Tax free savings account-********* business model

Customers really need to know what they getting into when they decide to try Old Mutual especially if you don't intend on paying the advisors fees. The company is very heavily run on advisors being on a commission salary base and you will receive little to no help if you aren't making use of one of them.

Firstly, their unit trusts pricing is an issue. They do not give you updated pricing within the application process or if you schedule a debit order they do not send you an invoice explicitly stating the number of units you purchased and the cost of those units. When you request this information they refer you to a page on their website whereby you can get the prices they supposedly charged on the day. Unfortunately even when you Google the JSE codes for the unit trusts it offers you still will not get the pricing along with the graphs that you will get with other service providers.

Secondly Old Mutual makes it difficult to exit or switch your investments in various ways. Firstly old Mutual does not have the option within your tax free savings account for unallocated money or money not yet invested. If you choose to exit a unit trust you have to immediately buy into another. This doesn't allow you the time to take your money out and consider your options before switching. This will lead to alot of mistakes and this is avoided with all other service providers. Furthermore, by not letting you cash out your unit trust this doesn't allow you to change your service provider without it affecting your 500k life time allowance. The only way to effectively take your money out of old Mutual is via their advisors and being willing to pay those fees. Their business model is simply to keep their investors money's invested at all times to increase their revenue, make life as difficult as possible if you aren't using an advisor and threatening you with loss of your 500k life time allowance if you disinvest with Old Mutual.

Do yourself a favor and use another service provider. There are other options available.