Did you hear? Goldman Sachs reckons South Africa could regain investment-grade status as soon as 2028 and says markets are largely not pricing it in, leaving room for the 10-year local yield to fall more than 100 basis points and about 9% upside for the rand.
This week in Seed Analytics Advisor Connect:
Upcoming events: Chances to network & earn CPD points.
Answer in the room: 3 questions worth having on hand at any time.
No more "let me come back to you": What changes in a review.
New opportunities & advisory jobs for you to explore in SA.
Eskom sales at 26-year low & rethinking the 60/40 rule.
Prompt of the week: Build your review-prep checklist.
Take Note
Morningstar Investment Conference β Sandton, 8 Sept (Cape Town, 10 Sept): South Africa's largest gathering of financial advisors returns for its 14th year under the theme "Focus on What Matters". Accredited for 5,0 CPD points. Details here.
FPSB Psychology in Practice β Online, anytime: An on-demand FPI course pairing a video series with an e-book on the behavioural side of advice. Paid, self-paced, with additional CPD points available on completion. Details here.
3 client questions you should answer in the room instead of by email
What changes in a review when you have access to the client's complete positionβ¦
When a client's money sits across five platforms, often nobody in the room has sight of the whole position, including the advisor. So reasonable client questions often get the honest answer of: let me come back to you.Β
That answer is usually fine, but it moves the useful part of the meeting into an email a week later, by which time the client has stopped thinking about the question they asked.
Here are three questions worth being able to answer on the spot.
1. What is my total exposure?
Real concentration tends to hide in the gaps between statements. A client with holdings in five different places may be considerably more exposed to one share, one sector or one manager than any single statement suggests, because each statement looks reasonable on its own.
Concentration only becomes visible once the holdings are consolidated.
Take action: Before the review, pull and consolidate the clients holdings and note any single share, sector or manager carrying more weight than the client would expect.
2. What am I paying, all in?
Fees sit in different places across different products, so clients rarely see one number, and advisors often cannot produce that number on the spot either. Being able to show the total, and what it buys, normally lands better than defending each layer separately once a client has worked it out themselves.
It also shows that you are being diligent in managing the clients complete portfolio.Β
Take action: Work out the all-in cost figure before the meeting, and be ready to work through it line by line.
3. How am I tracking, across everything?
Progress against a goal means very little when it's measured product by product. A client comfortably on track in one preservation fund may be lagging behind when looking at their consolidated position, which is what they are actually asking about.
Take action: Show goal progress on the consolidated position, so that "am I on track?" gets answered in the room rather than in a follow-up email.
None of these questions are difficult to answer if the numbers are in front of you. The difference is being able to provide an answer, and have the conversation, while the client is still with you in your office.
Join the conversationβ¦
In your last review, how many questions did you have to take away and answer later?
The complete and consolidated position, ready before the meeting starts
Answering the three questions listed above while you are in the client review depends on you having the full picture before you walk into the meeting. And building that manually across five platform logins can seem quite daunting.
Thatβs why Seed's Consolidated Statements give each client an interactive, goal-based dashboard, updated monthly and branded as yours, drawing on data Seed Analytics pulls automatically from over 65 investment platforms. This means that you have the consolidated position and progress against each goal with you when the review starts.
Already on Seed? Open the client's Consolidated Statements dashboard before your next review, and note the one question you would previously have taken away.
New to Seed?
Featured Section
New wealth and fin advisory career opportunities in SA
Financial Advisor (Vredendal) @ Old Mutual
Wealth Manager (Cape Town) @ Hereford Group
Financial Advisor (Northern Cape) @ Momentum Group
Executive Financial Advisor (Midrand) @ Accsure Wealth
Financial Planning Consultant (Western Cape) @ Alexforbes
Financial Advisor (Randburg) @ Nexus Independent
In Case You Missed Itβ¦
Industry Roundup
Eskom's Sales Hit a 26-Year Low as Profit Doubles. Eskom sold 178 terawatt-hours in its 2026 financial year, 6,2% less than in 2025 and its lowest since 2000, yet after-tax profit rose from R14 billion to R30,3 billion on tariff increases of 12,74%.
What Should Replace the 40 in a 60/40 Portfolio? Peregrine's Alan Yates questions whether sovereign bonds can hold their safe-haven role as global debt issuance keeps growing, while Mentenova's Bongiwe Momoza would still hold about 20% in local bonds and expects duration to drive returns.
Agriculture Department Warns Farmers About the Coming El NiΓ±o. The Weather Service has confirmed an El NiΓ±o running through summer, bringing lower rainfall and higher temperatures, with many areas already below normal rainfall and risks to crops, livestock, irrigation allocations and pest control.
Shoprite Lifts Its Stake in the Firm That Built Sixty60. Shoprite raised its holding in on-demand delivery company Zulzi from 26% to 41,2% in the year to 28 June, valuing the stake at about R7 million, having used Zulzi to build the original Checkers Sixty60 app.
Prompt of the week
If you want to build your review-prep checklistβ¦
This prompt builds you a short pre-meeting checklist and a plain way to present each of the three answers. You fill in the client specifics yourself; the AI only ever builds the frame.
How to use it:
Paste the prompt into your AI tool of choice.
Answer its questions in general terms only (the client types you serve, the products they typically hold), with no names, balances or account data.
Save the checklist as your house version and work through it before each review.
The Prompt:
You are helping a South African financial advisor and paraplanner prepare for client review meetings, so that questions get answered in the meeting rather than in a follow-up email. Do not ask for, and I will not give, any real client names, balances or account data. Work only from the general descriptions I provide.
First, ask me three short questions, one at a time: (1) the kinds of clients I serve and the products they typically hold; (2) which of their holdings I can currently see in one place and which I cannot; (3) who does the review preparation in my team. Wait for my answers.
Then produce, in South African English:
1. A one-page pre-review checklist covering what to have in front of me before the meeting, organised under total exposure, total cost and progress against goals, with [BRACKETED PLACEHOLDERS] for anything client-specific.
2. For each of those three, two or three plain sentences I could use to present the answer to a client, and one follow-up question to ask them.
3. A short note on what to do when a number genuinely cannot be produced in the meeting.
Flag anywhere I should confirm suitability, disclosure or record-keeping obligations with my compliance officer rather than relying on your wording, and do not cite specific FAIS section numbers.
Did You Know? On 3 Sept 1995, eBay launched. Software engineer Pierre Omidyarβs weekend side project called AuctionWeb sold a broken laser pointer, listed only to test the code, for around $14,83. Omidyar saw an opportunity, and eBay was born.
Till next time,
Seed Analytics Advisor Connect
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