banking - 15 Things You Should Know About Offshore Fund Managers

Do you know the person managing your money? If you don't, you need to; knowing who is managing your fund is as important as knowing where your money is. It's absolutely essential, and you should not hesitate to ask as many questions as you wish so that you're sure you're comfortable with where your money is being invested. This article will give you some of the information you'll need before you make important decisions about your investment, and it should help you find your way through the sometimes confusing ins and outs of fund management. It is imperative that you know who the fund manager is and what his or her background and skill level is. You should keep in mind the following points. The fund manager should meet the following requirements or willingly disclose the following information so that you can make an informed decision(s) about the manager: - Can communicate fluently with you in your native language (for clear, effective communication) - Has the requisite degrees and certifications (must be qualified to manage your money effectively) - Be transparent about background and other positions held (to help reassure you that he or she has the necessary experience) - Be transparent about his or her degree of management experience (to ensure that he or she can handle your investments responsibly) - Be willing to disclose the amount of money he or she held in previous management positions (must be comfortable with the pressures of handling your money) - Has spent adequate time in his or her current position (so as to be thoroughly acquainted with the market(s) you wish to invest in or are interested in learning more about) - Willingly disclose any previous fund management positions held that may have been similar to the current one (so as to ensure his or her experience will enable him/her to make prudent decisions about your money) - Willingly disclose the returns his or her previously managed funds achieved while he or she was in control (so as to establish a track record and solid returns results). Even though this information is important to obtain on fund managers, it isn't always easy to get. With a team-managed fund, it is actually immaterial, since one manager is no longer in charge of the fund. Funds management software has made it possible for a fund manager to simply follow the lead of computer-generated information, thus making the actual manager's experience almost unnecessary. However, this is only the case when a computer is being used thusly: the fund manager is still essential in all other situations. Besides knowing who your fund manager is, it is also important to thoroughly investigate the fund management company that the fund manager works for. Much of the time, team management is used for a fund, rather than a single manager. In this case, the company is what's important. These are some things you should investigate to make sure it's the right one for you: - What are the company's assets under management in total? (If overly large, the company may not be able to spend adequate time and effort managing your account) - How long has the company has been in business? (Ensure they've been in business long enough to have adequate experience in the field, for best possible performance) - What is the company's history? (Past history should show solid and consistent performance) - How big is the staff? (Should ensure consistent day-to-day management of your investments and should ensure that you can contact someone easily who will have knowledge of your fund) - Does the staff speak your native language? (Should ensure that you can easily communicate with them) - The numbers of funds run by the company (how much similar experience does the company have?) - The performance of their funds when viewed compared to similar funds run by the competition (how do the company's assets translate into concrete financial results?). Your fund's prospectus should have roughly 75% of this information in it. Although the information may not be vital to your decision to invest, most funds' management companies will be happy to give it to you so as to make it inviting for you to invest with them. So don't hesitate to ask questions until you're satisfied. You are absolutely entitled to know who's managing your money. -=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Who Else Wants To Learn The Truth About Offshore Investing? Download Your Free Offshore Investment Report And MP3. http://www.offshoreinvestingsecrets.com -=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Jenyns banking - Monopoly and Mortgage: Playing the Game Remember monopoly? Remember mortgages? You know, the text that's written when you flip your title deed. Flipping the title deed means your property is on mortgage and you'll get money from the bank. Sounds simple right? Wrong. There's much more to it than that. Here are the things you need to know about the game and how to get most out of your mortgages. The idea of the game is to buy and rent and sell properties so profitably that one becomes the wealthiest player and eventual "monopolist". Starting from "go" move tokens around the board according to the throw of dice. When a player's token lands on a space not yet owned, he may buy it from the bank: otherwise it is auctioned off to the highest bidder. The purpose of owning property is to collect rents from opponents landing there. Rentals are greatly increased if you put houses (those little green ones) and hotels (those dreaded red infrastructures). So your best bet in winning the game is to put the most houses or hotels in your lots. (That's assuming you don't land in your opponents' lots with houses or hotels). To raise more money, lots may be mortgaged to the bank. Here comes the tricky part. That includes deciding which lots to mortgage and how you can get the most out of your mortgaged property. Mortgages in monopoly can be done only through the bank. The mortgage value is printed on each title deed. The rate of interest is 10 percent, payable when the mortgage is lifted. If any property is transferred which is mortgaged, the new owner may lift the mortgage at once if he wishes, but must pay 10 percent interest. If he fails to lift the mortgage he still pays 10 percent interest and if he lifts the mortgage later on he pays an additional 10 per cent interest as well as the main value. Houses or hotels cannot be mortgaged. All buildings on the lot must be sold back to the bank before any property can be mortgaged. The bank will pay one-half of what was paid for them. In order to rebuild a house on mortgaged property the owner must pay the bank the amount of the mortgage, plus the 10 percent interest charge and buy the house back from the bank at its full price. When you mortgage a property, you can use the money for anything you want to, so long as it's legal under the rules of monopoly. The only restriction in this regard is that a player cannot pre-mortgage a property to finance its own purchase. For example, say a player wants to purchase Boardwalk but can't do it with his or her current assets. That player cannot say, "I'm going to buy Boardwalk by mortgaging it, and then using the money I get for the mortgage to complete the purchase." You must own a property before you can mortgage it. Playing the game is fun and it will give you an idea of how it is in the real buy and sell world. There are also the Community Chest and Chance spaces which players land on. Instructions ranging from winning $25 dollars to $500 dollars are given. Sometimes players even land in jail! This game is definitely a clever and amusing entertainment.