As a Result of the Canterbury Earthquake more and more people have been dealing with stress both of a financial nature and in the anxiety stakes.  In April Janine Starks put together ten helpful tips on coping and I thought it an appropriate time to remind all those affected of things they can do to relieve the stress factor.

Whether you’ve lost a home, have damage, lost your job, or are now worried about job security, thinking too far ahead makes the problem seem insurmountable. Instead, refocus yourself on the very short term – just the next month or two. Getting back that feeling of control, in some small fashion has a calming effect.

I’m a great believer that collecting information, record keeping and being pro-active goes a long way in regaining control. An organised person conquers a problem with far less stress than those who ‘wing-it’

1. Start a folder: a ring-binder with dividers. If you home is your financial problem, type up a summary page – your address and contact details; EQC claim number; your insurers details and policy number; bank account details; a full list of contact details for your assessor, claims handler, engineer, builder, moving company, storage unit. Have it all in one place so you are not scrambling.

2. File your paperwork: policy document, latest insurance schedule, any letters or emails from EQC, the title to your property, floor plans of your property if you have them. Start a section for photos of property damage, contents claim, correspondence with your insurer and assessor. Have a notes page for writing down the date of phone calls and what was said. Print off all emails and file them. Confirm any verbal conversations on email to your claims handler or assessor.

3. Don’t bother ringing EQC incessantly: you’ll get more and more wound up. But if you send them anything, call and make sure it’s on your file.

4. Talk to friends affected by the last earthquake: find out their tips – we are our own experts.

5. Start collecting information. When EQC arrive on your doorstep for a full visit, you should be fully armed. Have copies ready of any building report, building quotes, engineers report, floor plans etc. What a waste of their time, if they need to explain how a contents claim works. Every broken item should be photographed and numbered, written up on a schedule, with a quote for replacement. This is a laborious task, but the internet is a wonderful tool. Prices of TVs and crockery can all be printed off. If you can’t find the exact model, something close is fine. If the shop you purchased it from is no longer, retailers in other cities can be helpful.

6. Read your policy document: dull as it sounds, check the definition of your ‘home’. Ring your insurer and check to see whether items like your ‘deck’ are covered. I was told ours wasn’t as we hadn’t declared its size, but we managed to over-turn that.

7. Find out what EQC don’t cover: with fences, patios, paths, pools, driveways you won’t need to deal with EQC. Go straight to your insurer to have them repaired.

8. ‘Other people’ don’t have priority: its negative thinking and total rubbish. Those who appear to be making more progress are usually being pro-active and spending some of their own money to get early answers so they can push their insurer into action.

9. Get pro-active: don’t sit around and assume your damage is under $100,000. The 15 minute EQC visit was not carried out by engineers or builders. My own home in Redcliffs was given category 4 (minor damage, 9 month wait). Our private engineer confirmed there is easily more than $100,000 of damage. Carrying out your own engineers report can cost $900. Anyone living on a hill should seriously consider it. Alternatively go for a builder's report as they can help identify hidden damage. Don’t assume every builder is busy as specialist companies spend all day doing reports. Expect a 3-4 week wait (no biggie).

10. Stay proactive with your insurance assessor: they will take photos and have a good eye, but they are not a builder or an engineer. View them as a ‘go-between’. Keep asking what the next step is and what they need from you. They will bring in a proper building assessor who will price up the damage. Then they’ll hand over to project managers who organise the repairs, once EQC have paid out. In the case of a total rebuild, you may be allowed to opt for a full service architect who will project manage as well as provide new plans

The full article can be found at http://www.interest.co.nz/insurance/53091/financial-columnist-janine-starks-prescribes-10-steps-deal-financial-stress-after-ch  Janine Starks writes a regular column in The Press and is Co-Managing Director of Liontamer Investments.

There is no doubt that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, has made a massive impact on the world as we know it.  Now that he has gone we are finding out more and more about the man who was really a rather private person. 

