underwrite)是受保人的身體健康，也根據受保人的年齡來定保費，如果容許自由轉讓，新的受保人所有的情況都不一樣，保險公司要冒險就太不合理了。

第一篇就寫到這裡，下次再見！

外國企業跟本地企業福利淺談

接近年尾，我手上兩間主要的企業客戶都會在年尾續保公司的醫療保險，剛好一間是外國企業，一間是香港本地企業，所以得閒可以花點時間淺談一下兩者之間的分別。

在行內的日子，我每每都不期然看到本地企業跟外國企業的不同，為甚麼外國企業一般的持久性長，而本地企業往往生存不了太久，就是「捱」得住但也必須艱苦經營，從兩者如何對待員工福利也可了解一二。

外國企業在香港的公司只有２０多人左右的員工，大部份是本地香港人，而小數是外國管理層，但外國公司會連管理層的家人都包括在醫療保障內，有些有成幾個小孩也沒問題，每年總公司都會批一個醫療預算，然後他們就自由決定如何，結果預算內的人數是多成４０人小一點。

另一間香港企業的員工多達２００人，全部都是香港員工，但家人得到保障的只有最高層的三四個，其餘的只得到最基本的保障，但這在香港已經算很不錯。

外國企業普通員工的意識都是比較希望長線發展，公司希望用福利政策吸引人才，但香港整體意識比較短視，很多打工的希望只是停留一下拿點著數，有更好的就走，所以自然希望小些福利，多點現金。有甚麼的政府，自然就有甚麼的人民，而市民要求政府長遠，也只是口說說而已，因為自己都不會這樣做。

而在老闆的立場，香港的保障意圖很低，外國的醫療預算是必然的，但以一個香港的老闆，因為政府沒有強制企業要為員工提供保障，所以員工醫療不是一個預算，而是老闆自掏荷包對待員工的手法，既然是「送」的，當然愈少愈平愈好。

本地企業的醫療保險壓價壓到令人髮指的地步，可以說是已經「做爛市」，沒有保險公司賺得到錢，但外國企業很少會壓價，因為是預算，員工是希望用盡，所以不會買平，而是買貴。

另外一個很主要的原因，香港人的「同情心」太過，但有時只是表面是「同情」，實際是「自私」，嚴重違反保險原則，香港人有種常見被扭曲的保險意識，認為健康差的人才需要保險，所以見到病的老的員工愈希望他們得到保障，這是出於人性，認為他們一定會索賠，需要幫助，就將他們留在公司的保障範圍，但這個後果是整間公司的保費必定提升，令公司的負荷太重，最後公司往往累計了一班低生產力的老弱殘兵，最後連公司的生存也成問題。

我看過有香港公司一年的醫療保費只是３０萬，因兩個重病的員工一年就索賠了４５萬，其他的只是傷風咳嗽，但下年公司要多付３０％的保費。

反之以資本主義為中心，毫無「良心」的外國企業，往往大量減少傷兵，而累積健康有生產力的員工，結果醫療支出愈來愈少，公司營運更順暢，在經濟不好的環境下仍然保持優勢。

香港員工很多都依賴公司的醫療保障，而自己不想付出私人的醫療，認為公司有，自己最好不需要付出，這也是大錯特錯。

理想的做法是自己應該有自己的基本醫療，在有重大的索賠時先索賠私人保險，因為私人保險不會影響保費，餘額才索賠公司保險。但香港很少人有這種想法，整體意識不高，都是希望不用私人的東西，先用公用的，還以為自己很聰明。

外國對於共享資源對大家都有利的看法已經很普遍，但香港還是緊緊地捉實自己眼前的利益，最後大家都沒有太多。這是為甚麼外國企業愈強，本地企業愈弱的原因，結果香港創業的人少，投機抄賣的人多，就是所謂創業，都是短暫性的熱情，而不能長久，香港經濟停濟不前是有跡可尋的。

子女外國升學篇 (上): 兒子跟老豆說: 「送我上大學你要花十萬元, 我選擇留在家中你給我五萬就成.」

近來有些公司客戶, 在公事上私底下主動問個人的儲蓄的計劃, 原來她有個兩歲的小朋友, 希望將來有能力送他到外國讀書, 意識到是時候要開始計劃.

