Dear valued Clients & Associates

With 2021 quickly coming to an end, we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the past year.
We are all very much aware 2021 has continued where we left off in 2020. There were more lock-down restrictions due to Covid 19. Mid-year we saw riots in Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal that shook our nation.

Sadly, there were many individuals who have lost their source of income or had to accept salary reductions and those who have lost loved ones. Please know that we carry you in our thoughts.

At the end of last year, we started seeing news reports of vaccines with high efficiency rates being manufactured. By February 2021, South Africa received our first batch of vaccines. As of 25 Nov, 23.5% of SA’s population and 42.6% of the world population have been fully vaccinated and continues to increase daily. A truly impressive feat that was unheard of until now. This massive vaccine drive has helped us return to a somewhat normal life. However, we must accept that Covid will be with us for the foreseeable future, and we need to continue to practice the necessary Covid safety measures.

The JSE ALSI have achieved phenomenal growth over the past year with returns of +/- 30.5% year to date. If we compare this performance with Money Market at +/- 3.8%, it is clear South African Equities was the asset class to invest in this year.

WE AT TvZ THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT. WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO MAKE USE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY TO WELCOME ALL THE CLIENTS THAT JOINED OUR PRACTICE THIS YEAR.

As a family-run business we are as committed as ever to deliver excellent personal service and advice to you, our client and help you navigate towards Financial Prosperity & Protection.

RISK COVER: DEATH, DISABILITY & ILLNESS

Our sympathies to those who are currently battling illness and to those who have lost loved ones during this year. The statistics that we receive from Insurers highlights the fact that there was a dramatic increase in benefits being paid, particularly due to Covid related claims. These statistics again highlight the importance of Risk cover.

It is important that Risk Benefits are reviewed annually. This is the reason a Risk discussion is Standard on all our Agendas for the Annual Review.

SHORT-TERM INSURANCE

The Covid 19 pandemic forced many companies to opt for a work-from-home solution. While this solution worked seamlessly for some, it presented many challenges for others. Over the past year we have heard of many instances where clients could simply not get through to their insurance company to register claims, make changes to their policy or to lodge a complaint.

By working with an intermediary/broker, you have one contact person to handle all your short-term insurance needs.

We remain committed to offer our clients the best cover alongside excellent personal service at competitive and reasonable prices.

We encourage clients, whose short-term insurance are not serviced by us, to send your schedules which will allow us the opportunity to provide comparative quotations, obligation free.

It is important to review your insurance policy on an annual basis to ensure you are sufficiently insured. With renewal, please read the insurance summary and our recommendations carefully. It is very important that you contact us if there are any changes that need to be made to your Short-Term insurance policy.

For any after-hours enquiries/ emergencies or for assistances/ claims during the festive season when our offices will be closed, the following numbers can be contacted.

(Be sure to have your policy number or I.D. number on hand when phoning)

OM Insure

Tel: 0860 247 365         Claims, Emergencies, Swiftcare, Roadside assistance, Home assistance and Medical

                                         emergencies.

Tel: 0860 637 373         General Enquiries like adding or removing items to your policy and all other changes.

Santam           

Tel: 0860 505 911         Claims, Emergencies, Roadside assistance, Home assistance and Medical

                                         emergencies.

Tel: 0860 726 826         General Enquiries like adding or removing items to your policy and all other changes.

Auto & General                                  

Tel: 021 527 8666         Claims, enquiries, or changes to policy.

Tel: 0860 104 210         After-hours emergencies.

INVESTMENTS

On 20 March 2020 when it became clear that Covid 19 will have a global impact, stock markets around the world plummeted.  Our own JSE all share index fell by close to 30%.  Since then, the ALSI has recovered by 47.55%.

This again goes to show that investors should avoid making emotional decisions during difficult times and stick to their long-term investment strategy as these decisions could cost them dearly. This also proves that over time the Market does recover and that the old saying still hold true:

It is not about trying to time the market but rather time in the market that counts.

TvZ FINANCIAL PLANNING

As mentioned before, due to most insurance & investment companies having implemented a work-from-home solution we have experienced many communication challenges over the past year.

