Weather the cuckoo likes

Decaversary? decade-a-versary? Decadentversary? thats the one

2009-04-22T23:30:21Z

so it was 10 years ago today that my lady and i had our first...'date' (actually the first time we went out on a date was a couple weeks later, but this is the NZ uni version of date :) )

wow.

who knew that all the flirting the week leading up to that day that helped me fail a terms test for comp201 would have paid off so much :)

course i now feel a bit old :)

Still love ya heaps my lady

as appears to be the tradition...

2008-11-09T04:38:28Z

Well done New Zealand.

Big News

2008-04-30T11:07:40Z

So over the last two weeks i have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes looking at a potential purchase.

i was offered a business to buy thursday 2 weeks ago, monday i went out to kapiti to have a good look at the details of the business and the numbers, and then spent all of last week (and the weekend, and monday) working out the financing.

i have spent this week sorting all the logistics like the website, 0800 number and branding so my holiday has been a bit truncated.

Today i signed the contract and as of midnight tonight i will be the new owner of Mortgage Max NZ.

its a small but very well branded business that has been in the top 15 of business volume in NZ for the past year. its got a small residual income and a reasonable existing client base.

Becuase the owner is leaving, he has been passing on all the leads from his site this past week and also his loans that are part way through, which is also making me mega busy.

On friday i am going to be in a very long meeting with the directors of FSB, to discusse how to fit it in to FSB, my future shareholding and a raft of other things that have come from this purchase. i am staying at FSB as i have a large asset with them now, and will ideally integrate the new business into FSB, but run two brands for now. over time we may fold up the mortgage max brand but its a very good one, so i will see.

over the coming weeks i will be contacting all 300 clients (rachel nicely stuffed 300 envelopes on monday for the mail out) and working out the ongoing marketing. first thing is to revamp the website over the coming days, especially getting rid of photos of the old owner and adding in my own details.

so check out www.mortgagemax.co.nz over the next few weeks and see it unfold.

exciting times :)

Just quickly

2008-03-22T12:52:12Z

Rock2wgtn first night was amazing.

Lordi were cool, Alice cooper has a very cool stage show and KISS were as fantastic as ever.

my feet hurt, my ears are buzzing, i can;t sleep and i am exhausted.

i suspect i will sleep most of tomorrow before i go back for part two.

i took some photos i hope come out, but i have to wait until i get back to work and get my transfer cable to put them up.

New Years Meme

2008-01-03T10:00:59Z

off to chch tomorrrow for grandmothers funeral and usual family mindfuck. do despite getting in at 9am, we are not going anywhere near my family and will show up at the funeral on our own, if they can;t get near me they can fuck with my head :)

and the meme...

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?

Bought a house, and then bought another one 9 months later

went to adelaide

backed up a previous tournament win by winning it again in 07 (did it twice)

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

i don;t make resolutions but i did achieve most of my business plan for the year. finalising this years plan now.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
i don't think so, but plenty of people i know are about to pop.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Not in 2007, but my Grandmother died on the 2/1/8 we are off to her funeral in Christchurch tomorrow.

5. What countries did you visit?
OZ, melbourne and adelaide.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

1- a PA, i am getting just a wee bit to busy to do it all myself

2- focus on weightloss

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

not good on dates but

winning my work award (may)
winning 3 wargaming tournaments (may, july, august)
achieving my work target in october

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

workwise it was winning an industry award for specialist mortgage lending
personally, finally getting a house and then buying a rental in the same year

also finishing my postgrad diploma in may

9. What was your biggest failure?

losing focus mid year, andbottling shit up a bit too much.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

realised i am going to need to stay off the gluten, as it makes me not feel very good and also becuase my mum has coeliacs disease and i don;t want to get to that point.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

22" flat screen for work,

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

i;ve no idea, i've been a bit myopic on work this year and have kindof lost touch with my friends to know what they have done.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

various elements of the political scene so desperate to retain power they have cooked up a law which is the worst attack on free speech ever and more in line with Chavez et al than NZ.

14. Where did most of your money go?

houses, business and trips to oz

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
achieving my work goals, winning my award, doing well in gaming.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?

the one, by the exiles, as i heard it first this year and its cool

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier
b) thinner or fatter? way fatter, i put on about 15 kg over the year
c) richer or poorer? richer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
marketing, and exercise

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

slacked off, gotten into petty politics

20. How did you spend Christmas?
with rachels family, hordes of children

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
clients

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
of course

23. How many one-night stands?
none, needs to do better :)

24. What was your favorite TV program?
QI and battlestar

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
not people know, groups yes.

26. What was the best book you read this year?
i read so many i am not sure, harry potter 7 just cos it ends it all off.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

good charlotte, i have heard them before, but the new album is amazing.

28. What did you want and get?

house, rental, wargaming awards, work award, diploma, work target, office - yea a good year.

29. What did you want and not get?

giant wargaming tank, could have bought it, but bought the rental instead.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?

300

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
turned 30, had a party at lanes, very cool.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

starting to see the work i have put into my business pay off.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?

fat clothes, need to lose weight.

