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Your financial goals will change as you move through the stages of your life. It is therefore important that your financial plan is a flexible road map that reflects where you are and where you want to be. At the recent series of meetings of the acsis/Personal Finance Financial Planning Club, Pat Blamire, a Certified Financial Planner at Chartered Wealth Solutions and a finalist in this year's Personal Finance/Financial Planning Institute Financial Planner of the Year competition, used a fictitious case study to highlight the financial planning considerations associated with each life stage.

The government's national health insurance plan topped the agenda at a healthcare conference this week, but just how it will affect you was not revealed.

Provisional taxpayers who haven't yet submitted a tax return and paid their dues have only until Tuesday to do so.

An area that generates a steady stream of reader complaints to Personal Finance is the administration of trusts - particularly testamentary trusts that are set up on the death of the benefactor - and the estates of people who have died.

Dread disease cover is a relatively new aspect of assurance cover. In the seventh part of our "How to" series on life assurance, we look at this often overlooked but important aspect of risk cover.

You pay to withdraw cash from an ATM, and it costs more for an over-the-counter withdrawal in a bank. But you may not know that you can withdraw cash at low cost at tillpoints at national retailers such as Pick n Pay.

When you buy a vehicle you should be wary of being sold motor maintenance plans that are falsely paraded as insurance policies, the Ombudsman for Short-term Insurance says.

People who cancel their life assurance policies now face yet another penalty: some financial advisers are trying to make their clients liable for refunding them any commissions the life companies claw back from the advisers.

Our front-page report about financial advisers who want to reclaim from their clients any commission they lose is symptomatic of most of the things that are wrong in the financial services industry and, in particular, the life assurance business.

Life assurance has a special role to play for women, particularly in ensuring they will be financially secure in their retirement. In the sixth part of our “How to” series on life assurance, Personal Finance looks at the significant issues all women need to take into account to accommodate their special circumstances.

The 2010 Sanlam Employee Benefits Benchmark Survey of retirement funding is a mixture of good and bad news.

To retire comfortably will cost a lot more than you might think, especially in medical expenses. This is the main message of Sanlam's latest retirement survey.

To retire comfortably will cost a lot more than you might think, especially in medical expenses. This is the main message of Sanlam's latest retirement survey.

The days of your signing an acknowledgment of debt and unwittingly agreeing to a judgment against you may be coming to an end.

The days of your signing an acknowledgment of debt and unwittingly agreeing to a judgment against you may be coming to an end.

Getting married and starting a family means having a sound financial plan, and life assurance will make up a special part of that plan. A failure to plan properly can mean debilitating poverty for those you love most. In the fifth part of our “How to” series on life assurance, we look at the significant factors that all people in long-term relationships must take into account when planning their finances.

Getting married and starting a family means having a sound financial plan, and life assurance will make up a special part of that plan. A failure to plan properly can mean debilitating poverty for those you love most. In the fifth part of our “How to” series on life assurance, we look at the significant factors that all people in long-term relationships must take into account when planning their finances.

The Financial Services Board (FSB) is considering establishing an internetbased training programme to help retirement fund trustees fulfil their fiduciary duties and responsibilities with greater confidence.

The Financial Services Board (FSB) is considering establishing an internetbased training programme to help retirement fund trustees fulfil their fiduciary duties and responsibilities with greater confidence.

After receiving comments and suggestions on its draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bills, the National Treasury has gone back to the drawing board and made some changes favouring you, the individual taxpayer.