李嘉誠如是說: 人找生意很難, 生意找人很容易. 推銷員整天找人買十個也沒有人一個, 遇上心情不好的人覺得你超煩, 但有人找推銷員買, 表示本身也有需要, 推銷員最後做不成生意也只能怪自己表現不足, 機會永遠是最有價值的東西.

當然我很開心, 不是因為有新生意, 而是有客戶主動找你, 是代表你在一個行業的信譽開始有了, 得到接納及信任.

在保險業內已經四年多一點, 愈來愈深感信任是所有商業原則的第一位, 這很多人都已經意識到, 但建立信任並無捷徑可走, 我想商人也不需要特別做些甚麼去搏除別人的信任, 要不是就顯得太假, 結果就是有些人跟你合作, 大家都不是在很實在的基礎上建立, 最終也不能長久, 更甚者在合作期間大家也是提心吊膽, 總是不知道對方是否在騙自己. 真正的信任不需太做作, 每天做好一點點事, 不好整天想做好這些事對我有甚麼眼前的好處, 十個跟你接觸的人總有一個一天有需要, 想想找誰的時候, 其實腦中就是在比較所認識的人中, 誰比較信得過.

因為不是第一次, 我很快就發了些資料去, 主要都是分兩類, 第一類是無風險的傳統儲蓄, 好處是回報有保證, 達標很有信心, 但回報不會太高, 第二類是有風險的投資儲蓄, 好處是潛在回報比較高,供小一點就可以, 但回報沒有保證, 選得好基金回報可能很好, 選得不好可能很差, 甚至連本金也有損失.

可是更上進的業務員, 不會只希望提供客戶的基本需要, 也希望了解需要的本質, 例如:
送子女到外國讀書的實際所需, 計劃不能只說我要儲一筆錢, 要包括這筆錢要多少? 是否值得? 是否在承擔的能力內? 有甚麼風險? 等一千條問題.

我找了幾個朋友跟同事聊聊, 其中一個送了自己的兒子到英國牛津大學讀書 (自己跟兒子都有能力, 可是很自豪的啊!), 也不是故意聊, 聊天跟常識跟信任一樣, 不需太做作, 每天的生活問身邊人一點點就學習得到.

但第一個遇到的問題反而不是需要多少錢才可以出國, 而是是否需要送出國.

如搞笑漫畫所示, 兒子跟老豆說: 「送我上大學你要花十萬元, 我選擇留在家中你給我五萬就成.」

有些父親想, 我把兒子出國讀大學的錢儲起來, 或供樓, 當他20歲時已經有一筆錢, 或一層樓, 沒有必要在外國花掉, 外國的風氣太開放, 搞不好他一學壞, 錢又沒有,兒子也沒有, 雙失, 更差者他最後跟本沒有能力, 連希望都消失, 花了這麼多氣力最後像個白癡一樣. 

另一類的父母不是從錢看, 他們是想香港的大學也不是差, 沒有必要花氣力送他出國.

當然也有一種是父母很有心, 但子女打死也不願出國, 跟本不需國民教育, 香港就是家.

最後一種是父母跟子女都很有心, 就是沒有力, 經濟客觀條件不容許.

在處理如何(How) 出國的客觀條件前, 必須處理為何(Why)先. 當然不同人有不同的主觀看法,要不是太無良, 看法都是需要尊重. 但出國與否是對子女有實際影響的, 花的錢和心血是否有價值, 我想沒有父母真的是「不求回報」, 要是花了這麼大力氣, 子女回來有破壞沒建設, 除了聖人沒有父母可以吞下這口氣.

 對我自己來說, 因父母自幼管教極嚴, 自小就已經極度渴望出國, 出國對我來說是自由的實際行為, 所以當父母決定送我出國的時候, 我不單沒有反對, 反之希望第二天就可以離開家庭, 當然實際是甚麼一回事, 是另外的題目, 不會在這裡談了.

整體來說, 客觀比較, 外國 (英美西方) 的教育是比香港好, 要不是推行國民教育的政府官員, 也不會自己一方面推, 一方面又送自己的子女到外國讀書, 很明顯他們也對香港的教育「改革」很沒信心, 這荒謬程度就像一位推銷員一面推銷自己公司的產品, 自己私下卻用另一間公司的產品, 所以他們失敗是有跡可尋的.