34. What kept you sane?

rachel

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

starbuck :)

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

labours malicious and horrific electoral finance act, and the anti smacking bill

pro warming hysteria

37. Whom did you miss?

friends i have not seen for ages

38. Who was the best new person you met?

good to meet up with charlie again, now he is an adultt

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:

step back and review your goals regularly, so you can keep on track, its very easy to get sidetacked

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"you wanted the best you got the best" ?

Take that!

2007-12-27T02:32:48Z

So its probably my fault for daring to enjoy christmas with family. Family christmas with my family is usually full of recrimination, passive aggressive guilt, family policitics and just general suffereign.

Rachels family, while her parents are a little stressful are very nice, helpful, and fun to be around. to the extent that a christmas with 15 of her family including 6 kids under 10, is less tiring than with 4 members of my family.

so we had a bunch of fun with the family, and spent up large on the kids who enjoyed the presents, stayed in a nice hotel that had cheap deals and $2 breakfasts (instead of teh usual $30) as part of the opening special.

apparently the world could not handle me ejoying a christmas with family so has conspired to ruin it for me.

1- 2 days before we come up to hamilton, my sunglasses break - as i going to be driving, i need some new ones $120

2- car needs warrant, so $350 inc tyres

3- i break my cell phone, and because telecome hates existing customers so we get no specials it sets me back $1100 (admittedly, it is a very cool phone, i did want eventually, just not this way).

4 and the (hopefully) finale - 100meters before bulls on our way home, the clutch dies. so now we are sitting in a cafe, waiting for the amazing and super wonderful dagger to drive up and get us and our stuff, while the car is at the garage and getting fixed. it won;t be fixed until tomorrow avo, so i have to come back and get it then. $600 plus extra petrol and food etc.

gaaah!

... i really did enjoy christmas too :)

i will spend the next few days avoiding ladders, bridges and making sure i don;t enjoy new years :)

end of year

2007-12-19T22:43:53Z

at work on my 4th day of holiday and my 3rd day in a row in the office. why is it when i am not wanting to work is when i get calls from new clients? happens every year.

have some meetings today and WILL NOT be coming into theoffice tomorrow, but possibly saturday :(

off to hamiltron sunday for 4 days to see rachels family. supposed to see my father tonught but will make something up as i have seen him at least 3 times this year and thats plenty thank you.

bought my ticket to ROCK2WGTN today, in the platinum standing, not cheap but 10 hours of concert over 2 days, woohoo.

so if you are thinking of going, get a ticket in the same area and you can look lame like me jumping around with all the other 70/80s rejects :)

merry end of year and all that, hooray capatalistic holiday of fun :)

good lord a post :)

2007-11-08T11:25:36Z

so anyway

this was posted on another blog and i left a comment.

rather than let one of the longest posts i have left on a blog disapear as a comment, i decided to actually post the whole thing.

watch the video if you want, and decide for yourself. it matters not to me what you beleieve about this, you are free to beleive whatever you want. i only care if you expect me to fund your beleif (in this and in many other things). and i especially care if you expect me to make changes that you yourself have not made.

my reply to the post i saw it in below the video (if this embeddy thing works, if not, go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDsIFspVzfI )

meh, drivel.

obviously its pascals wager, where the downsides of doing something if its a scam is downplayed (despite what he is trying to imply), and the downside to doing nothing if its true is overblown so much it makes Al gore look skinny.

its easy to make almost any argument work under pascals wager when you control the variables and how they are percieved, especially when you alter them in your favour. so its a straw man, to shift the argument about whether this is even an issue to arguing over the points of the extreme variables, which detracts from the original argument and gives legitimacy to the oddball view (AGW). this of course is a common tactic of policiticians (al gore saying the debate is over, moving the argument away from the actual debate, to debate his comment) and socialist nutbars over the world.

as far as i can see it, if you want to dumb things down as his little graph, the alternates are basically equal, so a nil sum game, so the decision as to which you choose is dependent on what you believed before you saw the video, ie, its simply going to reinforce the world view you already had.

but heres the rub,

my choice does not require you to pay anything, i am not seeking compulsion to make you follow my view. i don;t do one thing and expect you to do the other. i don;t take overseas trips via plane, and yet expect you not to, similarly i don;t expect you to recycle the way i do, etc. should you wish to, its up to you.

yet, and i wondered when he would start shilling for compulsion of action, those who beleive all of this expect me to do as they do. they are the ones who fly aroudn in private jets yet tell me i should not travel by plane. they are the ones who expect me to pay for their beliefs.

theres your imbalance. my way, you can beleive in human caused climate change all you like, as long as you don;t expect me to fund your desires via compulsion (becuase i might choose to) your desires. your way does not allow me to opt out.

but i do hope that those people who think this is the real deal are doing what they are told to reduce it, you know, not buying certain TVs, not driving, not taking uneccessary overseas travel etc, because requiring others to do something you yourself won;t do is the worst aspect of this, but for some reason Al Gore, Travolta and the rest get away with it, becasue they put on a pretty rock concert (what was the carbon impact of that BTW? where they flew mettalica to germany for a half hour set, to combat climate change!)

if the shills pushing this were not for the most part, anti corporates, marxists reactionaries from way back, i might allow them more credibility, but as it is, this is pure watermelon, communist/socialist ideologies wrapped up in environmental language to gain more public acceptance.

i would suggest watching "teh great globabl warming swindle" and reading the report outling the 35 errors found in Al gores wee movie, for the other side of things, rahter than just dogma, wrapped up in a pretty you tube video, no matter how pleasantly presented it is.