For this reason, we have appointed another office administrator to assist with follow-ups, queries, and escalations.

Many of you have already had contact with Jana Pienaar, our new admin assistant. Jana started working with us in May and very quickly became an integral part of the team. We are confident that she will have a bright future in the financial services industry. We are very proud of Jana for what she has already achieved and learned in a short period of time.

We encourage you to visit and like our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/tvzfinancialservices as we do share plenty of information on this platform. You are also welcome to visit our website www.tvzfin.co.za

TAX

Please note as mentioned before: We are first & foremost Financial Planners.

Tax submissions are done to compliment the advice given. We can therefore submit tax assessments, but we cannot guarantee or escalate claim payments or amend any standard policy of SARS.

This year SARS had an extreme backlog with audits and we had a lot of cases where SARS required additional information from clients, that was not the case previous years. Again, we can assist with the submissions but unfortunately we can not escalate any processes.

Due to many working from home during lockdown, we had numerous clients needing guidance with home offices expense claims. Thankfully, our tax administrator, Janneri, had assistance from Jana to deal with this influx of queries.

Thank you Janneri and Jana for seeing us through a very busy tax season.

CLOSING STATEMENT

Again, we are extremely thankful to each client for your continued support.

Our success is determined solely by the support of our clients.

Congratulations to everyone who achieved their goals this year, completing their studies and any achievement awards.

To our Team at TvZ Financial Planning: We would like to thank you for your hard work during the year. You must enjoy your break as it is earned and very much deserved.

Please note that our office will close on 15 December 2021 @ 13:00 and reopen on Thursday 6 January 2022 @ 08:00.

Our office will also be closed on Friday 10 December from 10:00 as we will be attending our Year End function.

We are really looking forward to 2022!

Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year! Travel safely and enjoy this special time with your loved ones.

Since our last letter dated 24-06-2021 a lot has changed in our Country. We have gone through a period of stricter lock-down and we have since then seen these restrictions lifted again.

We have also seen severe cases of looting in the KZN & Gauteng provinces from which we are still recovering.

On a positive note, the Vaccination roll-out has gained significant momentum with over 7 million people who have received a dosage already.

It seems that there is a variety of factors that contribute towards the higher uptake of people being vaccinated. It looks like the main contributors to this is that you don’t have to wait for your vaccination appointment, many vaccination sites accept walk-ins & that younger people who are now allowed to register are eager to receive their vaccination shots.

In our office we have all received our first dosage of the vaccine, except for Jana who is not yet eligible to register.

We are sad to announce that Liza Buunk has left our employment due to personal reasons.
We would like to take this opportunity to again thank Liza for her contribution over the past 18 months and to wish her all the best for the future.

We are however very excited to introduce a familiar face who will be overseeing our short-term department for the coming months.

A warm welcome back to Elmarie van Zyl. Elmarie has had a well-deserved break over the past 18 months and is now more than ever excited to tackle the short-term insurance head on.

Most of you are well acquainted with Elmarie so we know this transition period will be very smooth.

Please note that Elmarie will only be overseeing the short-term insurance department, Marco & Antoni will continue to provide advice on the Risk & Investment products and handle the annual review meetings.

Please make use of Elmarie’s contact details for any short-term related queries.

Email: insure@tvzfin.co.za

Tel: 021-856 2100

Please stay safe and healthy.

Kind regards from all of us here at TvZ.

DEAR VALUED CLIENT,

It has now been 15 months since we went into lockdown and in many economic sectors, we have seen a significant recovery. However, we will only start to see a glimmer of the life we knew once most of our people have been vaccinated.

As we are amid a third wave, we encourage you to continue practicing the necessary safety protocols: Avoid crowded areas as far as possible, wear a mask in public and wash your hands regularly.

Our deepest sympathies go out to those who have lost loved ones or their livelihoods.

DAILY OPERATION:

Over the past 15 months, our team has continuously looked at how we can continue to provide our clients with excellent service, and also where we can improve their experience. We do not believe that challenges such as load shedding and lockdown should be an excuse for bad service.

Even before the initial lockdown, all our files were digitized and securely stored in the cloud. As long as we have internet access this allows us the opportunity to access client information and complete service requests from anywhere in the world. This feature helped us significantly during the hard lockdown when we all had to work from home.