但以我第一身的經驗看來, 在不同外國不同國籍的多元化衝擊下,  留學的真正價值是在見識. 香港是彈丸之地, 所謂有獨立思考也是自欺欺人, 大家都接受差不多的資訊, 看一樣的電視, 意識形態也沒有不同, 要是沒有填鴨式教育, 出來也只不過是尺寸不同, 樣子都是一樣的. 但在完全不同的環境生活下, 再自我再自閉的人, 他的世界觀也是會受到影響的.

有人說交流也可以達到目的, 不需花4-6年的時間, 但本質上也有不同, 交流就像旅行, 你不會融入當地的文化中, 就像你去迪士尼3個月, 也不會變米奇老鼠. 但如果你是在一個地方生活, 你必須融入當地的文化, 交的朋友, 說的語言, 你是沒有得選擇的. 有人問過我, 在哪裡上堂學英文最好, 我說哪裡也不好, 你去外國生活, 英文自然會好, 因為在香港, 你學英文只不過是為興趣, 在外國, 學英文是為生存. 交流生有特別照顧, 很多生活上的問題都不用面對, 而且是人們關注的焦點, 大把人會對你好. 留學生卻不是這樣一會事, 所有的生活細節都要自己面對, 出來的結果是很不一樣的.

下一篇我的會寫寫子女外國升學的實施需要, 這篇的結論是如果有能力, 最好給子女廣闊眼光的機會, 他們不一定會多謝你 (人有時都很賤), 但對他們跟他們將來建立的社會都有好處.

P.S. 第一張圖是巴斯 (Bath), 巴斯大學 (University of Bath) 剛剛升上被評為英國第三最好的大學, 只在劍橋(Cambridge)跟牛津(Oxford)之下,當然大家都是極興奮, 因為巴斯大學只有46年的歷史, 已經得到如此地位, 的確神乎奇技, 但相比已有千年根基的劍橋牛津, 還是在不同的層次.

僱員自選安排 Employee Choice Arrangement (ECA)

尊敬的客戶和朋友，

我寫信給你，是因為俗稱強積金「半自由行」的僱員自選安排（ECA）將於今年11月1日實行。政府已通過法律，允許所有在目前強積金計劃下公民，將能夠自由選擇自己的強積金服務供應商。

根據最近由香港大學舉行的民意研究計劃，有超過六成半的公民不是很清楚有關安排的細節，所以我覺得我應該為我的客戶解釋這一安排，使你們可以作好準備。

根據現有計劃，雇主和僱員都必須作出為僱員的有關入息的5％的供款，僱員可以挑選的基金選擇, 必須是根據雇主的強積金服務供應商。僱員自選安排啟動後，員工允許每年最少一次切換自己的供款，到您最喜愛的強積金服務供應商。

新的強積金安排的第二個重大變化是，當僱員離開公司60日後，其「供款帳戶」將自動成為一個「保留帳戶」。僱員自選安排生效後，「保留帳戶」將改名為「個人賬戶」，如其所名，個人帳戶是用來積累僱員你自己的利益。員工將可以自由選擇在香港一個任何合法的強積金服務供應商申請自己的「個人帳戶」，每年至少一次從自己公司的供款帳戶，轉移到其個人帳戶。為可以更好的解釋，請參閱下表。

以此為契機，宏利正在推廣宣傳活動直到今年年底.
如果你在2012年8月1日至10月31日間在宏利申請「保留帳戶」, 或
將你的強積金累算權益從其他強積金服務供應商轉到宏利，
只要轉移資產超過5萬港幣，會有最多5000元的一次過紅利單位回贈。

如果您想了解更多的細節，隨時在辦公時間內聯絡我。

最好的問候,

嚴天浩 (保險代理登記號碼: 08190273, 強積金中介人註冊號碼: 074240)

Dear Clients and Friends,

I am writing to you regarding to the “Employee Choice Arrangement” (ECA) will commence on 1 November 2012. The government has passed law that allow all the citizen who are currently under the MPF scheme, will able to choose your own MPF service provider for your own contribution after this arrangement is launched.