Alan

What i did

2007-06-08T12:20:56Z

Thanks for the various suggestions peoples.

in the end i send her a little box of snack like goodies, a nice card and a sunflower (they were out of irises).

no idea how it went down, will let people know if i hear anything.

Thanks for the help.

AL

What would you do?

2007-06-06T09:14:37Z

I just found out today that one of my new clients (as in so new we have not had the second appointment where we put the business in place) partner died a couple weeks ago. i never met him, i don;t think they lived together, just long term couple.

thankfully they did not have any debt together or responsibilities as he was as uninsured as most young people, and sadly shes had to go back to work already, as she is in sales, and has no savings, and he had no life cover.

obviously the funeral etc is all done etc but she is still pretty shattered as you can imagine.

what i want to do is send her something, i know flowers are standard, but i am certain she has had plentty of flowers already and to me they just scream cliche.

but i can;t think of anything that is not inappropriate. vouichers, too impersonal, movie tickets, screams single, chocalate and alcohol, maybe the chocalate but alcohol not so good for someone emotionally tender right now.

i had thought about some sort of pamper pack, or massage thing, something relaxing, but not sure how that would go down.

or do i just bite it and go for flowers? and if so what kind?

shes 27, and the partner was about the same.

any thoughts?

AL

Conference and all that

2007-05-14T00:49:30Z

So i went to Tauranga on thursday morning for a two day conference. i was going with my new team member Jo, and as she is poor we were sharing a room.

my first ever time there and on first impressions, seems fine, like a slightly upmarket blenheim.

Scored a free taxi to the hotel as we were sharing a ride with one of the BDMs, that was cool.

got our room, and just as i was walking away i thought i would double check that it was two beds... then we got another room, much to Jo's happiness (a little too happy if you ask me :) ).

got to our room, and there was still only one bed, before she freaked, i pointed out that there were two parts to said bed, and withing 5 mins, a guy came and seperated them.

overall the conference was very cool, really good sessions, from very good and thankfully interesting speakers, and i have tons of notes.

we were bussed out on the first night to a venue, and they plied us with food and alcohol, an ok covers band (but then after 2 years at indigo, i am not a fan of covers bands), and a quite funny comedian. got to watch Jo get flirted with by old men, one of whom was no longer capable of speech at teh time, that was bloody funny.

ended up dacning after one of teh guys dragged Jo up, and she made me accompany her.

home by midnight.

second day, $28 buffet breakfast later, and we were back into it, another couple of great speakers, good lunch.

after lunch we got to the organised fun :( which ended up being ok. we got jammed into teams and given a camera and some zany tasks to run around tauranga and do. some of the teams were full of extroverts who were really into it. i got the munters and the idiots. one guy spent the entire time on the phone, two of them were just dumb, and that left the rest of us to drag them around. we got most of our zany tasks done, but not very well. our best task took only 3.22 minutes, of which the first 3 minutes were me watching in pain as the two assigned to the task did nothing, i finally got to swap with one of them (and she gave me a mumpy, fine see how you do), and we were finished 15 seconds later. that was our best task, yeesh.

3 hours later we were done and the drinking started again. i got all dressed up as did Jo and off we went to the cocktail party, which was once again, beer and wine!

Jo got flirted with again, cleavage will do that, but they were able to speak this time. dinner was quite flash and comedian was a funny Helen Clark impersonator, who did not get a great reception, as people took an opportunity to pretend she was really helen clark and let her have it, good times :)

prize giving: i was nominated for Up and coming broker of the year, and also specialist lending broker of the year, and i won specialist! i now have a zippy trophy and my business cards are being redone today!

after that, another covers band, and it must be tauranga becuase they both played long train running by the doobie brothers.

i went out for fresh air and got accosted by various people congratulating me and also buying me drinks, which i approve of both. i decided to leave about 11, and got accosted by the general manager who has a rep for getting totally trollied and being unable to walk at these things. she could still walk saldy and she dragged me off dancing. bed at midnight again.

breakfast was rather quiet, and it turns out that it went on for a while last night, the bar staff finally got to clean up at 4am, and people were doing beer runs and playing poker until the wee hours.

got a taxi with plenty of time to spare, which wasn;t, as Taurange has awful traffic. made it to the airport as they were boarding, and then like a scene from a nightmare, stood at the gate, with no staff there, and the door locked so we could not get out. the plane was being shut up, and thankfully someone came back through, so we ran across the tarmac and clambered on board, with the stewardess being none the wiser that we were stuck!

and then found out we were sitting with a delegation of mums and their kids on their way to a plunket convention, two rows in any direction from us... long flight.

and then home! also Ed byrne was verra funny.

off to palmy for a course for two days toomorrow, and then off to melbourne for a week on friday. work? at some point i hope :)

party update

2007-04-12T10:03:21Z

Well Flying burrito brothers are being pains in the butt, so the party will be at Lanes, behind readings, afterall.

we will there from 7, see you then.

AL

Last Day approaches, time for Carousel.

2007-04-10T04:43:09Z

Well my lifeclock is now blinking red, with my lastday coming up on the 15th (and that’s about all of the Logans run references anyone can handle). So on the 14th I will be celebrating/commiserating my 30th birthday, and I would be delighted if you could join me.