He was a charismatic leader that's for sure.  Here is an excerpt from an article by John Markoff published in the New York Times:

Mr. Jobs was neither a hardware engineer nor a software programmer, nor did he think of himself as a manager. He considered himself a technology leader, choosing the best people possible, encouraging and prodding them, and making the final call on product design.

It was an executive style that had evolved. In his early years at Apple, his meddling in tiny details maddened colleagues, and his criticism could be caustic and even humiliating. But he grew to elicit extraordinary loyalty.

“He was the most passionate leader one could hope for, a motivating force without parallel,” wrote Steven Levy, author of the 1994 book “Insanely Great,” which chronicles the creation of the Mac. “Tom Sawyer could have picked up tricks from Steve Jobs.”

You can read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/business/steve-jobs-of-apple-dies-at-56.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

And will Apple suffer without Steve Jobs at the helm? Here is view of Brad Stone and Ashlee Vance in an article in the Bloomberg Businessweek.

Jobs was a total original. He was somehow able to blend iconoclasm, rock-and-roll, and chic industrial design with the nerd sciences, as well as the unseemly profit motive of the corporation. He made that contrary combination seem totally legitimate. His iconic products—iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad—literally changed the world, making people more connected in the virtual world and less so in the physical one. He had a knack for whipping customers and the media into frenzies of anticipation and adulation, and he often elevated the business of Apple with a touch of the poetic. “If the hardware is the brain and the sinew of our products, the software is their soul,” was one of the last things he said publicly, at an Apple event on June 6.

Apple will undoubtedly suffer without him. All the various aspects of his contribution have been chronicled since his resignation on Aug. 24, ad nauseam. Jobs harangued his employees into meeting the standards of his own lofty perfectionism, over and over. He canceled as many projects and prototypes as he approved, which ended up focusing Apple’s attention and resources on just a few game-changing products. He was relentless at manipulating the media, by alternately withholding access and then granting it, and with theatrical product reveals and occasionally belligerent interviews. He could turn a routine press conference to introduce a new gadget into something as anticipated as the Super Bowl.

At Apple’s presentation of the new iPhone on Oct. 5, Jobs’s absence was gnawingly felt. Apple’s new chief executive, Tim Cook, and his fellow execs exuded confidence and used a lot of the same intonations as Jobs. But they did not come near to expressing his vivacious spirit or his deepness of feeling about Apple and its future. It felt, in a way, like they were auditioning for something. Cook himself repeatedly used the word “momentum” to express the company’s progress. Apple surely has that—shares of its stock are up 4,000 percent over the last 10 years. But Steve Jobs never had to repeat a word like that.

Jobs believed the best-looking, easiest-to-use computers and devices were seamlessly integrated products where both the hardware and software were created by the same company. That conviction was wildly out of fashion in the 1990s, when Microsoft ruled the land and companies like Dell  and Hewlett-Packard packaged computers around Bill Gates’s operating system and Intel’s microchips. Jobs tenaciously stuck to his principles and his revival of Apple—beginning in 1997 but really gathering steam with the 2001 release of the iPod—was not only a triumph of his vision, but a wholesale rejection of the previous decade’s conventional wisdom. “Steve was among the greatest of American innovators—brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it,” said President Barack Obama in a statement.

Silicon Valley will now be a different place. 

Read to article at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/steve-jobs-departs-a-world-he-helped-transform-10052011.html

Questions are undoubtedly going to be asked on the future of Apple and we can only trust that Steve Jobs made the best of his time left by placing the best people in charge of his legacy. He will be missed.

The extended deadline to become an Authorised Financial Adviser (AFA) has meant that there are now 173 Canterbury advisers with the required designation.  There has been a rigorous process to go through and with all of the disruptions over the past year the Financial Markets Authority has called this achievement ‘impressive’.