According to a recent Public Opinion Programme held by The University of Hong Kong, there are over 65% of the citizen isn’t quite clear about the arrangement’s details, thus I feel I should write to my clients to explain this arrangement in order for you to be well prepared.

Under the current scheme, both employer and employee must contribute 5% of the employee’s relevant income into their accounts for retirement, and the fund choice the employee can pick must be under the employer’s MPF service provider. After ECA is launched, each year employee is allowed to switch your own part of contribution to your favourite MPF service provider.

The second major change of the new MPF arrangement is that, currently after an employee have left a company 60 days, its “contribution account” will converted to “preserve account” automatically. After ECA is effective, “Preserved Account” will be renamed to “Personal Account”, which suggest by the name it is a personal account for the employee, which allow them accumulate their own benefit. Employees will be able to choose to open their own “personal account” at any legit MPF service provider in Hong Kong freely, and transfer from their own contribution account to their personal account at least once a year. For better visual explanation, please see the table below.

For this opportunity, Manulife is running a promotion campaign until the end of this year

If you open a new preserve account between the 1^st of Aug and the 31^st of Oct, 2012, or

Transfer your MPF accumulated benefit from other MPF service provider to Manulife,

As long as the transfer asset is more than HKD$50,000, you will be given an extra bonus for $5000 max.

If you would like to know more details, feel free to contact me during the office hours.

Best regards

Calvin Yim (Insurance Agent Reg. No.: 08190273, MPF Reg. No.: 074240)

 

Public Letter to Clients and Friends (July, 2012)

親愛的客戶和朋友，

希望你們都很好，這個月將是我在宏利第五年的開始。每年我都會寫最少兩封信給我的客戶，這封和在每年年底的年度信，很高興仍然可以給你寫信，因為根據統計，50％的保險代理人生存不了第一年，80％生存不了三年，因此，當你收到我的信時，這意味著我還在這個行業活著。我的其中一位朋友說，我應該開個派對慶祝一下，好主意！ 但我想還是算了吧。

商業就如戰場，他們說最好的士兵，就是仍然活著的士兵。幸運的是，現實並不需要好萊塢風格的英勇 犧牲，人在工作中生存不了通常都是因為不同的原因。另一方面，許多人工作卻可以逆流而上，不停地到達一個更好的位置。你們中間有自己業務，或在競爭十分劇烈的行業內工作的朋友，都應該擁有相同的感受，而對於其他擁有一個正常工作的朋友，我相信你的生活也不會太容易。似乎生存永遠都成為我們生活的關鍵要素， 而且我們不都希望只是僅僅生存，我們都希望生活得更好，去到更佳更快樂的位置，無論是為自己或我們的下一代。

在生命的每一個階段，我們都渴望自己和我們愛的人安全。保險業正正提供這種服務，每當我跟一個潛在客戶談的時候，發現最後他們從我購買保險的原因，從來都不是因為我的銷售技巧，形象或說話方式，是因為他們信任我，感覺安全。​信任是很難在現代找到的​，特別在商業社會，我們都集中地談論包裝，第一印象和不同的技能，但成功的企業永遠都不能離開自古以來的基本原則：每一個真正的交易都必須建立在信任的基礎上。

我的職業生涯方向將保持不變，近來跟一個朋友討論：甚麼是生命中最幸福的時刻？我們得到一個結論，生命中最幸福的時刻，是當一個孩子被愛他/她的父母，放在一個環境之內， 在那裡他可以自由地跑動和隨意探索任何東西，而完全不需擔心會受到任何傷害，這正正是我想帶給客戶的東西。然而盡管我們的內心深處仍然有一個小孩子，這個 世界並不安全，有趣的是這也是保險的價值。很諷刺，如果這個世界是一個完全安全的地方，人也沒有任何一種重大危疾，意外事故，疾病或不幸事件的風險，這個世界就不需要保險。在一定程度上，我存在的價值和不斷增長的保險行業，就是一個有力證明，這些不確定性從來就未離開過我們。為我關心和愛護作最壞打算，將永遠是我在這裡做的事，這種想法總經常讓我的內心有一種不停被針刺痛的感覺，除非有一天我不再關心或愛任何人了。