Where: Flying Burrito Brothers on cuba st (this may change as they are dithering, if it does, then it will be at the Lanes on Wakefield st, behind readings)
When: Saturday the 14th of April, from 7pm until late.
Who: you, your partner/significant other and anyone who knows me, that I might not have invited, because I forgot.
Presents: not necessary, but if you must, Viagra, Book vouchers or games workshop vouchers are fine (mostly joking about the Viagra, I am not that old yet).

We will probably have dinner there, but they are a bit odd on the booking, we will actually be upstairs, as they can’t fit too many downstairs. Does not matter, it will be fun anyway.

Hope to see you all there. If you could let me know if you can make it, I can let the bar know how many to expect.

Cheers

Alan

hem hem, is this thing still on? super cool news

2007-03-28T23:02:04Z

We all know i don;t post very often if ever, but i have teh cool news that i can;t keep to myself.

Firstly we are having a blinder of a year, we have breached the target for the first quater of the year, and last week alone i made my months target, not including the other weeks of the month. we are at about 200% of the months target. and i am on holiday for the next two weeks, and looking forward to it.

now the other news. first a bit of background. Plan NZ is the aggregator company i belong to, so rather than me having to have a contract with each mortgage lender in the market and having to meet their minimum submissions per month on my own, i belong to a group that has to meet those targets combined and also has a joint agreement regarding comission levels and other things. they are also into advocacy and keeping us up to date in the market.

They are the biggest aggegrator group in NZ and Australia as well.

i just found out this morning that i have been nominated as a finalist for Plan NZ Specialist lending Broker of the year, and..

i have also been nominated as a finalist for Plan NZ up and coming broker of the year.

oddly enough i am super super excited, and finding it a bit hard to focus :)

now this weekend i need to finish my application, tidy up my business and marketing plan and get it all off to them. and i find out at the conference on the 10th and 11th of may.

anyway, thats it from me, now to try and do some work :)

AL

grendel_khan @ 2006-07-18T13:51:00

2006-07-18T02:03:22Z

meh, why not, a meme counts as a post right?

first time thingy

Fell in love - properly 21, before that was probably just the lust :)

Lost your virginity – 18 (hence all the lust)

Lost someone close to you – 16 (My Grand-dad.)

Drank alcohol - 5-6, one of the ubiquitous parties mum had at our place. yobbbos with crates.

Smoked weed – 17

Got kissed – 5

Got your heart broken – 19-20

Got arrested – the first time? 11?

Smoked a cigarette – 11

Broken a bone – of my own? i think i broke a toe at 13, but that barely counts, i first broke someone elses at 20.

Got cheated on – never

Rode the city bus – when i first came to the big smoke at 15

Went to a concert – 12, Pseudo Echo (the guys that did funky town), i got the bus to nelson with my mum :)

Met someone famous – Met most of the French rugby team when i was 12, cannot remember their names. in fact sadly most of my celebrity stuff has been rugby people due to my uncle. though i did used to know the butter girl :)

Dyed your hair – never, why would i need to?

Got your first cell phone – bought my first one at 18 (in 1995, when they were bricks and you could pick your number of a list :) )

Got a Myspace - never

Snuck out of the house – probably 7 or 8, the joys of my family home in those days. i kept going back though.

Got your own digital camera – 23,24?

First time you got drunk – 11

Read Harry Potter – 22?. It was right after number three came out.

Traveled across the ocean – was born overseas so, somewhere between 0 and 1.

Wore a toga – never

Traveled out of state – 0-1

Shopped at Abercrombie – not applicable.

Went to Disney World – 2 i think, but that i actually cogently remember 16, i went to euro disney

Went on a date – 10

Saw a Broadway play – never thankfully

How old are you now – 29

After having filled this in, i feel like so much white trash :)

grendel_khan @ 2006-01-30T20:42:00

2006-01-30T07:46:46Z

Am now under 90KG, very very cool. means a belt must be worn more often, but i can live with that inconvenience.

up at 6am this morning, in the gym by 6.45, at work by 8 for first actual day back, ate almost all my food, did business, made money, set plans, felt good to have some actual things happening in my life i have control over and are positive.

good to be back at work, though F is already too annoying, so the buzz may go. had good talk with C, and have set plans or ideas for the mortgage team, as opposed to C's team, small but important distinction. we are also going to be actually coordinating this year with the lender visits etc.

Have lots of food now, and have to write a newsletter for my COG, and an article for someone elses newsletter. hope to sleep better tonight, not sure if its likely, but strangely eating well makes me less tired.

brain not exactly functioning as normal, but is not a big pile of goo, so vaguely positive. future is cloudy and unformed, who knows?

grendel_khan @ 2006-01-29T17:56:00

2006-01-29T04:57:33Z

Feel weird, this will take some getting used to, but all going well, not have to.

