Did you hear? Treasury and the Reserve Bank published a draft manual that would bar SA companies from moving crypto cross-border. Individuals would still be able to externalise assets, and only within their existing offshore allowances. Nothing is law yet — comments close on 30 Sept.
This week in Seed Analytics Advisor Connect:
Upcoming events: Chances to network & earn CPD points.
3 signals in your book: Spot a cross-sell before the meeting.
Read the money movements: What clients are already doing.
New opportunities & advisory jobs for you to explore in SA.
Draft tax bills touch living annuities & SA's R50,4trn cover gap.
Prompt of the week: Build your pre-meeting checklist.
Take Note
FPI Estate & Trust Masterclass – Online, 19 Aug: A half-day FPI masterclass on the estate-planning issues advisors meet every day. CPD-accredited and online, with a recording for anyone who can't join live. Details here.
Ninety One Women & Investing – Online, 20 Aug: This consumer event has some advisor-grade breakouts (two-pot for women, RA and TFSA structuring, AMETFs and tokenisation, and matrimonial-property planning) plus a room of CFPs and advisory firms for networking. Register here.
3 signals that flag cross-sell opportunities before the meeting
Here's how to spot signals that your client’s ready to explore new products or opportunities…
Most cross-sell happens by accident: A client mentions a bonus in passing, and you wish you'd known a week earlier. But, as we’ve shown you in a previous edition on cross-selling, the data signals are often already in your book; you just need to know how to spot them.
Here are three more signals to check before every meeting to help you direct where the conversation needs to go.
1. New money has landed
A lump sum arriving (an RA top-up, a bonus, a maturing policy, an inheritance) is a decision in progress. The client is actively thinking about that money right now, which makes it the best moment to have the conversation, while you can still help direct where it goes.
The window of opportunity is brief, and money that arrives without a plan rarely stays unplaced for long.
Take action: Before each review, scan for accounts that took an unusual inflow since you last spoke, and lead the meeting with a plan for it.
2. Cash is piling up
Idle cash is an unrealised opportunity sitting in plain sight. A balance that keeps growing while nothing gets invested usually means the client is unsure, distracted or waiting for a nudge.
Uninvested cash is both a drag on the client's returns and the clearest opening you'll get.
Take action: Flag any client holding a cash balance well above their usual buffer, and open the meeting with a specific strategy for that cash.
3. Money is leaving
Outflows are the signal advisors miss most because they can feel like bad news. But a partial withdrawal, a switch-out, or a product about to mature almost always points to a life event requiring a decision: an opportunity to help invest the money properly or to redirect a client who's quietly drifting.
Either way, you want to be the first call, not the last to know.
Take action: Watch for withdrawals, external transfers and upcoming maturities, and reach out before the money moves.
None of this is prospecting. It's simply paying attention to the clients you already have, noticing the signals that are there and strategising accordingly.
Join the conversation…
How do you usually spot a cross-sell?
One view of the whole book, instead of platform-by-platform
Often the reason the pre-meeting scan doesn't happen is down to logistics. Checking where a client's money has moved means logging into platform after platform, client by client. Doing this across a full book, requires time that few advisors have.
Seed's Book Reports pulls your whole book together automatically from the 70+ platforms into online analytics dashboards. That enables you to run this week's three checks across every client with relative ease, from a single source.
Already on Seed?
Open Book Reports before your next round of meetings and run the three checks across the clients you're seeing, rather than one login at a time.
New to Seed?
Featured Section
New wealth and fin advisory career opportunities in SA
Financial Advisor (George) @ LMB Wealth
Salaried Financial Adviser (Cape Town) @ Old Mutual
Wealth and Investment Specialist (Cape Town) @ Hereford Group
Financial Advisor (Bloemfontein) @ SureX Life
Financial Advisor (Gauteng) @ Lifecheq
Financial Advisor (Meredale) @ Brightsure
In Case You Missed It…
Industry Roundup
Draft Tax Bills Touch Living Annuities and Spousal Donations. Treasury and SARS have published draft taxation amendment bills proposing that a de minimis limit on living annuities would be calculated cumulatively where a client holds several with the same insurer or fund, and the inter-spousal donations-tax exemption would apply only where the receiving spouse is an SA tax resident.
24 Million Funeral Policies, but Only 19% Hold Life Cover. Capitec has flagged the mismatch in how South Africans insure themselves: funeral cover is near-universal, yet strip it out, and fewer than a fifth have life cover. ASISA's latest study puts the life and disability shortfall at R50,4 trillion (roughly seven times GDP), with the average earner short about R3,1 million, and disability accounting for the larger share at R29,2 trillion.
Trading Rebound Lifts the JSE as Local Investors Return. The exchange grew first-half profit 16,9% to R652 million on stronger equity and derivatives volumes, and says roughly three-quarters of the increase in equity activity came from domestic investors rather than offshore money.
Nedgroup Investments Battles Slowing Flows. Assets under management reached R502,4 billion at end-June, up just 1,3% on a year earlier and flat since December, with CFO Mike Davis conceding that flows are slowing and continue to decline. He put it down to weaker industry-wide flows and stiffer competition.
Petrol Eases, but Diesel Jumps Again. On Wednesday, petrol came down 52 cents a litre while wholesale diesel rose by R1,38 (500ppm) and R1,23 (50ppm). Because diesel moves freight, agriculture and public transport, that increase tends to reach food and goods prices well before it shows up in anyone's fuel bill.
Prompt of the week
If you want AI to help you spot cross-sell opportunities…
This prompt builds you a reusable checklist and a set of conversation openers you can run against your own book, without putting a single client detail into a chatbot.
How to use it:
Paste the prompt into your AI tool of choice.
Answer its questions in general terms only (the products you offer, your typical client type), never real names, balances or account data.
Take the checklist it returns and run it against your own book, in your own systems, before each meeting.
Important: Do not upload any client data, AUM, balances, flows or personal information into an AI tool. This prompt builds a review checklist only; you fill in the numbers yourself, offline.
The Prompt:
You are a practice-management coach for South African financial advisors. Help me build a repeatable money-movement checklist I can run against my own book before client meetings, to spot advice opportunities early. 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 two quick questions, one at a time: (1) the main products and solutions I can offer clients; (2) my typical client profile. Wait for my answers.
Then produce, in South African English: a short checklist of money-movement signals to look for before each meeting (new inflows, building cash, outflows, maturities, and any others you'd add), each with a one-line note on why it matters and what need it usually points to; and for each signal, one natural, non-pushy conversation opener I could use in the meeting.
Keep it practical for a busy advisor working through a full book, and flag anywhere I should confirm suitability or disclosure obligations under FAIS rather than relying on your wording.
Did You Know? On 6 Aug 1997, Microsoft and Apple stunned fans by announcing a five-year alliance. Microsoft invested in Apple, and the two companies started making their products compatible for a while. Many believe it was secretly a settlement for a lawsuit Apple filed against Microsoft for allegedly stealing code a few years prior.
Till next time,
Seed Analytics Advisor Connect
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