We have also installed an UPS that will ensure our internet and phone line stays operational during load shedding.

Furthermore, we have noticed that since most product provider/insurer’s staff is still working from home, there are unfortunately delays in response times. For this reason, we have employed another administrative assistant to help ensure our client’s service requests are prioritized and attended to in a timely manner.

We would like to use this opportunity to introduce you to our newest team member, Jana Pienaar.
Welcome Jana, we are confident that you will have a long and fruitful career in the financial planning industry.

Please also continue to follow our facebook page for regular updates: https://www.facebook.com/tvzfinancialservices/

SAVINGS & INVESTMENTS:

If we look at the performance of the ALSI & Money Market this year compared to last year we can clearly see that Money Market has decreased significantly and the ALSI has increased significantly:

1 January 2020 – 23 June 2020

ALSI                                                          Money Market
-5.58%                                                      3.27%

1 January 2021 – 23 June 2021

ALSI                                                          Money Market
10.48%                                                     1.88%

1.These percentages indicate that you must stay committed to your long-term investment strategy.
2.The ALSI does recover over time.
3.The ALSI offers significantly higher REAL returns over the longer term.

SHORTTERM INSURANCE:

We encourage you to read through your policy schedules and summaries carefully and let us know if there are any questions or important information we should know about as this could affect the outcome of any claims submitted.

Please make sure to let us know if there have been any material changes that could affect your short-term policy: Items such as: change in address, change in security details, change in driver of vehicles etc.

RISK INSURANCE:

Old Mutual recently relaunched their retrenchment cover product along with other new features to their risk products. The Retrenchment cover pays up to 60% of your salary for a period of 6 months in case of retrenchment.

Covid19 has had a devastating impact on our economy which led to many retrenchments. Should you be concerned about your own job security, please contact us for more information on this product.

Another great benefit of Old Mutual’s new Protect range is the option to stop paying life insurance premiums when you retire.

Over the years we have seen many pensioners unable to afford their life insurance premium after retirement.
By selecting this option, you can already address this problem while still working, if the benefit start date is not within 10 years of the retirement date.

Feel free to contact us should you want more information on this benefit.

TAX:

Tax season will officially open on 1 July 2021. Over the past couple of weeks, we have attended webinars and studied numerous communications relating to expenses that can be claimed if you work from home.

Unfortunately, SARS has not significantly amended their rules to accommodate those who were forced to work from home during the lockdown period, thus the rules that are currently in place are similar to the strict ones that were there before lockdown.

Below are some key points that were highlighted:

• SARS stipulates that you can only claim if your home office is an exclusive and specifically equipped dedicated area solely used for work purposes (If the room is used for leisure or has furniture not related to work purposes). If you and your spouse shared this space, you do not qualify either as the space is then not specifically equipped for your trade alone.

• The taxpayer must provide proof that the home office is used exclusively for work purposes (Building plans, photos).

• Another requirement is that you had to have worked from home for more than 50% of the tax year. You can also only claim expenses for the months that you worked from home.

• Should you qualify SARS will need plans of the house to confirm exact percentages of the floor plan that is used for the home office (this cannot be an estimate). The whole house (garages included as well as any flats) must be considered in this calculation. For example, if the whole property is 200m² and your home office is 20m², then you can claim 10% as home office expenses.

• SARS also stipulates that a letter from the employer alone confirming you worked from home is not sufficient proof you did in fact work from home (working on the road or in a coffee shop is not considered as a home office), therefore if you have any other proof like timesheets this can be added to the supporting documents.

• You cannot claim for stationary, cell phone costs, internet costs or office equipment (only commission earners can claim for these. Salaried earners are required to claim these expenses from their employers).

• You can only claim in relation to costs incurred assigned to the fixed property:

1. Rent or interest on the bond (then a bond statement must be supplied)
2. Maintenance (repairs), but it should be in relation to the home office (As per SARS communication:

Any repairs to the property must have some relation to the home office in order that the deduction is not prohibited. For example, if the garage interior or bathroom is repainted, or a window in the master bedroom repaired, no portion of such repair may be claimed, as that expense will not have been incurred for the part of the premises occupied for trade.
If, on the other hand, the entire roof of the property has to be repaired because it is in a state of disrepair, then the cost of such repair, apportioned based on the floor area, may be claimed as a home office deduction.)