Assignment 5

2005-11-07T08:05:43Z

another good mark, weee

(disclaimer as usual)

EXEC785 – Assignment 5 Alan Borthwick – 1025540

Question 1. Chapter 12, Question 5: “What kinds of risk do the EQC cover”

According to http://www.eqc.govt.nz
“You are insured against loss or damage to your home, your personal possessions, and land by earthquake, natural landslip, volcanic eruption, hydrothermal/geothermal activity, tsunamis (sea waves caused by movements of land or the sea floor) and fires resulting from these natural disasters.
Your land is also insured against storm and flood damage
After an earthquake or any of these other natural disasters has occurred, your home might not be damaged but it might be in immediate danger from that disaster. In this situation you could make a claim to EQC, including the costs of taking reasonable steps to protect your property or to prevent further damage (See "What you must do after an earthquake or natural disaster" p13). “
For
• Dwellings (self-contained premises used as a home, including apartments);
• Most personal property but excluding some types (e.g. motor vehicles and art);
• The land immediately around the dwelling, main accessways, and retaining walls, within certain limits.
And the extent of that cover is:
“Dwellings are insured up to a maximum of $100,000 plus goods and services tax (GST) and personal effects are insured up to $20,000 + GST.
Dwellings are covered on a replacement value basis. Personal property is insured on the same basis as the household insurance policy covering the same property. Some retaining walls are covered, but on an indemnity basis.”
The EQC is an SOE whose main function (among others) according to the Earthquake commission act 1993 is:
“To administer the insurance against natural disaster damage provided under this Act:”
How the EQC is funded is that Consumers pay a levy above their Home and contents insurance which goes to the EQC and is used to cover households against the damage caused by natural disasters. This only covers residential, not commercial property.
The EQC will pay up to a max of $100000, if the house is worth more than that then it is important to have a policy that covers the difference (for example Veros, Maxiplan)

Question 1. Chapter 13, Question 9: “How do you compare premium patterns over time?”
Firstly, do you need to?
As part of your advice as a planner you will need to look at the benefits of stepped vs level premium. If you choose level, then premium patterns become irrelevant as the premiums won’t change.
Outside of that, it depends on the type of insurance, with health insurance (for example, Towers Health Plus) the premiums are often clearly banded in blocks of 5 years (of age) so the gradual rise in premiums can be seen, so as part of an annual review plan you can keep track of the cost and its effect on your client.
A basic rule of premium pricing is that the older you are the more expensive it is. For some products (namely life and Income protection) it will cost more for males than females (because males are more at risk of dying young or injuring themselves) when you are younger, but this tends to balance out as you get older (presumably because all of the males who were going to die young have, thus reducing the payout risk a bit).
Other factors that will effect premium pricing are:
• Claims history, if there is a run of claims (beyond expectations) then the cost will be passed onto the customer in increased premiums.
• Environment, an increase in health scares, pandemics such as bird flu or sars increase the risk of a medical event that could trigger a claim.
• Inflation, a lot of policies are inflation adjusted, currently that is pegged at no more than 3%, but what if it changes? You may see a change in how many people are willing to go for CPI adjustments yearly.

References
Maylor, M. (2005). Risk Management and Insurance in New Zealand 1st ed, Palmerston North, New Zealand: Thomson/Dunmore Press (pg 77-117).

Health Plus
Tower Health and Life
Retrieved October 25th from Tower Health and Life from the World Wide Web
http://www.tower.co.nz/Web_Content.asp?PID=100000747&L1=100000695&L2=100000747
EQC Cover
Earthquake Commission
Retrieved October 30th from Tower Health and Life from the World Wide Web
http://www.eqc.govt.nz/insurance/householdersguide.aspx
http://www.eqc.govt.nz/insurance/guide.aspx

Earthquake Commission Act 1993
Government Legislation Site
Retrieved October 30th from Tower Health and Life from the World Wide Web
________________________________________
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/libraries/contents/om_isapi.dll?clientID=691550329&hitsperheading=on&infobase=pal_statutes.nfo&record={B21123BF}&softpage=DOC

Waikato Management School Document Marking
Friday, 4 November 2005 at 12:09:00 p.m.

Student Details:
Student: Alan Karl Borthwick
Username: akb22

Paper Details:
Paper: EXEC785U Risk Management
Assessment Component: Exercise 5
Due Date: Wednesday, 2 November 2005 at 12:00:00 p.m.

Marking:
Marked By: SMLOCKE
Mark: A-

Comments:

Q1 good
Q2 do you need to? Well maybe. Give some good quantitative guidelines. The banding etc is good.

Assignment 4

2005-11-02T06:12:10Z

took a bit longer, but not long enough to be bothered editing it, which as it turns out was not neccessary.

(good old disclaimer)

EXEC785 – Assignment 4 Alan Borthwick – 1025540

Question 1. Chapter 10, Question 4: “How do you decide what level of excess to put on your policy”

An excess can and should only be used as a last resort. It has been implied that rather than have no excess you can save the funds into an account to cover your illnesses. The Text book states that most procedures are under $10 000 and are potentially able to be saved for. While this is true, what it fails to recognize is what happens if you need to have one of the expensive procedures? How will your savings cope then? Or will the client even have any savings left? Human nature would indicate the likelihood of someone putting away money for a potential risk as being rather low. As I said in assignment two, when quoting from Kahneman and Tversky (1979), people underweight the risk of probable outcomes compared to certain outcomes. View this with regards to saving for covering of medical costs (which are only possible, or at best probable, not certain) and it is highly unlikely there will be any savings at all.

