Congratulations to Lynette Govender on achieving her
20 Year Service Award – presented to her by Mark Jurgens and Alan Botha.
We wish Lynette many more years as a valued member of the Jurgens Finance team.
A message from Mark Jurgens
A client of ours recently asked me how we had managed to achieve such competitive investment returns in the last twelve months. Good question.
I would like to explain a little more about our relationship with Morningstar, as I believe their involvement in Jurgens finance is not clearly understood by all our clients.
Morningstar is a AAA rated global financial services organisation. They have analysts in countries around the globe. They are involved in a tremendous amount of research to provide valuable information in selecting the top fund managers and assisting in asset allocation decisions.
Morningstar’s research, expertise and analysis are trusted amongst the largest investment firms in the world, and this same insight has been made available to selected financial advisory businesses within South Africa.
When I started in this industry there was a selection of twenty unit trust funds in South Africa, today there are close to 1500 funds. At Jurgens Finance we endeavour to achieve the best investment returns for our clients, but the massive task of monitoring the performance of over a thousand funds would put us in a situation where we would have no time to see you, our client.
Morningstar provides all the technical information and assists in analysing the better performing unit trust funds, which are monitored regularly. With International Investments being highly sought after, this is another reason we make use of Morningstar and their global capabilities and expertise.
Our team at Jurgens Finance are zealous about your investments and are actively involved with Morningstar, in terms of ensuring our input is also utilised in the creation of these model portfolios. Meetings are held twice a month, in so doing, ensuring we remain in the top quartiles of investment returns.
We are extremely mindful of the many difficulties faced this year, and we want to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support and loyalty.
We are hopeful that 2022 brings about more personal encounters while maintaining the highest level of safety.
Wishing you and your loved ones a happy, safe and peaceful festive season.
Stay well and regards
Mark
'Long term investing is never easy' from Alan Botha
(Extracts from Morgan Housel)
Most people know it is the right strategy in investing, careers, relationships – anything that compounds. But saying “I’m in it for the long term” is a bit like standing at the base of Mt. Everest, pointing to the top, and saying, “That’s where I’m heading.” Well, that’s nice. Now comes the test.
Long term is harder than most people imagine, which is why it is more lucrative than many people assume. Everything worthwhile has a price, and the prices are not always obvious. The actual price of long term – the skills required, the mentality needed – is easy to minimize, often summarized with simple phrases like “be more patient,” as if that explains why so many people cannot.
To do long term effectively you have to come to terms with four factors.
1. The long run is just a collection of short runs you must put up with.
Saying you have a 10-year time horizon does not exempt you from all the nonsense that happens during the next 10 years. Everyone must experience the recessions, the bear markets, the meltdowns, the surprises, and the memes at the same time.
So rather than assuming long-term thinkers do not have to deal with nonsense, the question becomes how you endure a never-ending parade of nonsense.
Long-term thinking can be a deceptive safety blanket that people assume lets them bypass the painful and unpredictable short run. But it never does. It might be the opposite: The longer your time horizon the more calamities and disasters you will experience. Baseball player Dan Quisenberry once said, “The future is much like the present, only longer.”
Dealing with that reality requires a certain kind of alignment that is easy to overlook.
2. Patience is often stubbornness in disguise.
Things happen daily now that would have been inconceivable just a decade ago (budget deficits, interest rates, meme-stock valuations, retail investor participation, pandemics etc.). The world changes, which makes changing your mind not just helpful but crucial.
But changing your mind is hard because fooling yourself into believing a falsehood is so much easier than admitting a mistake.
Doing long-term thinking well, requires identifying when you are being patient or just stubborn. Not an easy thing to do. The only solution is knowing the very few things in your industry that will never change and putting everything else in a bucket that’s in constant need of updating and adapting.
3. It is hard to know how you will react to decline.
If I say, “How would you feel if markets fall 30%?” you probably picture a world where everything is the same as it is today except stock prices are 30% lower.
And in that world, it is easy to say, “That would be fine, I’d even see it as an opportunity.”
But the reason markets fall 30% is because there is a terrorist attack, or the banking system is about to collapse, or there is a pandemic that might kill your whole family.
In that context, you might feel different. You might switch from an opportunistic mindset to a survival mindset. You might not have the endurance you once imagined.
4. Long term is less about time horizon and more about flexibility.
If it is 2010 and you say, “I have a 10-year time horizon,” your target date is 2020. Which is when the world fell to pieces. If you were a business or an investor It was a terrible time to assume the world was ready to hand you the reward you had been patiently awaiting.
A long-term horizon with a firm end date can be as reliant on chance as a short time horizon. Far superior is just flexibility.
Time is compounding’s magic whose importance cannot be minimized. But the odds of success fall deepest in your favour when you mix a long-time horizon with a flexible end date – or an indefinite horizon.
Ben Graham said, “The purpose of the margin of safety is to render the forecast unnecessary.” The more flexibility you have the less you need to know what happens next.
Short Term News Update - Greg Brits
There has been a recent surge in claims where an employee’s foreign driver’s license has been found to be fraudulent. Insurers do require a procedure to be put in place to check and ensure that your drivers hold a valid license. The following points will assist you in terms of what to check for. This will also be beneficial to your business, and in certain circumstances, protect you from a potential rejection at claims stage.
A clear copy of the driver’s license stating country of origin.
A letter (on an official letterhead) from the Embassy or Consulate from the relevantcountry concerned, must be stamped authenticating the individuals’ driver’s license is valid in that country,and that the license has not been cancelled or suspended.
The letter must include the date of issue, code of license (what he/she is permitted to drive) and the date the license expires.
The letter must be in English, stamped and signed with the person’s contact details who is validating the license to confirm that the information is true and correct.
A clear copy of their Passport must also be present.
If the holder of the foreign driver’s license is a RSA citizen or already has permanent residency, that person has a period of 1 year to convert his/her foreign license to a South African license.
With the rainy season upon us, maintenance to your home or business premises is vitally important. We believe the below pointers may prove to be very valuable to avoid disappointment at claims stage.
Property owners should take extra care and inspect roof tops for cracks and other maintenance related issues.
Clean your drains and down pipes. Drainage systems and gutters must be cleaned out regularly to avoid any blockage from dry leaves and debris to prevent water accumulation and, ultimately, damage to roofs, fixtures and your home or business contents.
Waterproofing to roofs, either flat or pitched, must be carried out by an accredited and professional repairer who guarantee their workmanship.
From the Jurgens Insurance Brokers Team, we would like to thank all our clients for their loyal support and wish you and your families a blessed Christmas and prosperous 2022.
Wishing you the joy of family, the gift of friends and the best of everything for the new year!
Quote of the Day
“The best and most beau ful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Wishing you happiness.”