3. Expenses in relation to the fixed property – cleaning services and electricity
4. Rates and taxes, sewage, refuse and levies
5. Wear and tear to the building itself

• Unfortunately, you cannot deduct bond/credit life insurance or home contents, you can only claim homeowner’s insurance that insures the property/building.

• Only a percentage of the expenses mentioned above can be claimed as calculated according to the floor plan. For example, if it is calculated that your home office is 10% of the entire building, you can claim 10% of the allowed expenses. Therefore, if all expenses are a total of R10 000, then you can only claim 10% of R10 000. This amount will then be deducted from your taxable income (you will not receive the full R1000 as a refund).

• SARS have already indicated that they will be scrutinizing every expense claimed which will most probably imply that those claiming for home office expenses will be audited and requested to provide supporting documentation (audits can take approximately 3 months if no additional documentation is requested).

We ask that you please be patient with the tax submission process as we have many tax returns to submit. You can rest assured that your tax return will be handled with the utmost care.

PLEASE STAY SAFE & TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES & YOUR LOVED ONES

                                                                                      Top from left to right: Antoni, Liza, Marco                                                                               

Bottom from left to right: Janneri, Jana

Kind Regards
TvZ Financial Planning Team

Dear Valued Client

Over the last week a couple of News Reports made headlines which are of importance to our clients:

1.) ABSA CLOSES ITS MONEY MARKET UNIT TRUST:

https://www.businessinsider.co.za/absa-closes-money-market-fund-2021-4

Those of you who have funds invested in the ABSA money market unit trust would have received a letter from ABSA to inform you that their money market fund will be closing and that you have until 1 July to decide as to where you want to move your funds.

During a recent survey, the bank found that many clients were under the impression that their money market fund offered a guarantee on the capital as well as the interest.

This is however incorrect.

For many years, conservative investors preferred money market funds as it offered consistent inflation beating returns without taking risk.

However, since interest rates were cut to a 50-year low to provide relieve to those affected by the economic impact of covid19, these investors saw their returns effectively decrease from around 5-7% annually to about 3-4%.

Thus, there exists now a bigger risk for investors who draw down an income of 4% and more to start eating into their capital.

So, what is the solution?

Over many years, our practice has identified and recommended investment funds that offer the same (or better) benefits than a money market account, namely, inflation beating returns with minimal volatility.

An Investment that is not solely Interest bearing so to minimize the Tax implication on Interest earned.

One such fund is the Coronation Strategic Income fund.

From the graph below you will see that over the 1-, 3-, 5- & 10-years periods this fund has consistently beaten inflation by 3% +, it is also important to note that this fund is not 100% Interest Bearing so the Tax liability will also be reduced.

You must also remember that it is important to have growth assets in your Portfolio as well.

The graph below illustrates the returns of some of these growth funds.

It is very important to understand that your investment will still be invested Conservative or Cautious even if we include a small percentage of these growth assets in your Portfolio.

If you are one of the ABSA clients who received this notification, feel free to contact us for a free consultation to discuss your options.

THOSE WHO WORK FROM HOME, COULD CLAIM EXPENSES BACK FROM SARS:

https://www.iol.co.za/personal-finance/tax/been-working-from-home-you-can-get-money-back-from-sars-ddf8380d-6d9d-46f2-9ee6-d0f1e1776f10

Due to lockdown, many employees were forced and continues to work from home during the 2020 tax year. If you meet the criteria mentioned in the above article, you could potentially claim some of your home expenses back from SARS.

Unfortunately, we have not received official details from SARS yet but will keep you posted once we have more information.

For now, we can recommend reading the above article for more info and if you meet the criteria, keep track of the claimable expenses mentioned until tax season opens in July 2021.

PLEASE STAY SAFE & TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES & YOUR LOVED ONES

Kind Regards
TvZ Financial Planning Team

Dear valued Client,

It has now been just over a year since we first went into lockdown and life as we knew it changed completely. We are hopeful that once the vaccine rollout has reached its goals, life will eventually return to some form of normality.