If you do need to look at an excess you not only need to weigh up the change in premium as compared to the clients budget, but the cost of the excess (if they have to use it) for the client, which will depend on the type of policy the client has. It is likely that for most people, paying for example $1000 more a year in cover (spread over each month) is easier than finding $1000 immediately if you have the $1000 excess.

You also need to be aware of how each company’s excess works. For example Towers Health Plus’s excess applies to each person on the policy each policy calendar year, so if the policy covers 5 people with a $500 excess, then you could be up for $2500 if all need to claim in one year.

An excess should ideally only be used when your premiums get too expensive, which will usually be as you get older. Rather than having to cancel the policy you can keep the costs around the same level by adding the excess on in stages as the prices go up.

Question 2. Chapter 8, Question 2: “What cover can you get if you are temporarily off work?”

Taken from ACC site;
If you are an earner and you can’t resume your pre-injury job because of your injury, and ACC has accepted your claim, we may be able to pay you weekly compensation. We can pay up to 80% of your pre-injury weekly earnings. The calculation to determine the amount paid is prescribed by ACC legislation.
For employees, the calculation is based on 80% of your earnings from employment in the four weeks and 52 weeks prior to the date you became unfit for work.

ACC makes no payments for the first week you are off work. If it is a work-related injury, your employer is liable to pay the first week of compensation to cover your loss of earnings in that week.

For the second to the fifth week off work, your compensation is based on your earnings in the four weeks prior to going off work.

After the fifth week onwards, if you are still off work, the calculation is based on your earnings in the 52 weeks prior to the date you became unfit for work. Calculations can vary depending on whether your work is permanent or not.

www.acc.co.nz

Ideally ACC will cover you to the full 80% of your current income, if for some reason you are ineligible for ACC, or they won’t pay out the full amount (due to length of employment, change of employment etc) then an income protection policy will cover you up to a maximum of 75% of your predisability earnings. If you are getting some compensation from ACC, then the Tower Life 360 Income protection policy for example will top you up to 75% of your predisability earnings.

How soon you can claim on your income protection depends solely on what waiting period you have chosen, anything from 14 days to 2 years.
Reference:

Maylor, M. (2005). Risk Management and Insurance in New Zealand 1st ed, Palmerston North, New Zealand: Thomson/Dunmore Press (pg 77-117).

Kahneman, D & Tversky, A (1979), Prospect Theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, Mar 1979, 47(2), 263-282

ACC benefits
Retreived October 25th from ACC New Zealand from the World Wide Web.
http://www.acc.co.nz/wcm001/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&ssDocName=WCMZ002293&ssSourceNodeId=3883

Health Plus
Tower Health and Life
Retrieved October 25th from Tower Health and Life from the World Wide Web
http://www.tower.co.nz/Web_Content.asp?PID=100000747&L1=100000695&L2=100000747

Income Protection
Tower Life 360
Retrieved October 25th from Tower New Zealand from the world wide web
http://www.tower.co.nz/Web_Content.asp?PID=100001021&L1=100000695&L2=100001021
________________________________________

Waikato Management School Document Marking
Wednesday, 26 October 2005 at 5:43:33 p.m.

Student Details:
Student: ALAN KARL BORTHWICK
Username: akb22

Paper Details:
Paper: EXEC785U Risk Management
Assessment Component: Exercise 4
Due Date: Wednesday, 26 October 2005 at 12:00:00 p.m.

Marking:
Marked By: SMLOCKE
Mark: A

Comments:

top job

Assignment 3

2005-11-02T06:10:47Z

I think this one took 40 minutes, but its easier when you can copy paste from the web.

(disclaimner as usual)

EXEC785 – Assignment 1 Alan Borthwick – 1025540

Question 1. Chapter 7, Question 9: “What is the difference between a ‘defined benefit’ pension and a ‘defined contribution’ pension”

From: Michael Hyndman
Retirement Savings Schemes for Government Employees: A Brief Preliminary Review of Some Key Issues
http://www.ssc.govt.nz/display/document.asp?NavID=117&DocID=2234
• Defined benefit scheme: A "defined-benefit" scheme defines each member's level of benefit entitlement on retirement independently of the accumulated value of their contributions - typically in relation to his/her average base salary level in a specified period immediately preceding retirement (i.e., a "back-end loading" of pension entitlements). Its employee members typically are required to contribute a specified proportion of their salaries to the scheme, and the employer to underwrite the scheme's liabilities by contributing whatever balance of funds is needed to pay the defined benefit entitlements.
• Defined contribution scheme: A "defined-contribution" scheme simply defines the contributions of employee members and the employer, and provides retirement benefit entitlements whose level depends entirely on the value of accumulated net investment funds attributable to an individual member.
The risk of the defined benefit scheme is that you may live too short after retirement and may not get back your money (depending on whether the scheme pays to a widow).

The risk to the company is that a) you live too long, so they lose money over time or b) they don’t get the minimum return from your funds required to pay you, so they have to fund your pension from other sources.

The risk to the person in a defined contribution scheme is that you will not save enough to earn a decent pension, or your fund will lose more money than it makes.

The risk to the employer is that the scheme (if a work scheme) may not be attractive enough to keep the employee.

Question 2. Chapter 8, Question 2: “Can you receive New Zealand Superannuation if your spouse doesn’t qualify and is earning a high income?”