最後，請容許我簡單介紹一下我能夠提供的服務, 我可以提供由旅遊保險到傳統儲蓄，從團體醫療到退休計劃。在財務規劃的角度，明智的你應該至少有一個合理的人壽保險，跟著是重大疾病或醫療保險，然後到意外或傷殘保險，再到短中期的儲蓄或投資（為自己儲蓄，教育基金等等），如果你已經幸運地擁有以上所有保障，可以考慮設立一個長期的退休計劃，這也是我最期 待的東西！因此如果您有甚麼需要，歡迎隨時與我聯繫。

最好的祝願，
嚴天浩（保險代理註冊號：08190273，強積金註冊號：074240）
2012年7月

Dear Clients and Friends,

Hope you all well, this month will be the end of my 4th year and the beginning of 5th year in Manulife. Each year, I write two letters to my clients, this one and another one at the end of each year, I am glad I still able to write to you because statistically 50% insurance agents cannot survive the first year, 80% cannot survive 3 years, so when you receive my letter it pretty much means I am still alive. One of my friends says I should throw a party to celebrate, good idea but I think I will let it slide.

Business is like a battlefield, they say the best soldiers are those who still remain alive, fortunately reality do not require Hollywood style’s heroic sacrifice, and people do not survive in work usually is due to many different reasons. On the other hand, many people are capable to work against the stream and keep moving to a better position. Those of you who run your own business or working in competitive position must feel the same way, and the rest of you who are living a normal working life, I believe your life isn’t too easy neither, it seems survival will always remain the key elements of our life, and we don’t want to just survive, we all wish to go to a better and happier position in life for ourselves and our offspring.

At each point of life, we craving for security, for ourselves and those we love. Insurance business is to provide such service, whenever I talked to a potential client, I found out at the end of the day, the reason they buy from me is never about my selling skill, or the way I look and talk, but because they trust me, they feel safe with me. Trust is hard to find in this generation when everyone in the commercial world focuses on packaging, first impression and different skills, yet successful business can never leave the basic principle since the ancient time: every real deal must base on trust.

My career direction has remained the same; I had a discussion with a friend: what is the happiest moment in life? We came up to a conclusion, the happiest moment in life is when a child being loved by his/her parents and he is placed on a field where he can run freely and feel free to explore anything he wishes without worry about getting injury, and this is exactly what I want to give to my clients. However as the little child we are all still remain deep inside, this world is far from safe, and funny enough this is also where the value of insurance is presented. The irony of my business is that there should be no insurance business if this world is completely safe, and men have no risk of getting into any kind of major diseases, accidents, sickness or unfortunate events, in some extend the value of my existence and the ever growing insurance industry is a strong proof that, these uncertainties have never gone away. Prepare for the worst for the people I care and love will always be what I need to do here, this idea always give my heart a consistent tingling and pricking sensation, unless there is a day I stop to care or love anyone anymore.

Lastly, please allow me to have a short introduction what I can offer, I can offer from travel insurance to traditional saving, from group medical to retirement planning. In financial planning, ideally you should have at least a reasonable size of life insurance, then critical illness and medical coverage, then accidental and disability coverage, then short-mid term saving or investment (saving for yourself, education fund, etc), if you are lucky enough to own all those above, you can consider to setup a long term retirement plan, which is something I look forward very much! So if you need anything, welcome to contact me anytime.

Best Wishes,
Yim Tien Ho Calvin (Insurance agent Reg. No.: 08190273, MPF Reg. No.: 074240)
July, 2012

2011 Annual Letter to Clients and Friends (Full uncut unedited version)

Dear Clients and Friends,

Season’s Greetings! Time flies and this month will be the end of 2011, maybe you have got insurance agents before, but you thought they are either a salesman or a better-than-salesman professional consultant, so you might be a little bit surprise to receive a personal letter from me.

In truth, I wrote to my clients and friends annually, these letters are not any kind of financial product promotion, nor requesting for referral, but a summary of a year from multiple perspective range from business, world events, health care, children education, relationship, and family to personal opinion.

With the newly joined company – Orange Sky Golden Harvest, my clients number have greatly increased to roughly 300 (the number of Sparta if you have seen the movie, I can almost shout: THIS IS MADNESS! haha), they (you) ranged from business owners, CEO, GM, financial controller of your company, general staffs, housewives, single mother, young ladies, family man, relative, friends, old friends, classmates from Hong Kong, classmates from England, even a woman not capable to read this letter due to lack of education (I helped her to obtain MPF after her retirement in August) and more.