We strongly urge you to continue following the necessary safety protocols: Avoid crowded areas as far as possible, wear a mask in public and wash your hands regularly.

Our deepest sympathies go out to those who have lost loved ones or their livelihoods. To those battling illness, know that you are kept in our thoughts and prayers.

DAILY OPERATION:

Like most companies we have fully embraced digital forms of communication like email, teleconference, and video call as we understand many prefer these communication channels rather than face to face meetings.
Especially in the environment we find ourselves today. We continue to do face-to-face review meetings with clients who feel comfortable meeting in person and who do not fall in the high-risk category.

We would like to encourage clients to please make use of our official office email addresses and/or office telephone line for all requests. Unfortunately, requests sent via Whatsapp cannot be effectively captured, assigned, and monitored as this communication channel does not form part of our client relations system.

Product Providers are mostly still working from home and as such the response time might be delayed. Please be assured that we will make every effort to respond to all queries as soon as possible.

Please note that our offices will be closed on the 26 & 27th of April in celebration of Freedom Day.
Please find the SOS numbers below for short-term insurance related emergencies.

Santam – 0860 505 911
OMinsure -0860 365 247
Auto & General – 0860 104 210

Please also continue to follow our facebook page for regular updates:
https://www.facebook.com/tvzfinancialservices/

SAVINGS & INVESTMENTS:

In March 2020 when it became clear that Covid19 will not be limited to just China and a few other countries, Global Markets came crashing down.

Many people panicked and rushed to either withdraw their funds or moved these investments to perceived safe havens such as money market.

However, those who stayed the course would have benefitted in the 55% growth the JSE all share index experienced since 27 March 2020.
With the prime interest rate being kept at a 50-year low of 3.5%, fixed deposits and money market accounts with the bank are not able to offer the returns it once could.

We therefore urge clients who have bank investments to contact us for assistance in diversifying your portfolio in asset classes that offer inflation beating returns.

SHORTTERM INSURANCE:

We encourage you to read through your policy schedules and summaries carefully and let us know if there are any queries or important information we should know about as this could affect the outcome of any claims submitted.

Although we try our best to ensure our clients are comprehensively covered for every possible risk, we cannot do it without your input. Unfortunately, it is simply not possible for us to provide correct cover values for your building or content as we do not have the skillset needed to valuate a home or every piece of furniture, appliance, antique, art etc
that forms part of your home contents. We therefore encourage you to get an expert opinion on the value of your building and keep an inventory of your contents which will assist you in determining the replacement value of your valuables.

We would gladly supply you with an inventory template and guide you through the process if required.

RISK INSURANCE:

Insurance companies are slowly starting to make stats available on the Covid19 related claims that has been paid out thus far and it is a grim picture.

In February 2021 Sanlam sent us some stats relating to their Covid19 claims.

From January – December 2020, Sanlam paid out R428 million (738 deaths) in death claims.

In January 2021 alone they paid out R282 million (414 deaths). These stats just show how deadly the second wave truly was.

It is vital that you and your family are sufficiently covered against the devastating financial effects of death, disability, and severe illness.

Feel free to contact us if you are concerned about your level of life insurance cover.

Our needs analysis process is designed to identify the financial risks you and your family are exposed to.
Whereupon we can provide advice on how to reduce or mitigate these risks.

PRESERVATION OF PENSION/RETRENCHMENT:

An unfortunate consequence of COVID19 and the lockdown is that many businesses were forced to close their doors resulting in many retrenchments and forced retirements.

Our deepest sympathies with those who lost their source of income or who had to take a pay cut.
If you find yourself in such a position, we encourage you to reach out to us for a consultation.

There are many tax and other implications when it comes to retrenchment and retirement and making an uninformed decision could cost you hundreds of thousands of Rands.

It is very important that you evaluate all your options, so if you or anyone that you know find themselves in this unfortunate situation please contact us.

PLEASE STAY SAFE & TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES & YOUR LOVED ONES

Kind Regards
TvZ Financial Planning Team