The short answer is “yes”, you can.
According to the IRD Website;
http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/get-financial-assistance/main-benefit/nz-superannuation.html
The following payments are available if only one spouse is eligible.
Fortnightly payments Before tax Taxed at `M' (if you have no other income)
Married* (only 1 partner qualifies) $447.00 each $375.28 each
*This amount may be affected by other income you receive. People whose payments started before October 1991 may get more than this.

However they go on to qualify;
Receiving other income
Other income does not affect New Zealand Superannuation unless your partner is 'included' in your payments. If your partner is 'included', you can have other income of up to $4160 a year before tax ($80 a week) between you before your Super is affected. If you earn more than this, we will take 70c off your payment for each dollar of income over this limit.
And of course the dreaded tax question;
Tax
Super is taxed before you get it, but you still need to pay tax on any other income you get

The requirements to get NZ Super at all are:
To get New Zealand Superannuation (Super) you must be:
• 65 years of age or over, and
• a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident that normally lives here when you
apply.
You must also have lived in New Zealand for a total of 10 years since you turned 20 (and five of those years must be since you turned 50), unless, when you were overseas you were:
• having special medical or surgical treatment or
• doing vocational training or
• working as a missionary or
• working with Volunteer Service Abroad or
• serving in one of the Commonwealth’s armed forces or
• working overseas and paid tax in New Zealand on the earnings from that work or
• working on a New Zealand owned or registered ship trading to and from here.

Question 3. Chapter 10, Question 7: “Why is an “exclusive” policy better than an “inclusive” policy?”
Income Protection Cover protects your biggest asset - your income. It pays you a percentage of your lost income if you are unable to work due to suffering an illness or injury. This means you would still be able to:
• Pay your mortgage or rent to protect your home
• Pay the food bills
• Pay for essential services such as power, rates, phone etc
• Provide children with the opportunities they need
www.tower.co.nz
An exclusive policy tells you what is not covered, so that the client knows, if it is not specifically excluded then they are covered. This gives the client greater surety of cover, because as time goes on, new issues or medical conditions become known, they are automatically included as a matter of course.

The only surety a client with an inclusive policy has is what exactly is covered. Inclusive policies are usually lesser policies because they only cover a very small range of conditions, essentially meaning that they are less likely to have a payout. So while they are cheaper (usually) than an exclusive policy, they pay out a lot less.

An example of an Exclusive policy is Tower Life 360 Income protection, which covers you if you are unable to work for more than 10hrs per week, potentially till age 65. Typical exclusions for this product are terrorism, war, non disclosure, and any pre existing health conditions (which need to be disclosed at application).

An example of an inclusive policy is the Sovereign Essential Disability Income Protection, which only covers the client if they are unable to work from suffering 1 of 27 conditions (mostly trauma conditions) such as heart attack or cancer etc. They will not pay if the client cannot work due to normal illness or stress for example.

Reference:

Maylor, M. (2005). Risk Management and Insurance in New Zealand 1st ed, Palmerston North, New Zealand: Thomson/Dunmore Press (pg 77-117).

Superannuation Entiltlement
Main benefits New Zealand Superannuation- htm# (p434_30966)
Retrieved October 18th from Work and Income New Zealand from the world wide web http://www.workandincome.govt.nz

Income Protection
Tower Life 360
Retrieved October 18th from Tower New Zealand from the world wide web
________________________________________
http://www.tower.co.nz/Web_Content.asp?PID=100001021&L1=100000695&L2=100001021

Waikato Management School Document Marking
Saturday, 22 October 2005 at 8:35:50 a.m.

Student Details:
Student: ALAN KARL BORTHWICK
Username: akb22

Paper Details:
Paper: EXEC785U Risk Management
Assessment Component: Exercise 3
Due Date: Wednesday, 19 October 2005 at 12:00:00 p.m.

Marking:
Marked By: SMLOCKE
Mark: A-

Comments:

1. good explanations but want you to give some product examples.
2. comprehensive
3. yes, I do like this one.

Assignment 2

2005-11-02T06:08:49Z

stil pretty much done the morning it was due, probably took about 50 minutes

(as usual, disclaimer applies)

EXEC785 – Assignment 2 Alan Borthwick – 1025540

Question 1. Chapter 4, Question 4: “If you buy a convertible, renewable, non participating term policy, what have you bought”

Firstly to define the terms;

Convertible; the policy can be converted to a cash value policy with no questions.

Renewable; The policy can continue on year after year until the final age of cessation as long as the premium is paid regardless of health, occupation, residency or habits changes.

Non participating; the policy holder does not share in any of the profits of the company and there is no return of premium.

Basically you have bought a life insurance policy payable on death.

Variants could be a yearly renewable policy, where the insurer can decide on a year by year basis whether to continue to offer cover.

Question 2. Chapter 5, Question 6: “How do you carry out a ‘needs analysis approach’ for valuing future income?”

Naylor (Risk Management and Insurance in New Zealand, 58,59) mentions two ways of assessing future income, the ‘basic’ way which has 8 steps to it. And the ‘accurate’ way, which has only 3 steps.