This is one of the reason why I enjoyed this job, that I am able to meet different layers of people in the society, though we are different in terms of race, age, gender, language, religion, belief, political view, education, social status, background, interest, point of view, to me regardless all the difference, the desire of human nature has never been changed in our entire history.

Since the beginning, we were born to desire with the pretty much same thing, food, protection, cares, attentions and sense of belongings, when we grew up, woman hope to attract man that is capable to provide her needs, family, protection, love, while man might look for woman can carry his healthy offspring.

Back in the stone age, cave men fought over cave women physically, and for those women who are attractive and beautiful, they always having trouble to make the right decision who should they rely on, that able to please her and provide her every needs; when a couple get married, the man hope to join a tribe, that can show his ability to hunt, influence and power, also provide protection for his family, as well as earn respect among the rest.

In modern time, the packaging have changed, men might not fight over women literally, but we compete through skills, wealth, social status; we do not join tribes anymore, instead we look for career, jobs, company, corp., even various kinds of social clubs, religious groups, politic parties that can benefit ourselves and our family.

When we have children, we hope our children able to survive in the society, be a decent being, contribute to the society, and so get them the best education we can afford. And when we become old, we want to have good retirement life, and then the generation has served its purpose, either good or bad.

Our society is like iPhone, it seems that iPhone have upgraded from 3 to 4, from 4 to 4GS, but the core value always reminds the same, and so is our nature.

The Globe

After the economic crisis in 2008 due to the US credibility problem, this year we have a new “victim” - Europe, although the US creditability rating has been deduced, US market is not the major concern anymore, people are more worry about the debt few European countries are holding, and they even discussed the possibility of the end of Euro.

To me I never find it a problem, you got to have faith, faith in things that move forwarded cannot be reserved, when you think about how hard it is to get back with your ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend, esp. after you have married, it is how hard the Europe can return to the point when single currency do not exist. Like every financial crisis, not matter how big the public and "professional" (their advices are mostly useless) perceive the problem is, it will eventually go away. It happened in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2008 and now 2011.

In fact I have been keep buying my company stock Manulife (HKG: 945) in the last couple months when the market is full of bad news, if you do not have faith in the future, you might as well just die right here right now, because a life without hope is barely a life, besides, life is a cycle, so is the financial world. Keep that in mind so you don’t have to come bugger me every times your MPF or funds do not perform well.

Another big thing happened in 2011 is the death of the I.T. giant - Steve Jobs, I am not a big fan of apple product, and still have not own a single i-Product yet, but my artistic genes in my blood urged me brought his biography and finished reading it within 1 week. Apart from his mostly known motto: stay hunger, stay foolish! I have learnt 2 things in his life.

Pay attention to details: as the CEO and founder of an international corporation, the degree of details he pay attention to is insane, maybe over-the-line for many people, the things he care about ranged from the precise curve angel of the iPhone, to the setup of the sound system for his presentation. Many people believe if you are a big man, it is not important to care about the details, they say let the little men and women care about the details! They also claim, we the big guys, we only deal with the big business.

The reality turns out not to favor those who think that way, if a staff cannot handle little jobs, his boss won’t let him/her handle big project; if a fund manager cannot turn $1 into $2, mostly likely he cannot turn $1 million into $2 million; if a salesman cannot be serious about a small deal, no one want to discuss big deals with him. From various people I have met in my career life, I am pretty confident to say those who succeed in what they are doing; they always pay attention to fine details, so if you want to become successful in what you are doing, pay attention to details too.

Be focus and concentrate: before Steve Jobs, no one believes a single product (or idea should I say?) can beat multiple products, people believe in variety, choose, options, diversity, esp. in Hong Kong. The mainstream educates us (even my company): diversify! Do not put all the eggs into one basket.

The truth is, you can never succeed in what you do if you are not focus, look at all the great people you cannot find a single one who do not concentrate in his expertise, can you imagine Michael Jackson sing some pop song today, and go become a basketball player tomorrow? Vice vise I am sure we will have trouble imaging Michael Jordon trying to hold a music concert between his NBA careers.