It has been recommended that people in the Earthquake Red Zone ensure that they deal with an Authorised Financial Adviser when making important decisions going forward.  The quoted article that follows is from the FMA website. 

Canterbury advisers rise to the challenge

30 September 2011

76 Canterbury financial advisers have met an extended regulatory deadline to become Authorised Financial Advisers (AFAs).

Due to the disruption caused by earthquakes, Canterbury advisers were given until 1 October to be authorised to advise on investment products and offer services such as financial planning.

Elsewhere in New Zealand, advisers had a 1 July deadline. 97 Canterbury advisers met the July deadline.

FMA Head of Primary Regulatory Operations Sue Brown said the commitment that many advisers have shown to achieving authorisation has been impressive.

"We spoke to advisers shortly after the February earthquake who had suffered considerable personal loss, but what they were still anxious about was being able to help their clients. Their professionalism and commitment to client care define the spirit of the new regulatory era," Ms Brown said.

FMA recently ran an advertising campaign targeted at residential Red Zone homeowners recommending that they seek the right type of professional advice.

"Seeing a professional financial adviser will be very helpful to many Canterbury residents right now, but people need to check they're dealing with someone who is following the new rules. They've been put in place to help protect investors," said Ms Brown.

A full list of AFAs is available on FMA's website www.fma.govt.nz.

Special Red Zone website pages also have information about other types of financial advisers who can help with mortgages and insurance, and about how to check you're dealing with the right type of adviser.
FMA's consumer help line is 0800 434 566

I’m pleased to say that I was one of the 97 advisers who made the July deadline to register as an AFA  

There are three main changes to KiwiSaver to be implemented progressively:

1. The maximum Member Tax Credit (MTC) will be halved from $1 to 50c for every dollar a member contributes, up to a maximum of $521 per annum. To be eligible to receive the maximum MTC ($521.43 per annum) you still need to contribute $1,042.86 per annum.

This change will relate to your contributions made from 30 June 2011 onwards, but because the MTC is paid annually in arrears, you will not receive the new MTC amount until after 30 June 2012.

2. Currently, contributions up to 2% from employers are exempt from Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax (ESCT). From 1 April 2012, all contributions from your employer will be subject to ESCT at your marginal tax rate.
3. From 1 April 2013, it is proposed that the minimum employee and employer contributions will rise from 2% to 3%.

The IFA have put together a guide to help answer questions relating to advice on financial matters for those affected by the Canterbury earthquake.  The guide answers questions such as:

• What you may need advice or help with
• Making a claim under a house or contents policy
• Making a claim under a life insurance or income protection policy
• Managing your budget and cashflow
• What to do with any investments you have
• What options you have for reducing your commitments to KiwiSaver or insurance premiums

You can view the IFA guide here and not only that, by presenting a copy of the flyer you will be elligible for three hours worth of free advice.  This offer is only available from approved advisers who are participating in the scheme.  

If you would like to arrange an appointment please contact me and take advantage of this offer!

The earthquake in Japan brings so much more heartache, disaster and despair than we can imagine.  The nuclear threat seems more horrifying than the earthquake and the  tsunami even. While I can understand the fear and horror of experiencing the shakes I cannot imagine the horror those poor people are now living through.  The aftershocks will continue to come, adding to their stress.

My sympathies to everyone living in the zone.

The tsunami was witnessed as far away as New Zealand.  A friend was in the Bay of Islands and this is his description of the tsunami in the North Island:

"I saw what at tsunami can be like today, I have never seen water mass move so fast like I saw today. I was at a property right on the edge of the water, demonstrating machines, when the first, second,and 3 more hit over a nearly 6hr period, the noise of the water coming in and the speed it came on and out, along with the silt that came with it, amazing, when I came back on the ferry the colour of the water is something I have not seen before, it was a darker brown than when we get floods and run off, wish I had a video camera, as it is hard to describe. Those poor buggers in Japan would have had no show with those big waves, such is the power of nature."