If we focus on the accurate way, as an 8 step process will put most clients to sleep, the steps are:

1. identify the expenditure needs
2. identify sources of possible income
3. calculate the difference between the needs and the income

What cannot be forgotten is that we are not talking about a sensible, rational process. The talk of life insurance is an emotional one, because it involves the chance of people dieing.

According to Kahneman and Tversky (1979), “people underweight outcomes that are merely probable in comparison with outcomes that are obtained with certainty. This tendency, called the certainty effect contributes to risk aversion in choices involving sure gains and to risk seeking in choices involving sure losses”

What this means, is that just talking about what their needs are with the chance of an occurrence will more likely lead to them underweighting their needs, by merely talking numbers, you can lead them to downplay the risks.

You need to discuss the certainty of outcomes, and rather than talk dollars, you need to discuss what the money is needed for, its not $50 000, its “the childrens education”

Proper needs analysis uses both mathematics and the emotive process, focus too much on the maths and you will lose people.

Question 3. Chapter 6, Question 6: “What exclusions are common in life policies?”

Typically an insurer will have exclusions for activities that are likely to cause death, but cannot be accounted for with risk, such as terrorism, war etc. or where the policy holder is undergoing an activity that is dangerous and has a high likelihood of injury or death, such as base jumping, skydiving etc.

Suicide is another common exclusion, but it won’t be paid out for the first 12 months. There is an assumption here that people don’t take out life insurance and decide to wait 12 months before killing themselves to give their family money.

There are also exclusions for children’s life insurance, as it says in the Sovereign Policy Wordings (Total care appendix - November 2004)“if a child of the life assured dies as a result of injury caused by violent, accidental, external and visible means…” This means that no one will get a payout for killing their own child.

Reference:

Maylor, M. (2005). Risk Management and Insurance in New Zealand 1st ed, Palmerston North, New Zealand: Thomson/Dunmore Press (pg 72-75,).

Kahneman, D & Tversky, A (1979), Prospect Theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, Mar 1979, 47(2), 263-282

Sovereign Policy Wordings, (2004)

________________________________________

Waikato Management School Document Marking
Sunday, 16 October 2005 at 6:18:12 p.m.

Student Details:
Student: ALAN KARL BORTHWICK
Username: akb22

Paper Details:
Paper: EXEC785U Risk Management
Assessment Component: Exercise 2
Due Date: Wednesday, 12 October 2005 at 12:00:00 p.m.

Marking:
Marked By: SMLOCKE
Mark: B

Comments:

Bit brief in coverage but have gone beyond textbook. Use proper citation when you have material to use and there is the potential to name some actual products available in NZ with these questions.

Journal week 3-6

2005-11-02T06:04:48Z

Week 3-6

Have learned that i need to make myself update this otherwise its not a lot of use.

I ahvbe learned a lot more about what Stuart is looking for i think in terms of assigment submission, the key being to refer to other sources outside of the text book, and also to reference product examples.

Most recently i have learned a great deal about the earthquak commission and how they work from the most recent assignment, and also got a bit more insite to political idealogies from the book, thinking about finding a copy of Das Kapital to read over the holidays.

Have resolved to actually update again next week, we'll see how that goes.

(see disclaimer on main page)

Odd

2005-11-02T05:54:38Z

Well my face was numb for a bit today,i had to get 3 fillings at the dentist and he put half my face to sleep, including my ear and tongue.

went to a seminar this morning for Tower, as part of their 'relaunch'. good cool stuff about clinet management and best practice stuff including super cool new interface for forms etc. also got to hear hamish carter speak about the olympics, basically he says he only won athens becuase of how much he bombed sydney, so it was all about how to set goals etc.

i've found some blogs of people i know, from way back, one i kinda got on with, who is going out withsome else i know, who i did not quite go out with but, well yes, a lot :)

i don;t think i will friend her, not sure the reaction (weird not breakup, well it ended but you can;t break up if you were never actually going out), him, not so sure, might think on it.

also have confirmed another blog i am friended to does belong to someone i know, not a random stranger, which i was beginning to suspect. startling realisation that some of these people have not been talked to IRL for around the 5 year mark, otoh how many people would i have completely lost contact with if evil LJ did not exist.

tournament this weekend, not overly excited, but hopefully will be fun anyway, more excited about the warmachine one in late nov, assuming my stuff arrives from the states.

lloking forward to end of year, probably finishing about the 12th (or the friday nearest that) and going back on the 30th of jan, so a nice 6 weeks of nothin, well maybe some bits of work, for clients who have stuff around then, but nothing strenous.

UNI Journal week 2

2005-10-12T09:12:43Z

Week 2 of my journal for UNI, will have my assignment up when it gets marked.

Week 2

Since last week i have learned more about the academic approach to risk, and to needs analysis, and from my study group we have discussed the difference between an academic approach and one learned from experience that my study group members with over 15yrs experience in the industry.

learned the definition of some of the terms used in life insurance.

and learned about prospect analysis and the way that the difference between a probable and guaranteed outcome will make clients diminish the importance of some risks and enhance others.

(See diusclaimer on main page)

Jason-Nosaj

2005-10-10T08:39:39Z

Was talkin to katie about ideas for baby names, and came up with a cool idea, paindromes!

so i need ideas, of names that work as palindromes, preferably normalish sounding names. and btw emma does not count its too easy :)