Steve put all his resources into developing iPhone, iMac, iBook, iPod, while his competitors trying to do TV, mobile, computer, server, hi-fi all at the same time. His colleagues might have said to him: Steve, you are taking too much risk putting all your energy onto a single thing, you should diversify! I am glad he didn’t listen, so a better advice than diversify is given by the famous investor Warren Buffett: put all your eggs into the strongest basket, and then watch it carefully! Meaning: do what you good at, and then stick with it.

Hong Kong

You can only hear three things in Hong Kong consistently, money, politics and complains, which I hold no interest in all of them, however whoever I met, if he/she is still single, I always suggest they find someone and get marry; if he/she already got married, I always suggest they should have children; if he/she is a foreigner, I always suggest they go apply for Hong Kong citizen. And in most case, after becoming HK citizen, you can still keep your original citizenship; Manulife Hong Kong’s CEO Michael Huddart, whom is an Australian born British has also become a permanent resident of Hong Kong this year, top management always know where all the goodies are, so I guess it must have a lot of benefit to become one, haha.

Hong Kong is almost tax-free, if you have been working in other country, for example UK, the government charge you at least 30% for income tax, since Hong Kong has no army, thus no military expense, yet the freedom and safety we can enjoy is among one of the best cities in the world, I truly do not understand why some of the Hong Kong citizen still complain they lack of “freedom” and “democracy”, maybe they should go out and see more of the world and realize Hong Kong is so light-weight in everything.

The hottest topic of this year in Hong Kong is: who is the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong? But I don’t want to discuss that here, because who becomes the CEO of Hong Kong really doesn’t matter that much to me. I think most people cannot do well in their life is because they place their attention onto things like: who is the hottest singer? Who are the actors dating? Or which politician has spoken something stupid again? In fact knowing all this can never make your life better.

Put your attentions onto things that matters to you, your health, your family and your job. Those discussions should belong to the happy hours every Friday when you are with your friends. Never-the-less, more options will appear, next year all employee will able to pick their MPF service provider freely, more details will be update to you once the government policy has been confirmed.

The inflation is also a problem to us all, the inflation rate is reached as high as 6.5% this year, much more than what I have been taught in financial planning training, and they told me to assume inflation rate as 3%! It is never a bad thing to doubt everything you were taught in school.

Inflation increase hit us in all daily aspect, if your monthly salary is below $50k, your impact will be larger than those who earn higher than this water mark. If unfortunately you are having a bad luck, for example got sick, then I will be more worry since the latest government report show the medical expense has also increased greatly, they might consider setup mandatory medical insurance like MPF for retirement.

My mother told me when I was born (in 1982), she only needs to pay $150 to the hospital for everything, after 29 years, the expense on laboring might become as expensive as $50,000, I am afraid when I have my children, the medical expense will become as expensive as a flat.

My Clients 

Most of you are doing very well, esp. my corp. clients. Turkish Airlines is doing exceptionally well, Their Hong Kong office have expanded almost triple in a single year, which is always a good sign. Globally they have won multiple awards in 2011, which are 

• Market Leadership Award - Air Transport World
• World’s Best Airline Europe - Skytrax
• World’s Best Airlines South Europe - Skytrax
• World’s Best Premium Economy Seat - Skytrax
• Best food onboard - Skyscanner

The magic happens when they start to sponsor two of my favorite and strongest football team, F.C. Barcelona and Manchester United officially (although I am a more Arsenal fan, haha), they also has the NBA star Kobe Bryant as its brand promotion ambassador and Caroline Wozniacki, the No. 1 female player in the 2010 and 2011 tennis season, has become the new face promoting Turkish Airlines. Turkish Airlines offer direct and indirect flights mainly to Europe cities, transact at Istanbul, Turkey, you can book tickets online through 
this link: http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-hk/
Or check out their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/turkishairlines

My another newly join corp. is Golden Harvest (stock no. HKG:1132), they offer movie distributions, advertising, cinematic experience around Hong Kong, they played a major role in becoming the first Chinese film company to successfully enter the western market for an extended period of time, especially with the films of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. They are still holding many classic Hong Kong movie titles I watched when I was still a kid. They now own a total 6 cinemas in Hong Kong and now mainly investing in China. You can also book movie tickets through this link: http://www.goldenharvest.com

And for the rest of my individual clients and friends, emotionally I am more attached to you, yet I cannot expose your personal secrets in a public letter *hehe*, so I will just conclude no bad things have happened under my watch yet. Both serious illness and death rate within my client base still remind 0% *woohoo! *.

Please help me keep it that way, by any chance any of you bump into a very low tide of your life, and you become so depress that even suicide thoughts have come across your mind, (esp. those who have history of mental disorder and depression), do contact me first before doing that, because I won’t let your stupid thoughts spoil my career record, remember that :)

My Job

Recently there is something meaningful happened in my career, it is not a million dollars deal, nor a fantastic business negotiation, it is so tiny no people ever pay attention to: basically a primary schoolmate I have known for more than 20 years ask me to check his MPF, it turns out his MPF is already well managed by himself, also it is already under Manulife, thus there will no need for asset transfer nor any kind of actual benefit attached, except one thing, his MPF account has no agent follow.

Under this condition I have asked him to assign myself as his MPF agent, this little action makes me re-think the value of insurance agency, since this is one of the best scenario to assess the necessity of existence of agents in this business, nowadays we have internet, banks, hotline service, brokers, insurance agents almost seems like an old sport no one pay attention to. No one want to waste our life in things that does not matter, so I asked myself, under this circumstances, what I can offer to my old friend to make the assignation make a different.

At the end of the day, the answers come clear; it is the relationship that holds the highest value among all, there are too many professional own better insurance knowledge than me, investment advisors is more intelligent, salesman with better selling skill, yet they can never replace the relationship I already established with my clients and friends.

That is important because human might need knowledge, professional advice and service, yet above more we desire good relationship between another human, people that can understand and concern, sometimes you hear women complain why they marry a man who is stupid, lazy with 10 thousands different shortcoming, but they do not regret, because deeply they know that man care about her more than rest of the men in the world, and that what is the most important thing. The name of the “game” of human relationship is: who care more?

Now do not be worry I will behave stupid and lazy, in business good relationship isn’t enough, because you need to solve people’s problem, though like Manulife’s slogan: Caring and Professional, caring always come first. This incident has reinforced the value of my job even more, neglect whether what I am going to face in the future, from no money service to a multi-dollar contract, the core value will always be the same for me.

Personal highlight

I tried to avoid it as much as I can, but I finally need to visit dentist this year, to re-do my canal treatment for one of my teeth, it cost me a big $18,400, but I have no insurance coverage for dental. I cannot help myself keep thinking on the dentist chair, why I did not listen to my mother brushing my teeth regularly, and why I listen to my father did that canal treatment in China because it is much cheaper over there (only $1000). Yet it turns out the dentist in China did such a bad job they only remove one of the three nerves out of my teeth, now the dentist in Hong Kong need to re-drill the fillings, re-do everything, and later will put a crown to make the treatment permanently.

Now I have to suffer twice because I did not take good care of myself, and because I ignore the importance of quality. It is always a good thing to keep health and never get sick, but if you do, quality is always important.

However the good news is I am getting better and better with my job, soon turn to 30 years old, traditional Chinese saying: when a man at his 20, he can still be confuse about his life, when he approaches his 30, he should already able to find a clear path and direction for his life, so when he turns 40, things should go very well there should not be anything to worry.

I would not consider myself as an optimist, actually I like to look at things from a slightly pessimistic point of view, since life is full of disappointment in many ways, it is always unwise to put one’s hope and expectation too high.

The following conclusion might not fit the expectation of the majority understanding to my business here (financial planning), many thinks I go around and ask people to plan this and that, buy this and that, which they get from many financial corp. advertising campaign.

The truth is I never believe in planning myself, from days to days people cannot expect what can happens in the future, the more mankind try to gain control of our future, and think we have succeed, the more future use different kind of events to surprise us.

What I believe is life is like a movie, you can never know what will come next, but if play your current role to the best, people will love to give you more important role in the next movie, and then good things will happen to your life.

Last but not least, wish you all will have a nice and warm holiday with your friends and family. I will see you in 2012, when I was a kid, I was told by some highly intelligent professors, there should be flying cars invented by then, obviously I was cheated, or should I say they have planned the world very badly :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!





Yim Tien Ho Calvin
Christmas, 2011