Category Archives: Financial

Importance Of Senior Citizens Care & Assistance

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Seniors have it more difficult than other groups. While young people may suffer financially, they can at least get a job. For a senior, jobs are often out of the question. You basically have to live on what you have and that it.

Every health facility wants to hire nurses with a certified degree no matter for which nursing jobs they are applying for. Nursing assistant jobs are not very difficult to find in the US because their demand has increased considerably in the past decade. All you have to do is decide what exactly you want to do and you can apply for a course which at the most takes one or two years.

Studies have shown that seniors those are helped or get senior citizens assistance are happier and live longer than others who live alone or with estranged families. It is a simple truth that when you have attentive care and pleasant company you tend to overcome the pitfalls of aging more successfully.

For those who have been independent most of their lives the idea of assisted living and senior citizens assistance may take some getting used to but there is a far greater alternative that can give the senior more of an outlet to enjoy their lives while still maintaining their independence with a little help.

As we age, the tasks associated with daily living become more onerous. This has resulted in the creation of a variety of living options for seniors that reduce some of that burden. Assisted living is one such option, one that is becoming very popular these days.

These senior citizens assistance communities typically offer meal service, housekeeping, social activities, medication assistance, and transportation for medical appointments and other pleasure trips for seniors.

Many senior citizens or people with disabilities or injuries make use of assisted technology-tools, products, or kinds of equipment that help people perform tasks and activities.

An assisted living facility needs to be considered when an elder loved one is unable to take care of themselves in their activities of daily living (ADLs). A nursing home is a practical option when other attempts to safely maintain your elder loved one at home have been exhausted.

One of the benefits of AL is that it takes care of many of the needs of seniors, while still giving them a sense of freedom. They help prepare meals, assist with medication dispensing, do periodic housekeeping, and even help manage the finances of the elderly.

Aging is not fun for anyone, but you can make the process better and help senior citizens by planning for providing senior citizens assistance and donate to senior citizens.

How To Prepare For The Investment Banking Interview

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It seems that the investment banking industry has narrowly escaped Armaggedon and the survivors are waiving the bonus flags again. Intern classes are getting bigger and Business Week reported that Goldman Sachs has reclaimed the top spot as the most popular employer among elite MBA students again. If you are a career switcher and one among many MBA applicants dreaming of joining Goldman Sachs or another bulge bracket investment bank for the summer internship, this article is for you. Below we provide an overview of an investment banking interview and explain why its important to prepare in advance. This is especially true if you are a career switcher.

There are several types of questions which you are likely to be asked in your interview. They include career questions, educational questions, competency questions, fit questions, technical questions and industry questions.

While its difficult to predict which questions exactly you will be asked, there are four questions which will appear in any investment banking interview:
– The WMTYR (Walk me through your resume)
– The 3 Why’s (Why investment banking? Why our bank? Why (should we hire) you?

The answer to the first and the second questions may be quite similar to those you provided in your MBA admission interviews. Answer to the third question is a little bit more complicated and will require specific preparation.

The usual reason for interest in any specific investment bank include: (a) a strong platform, which means strong coverage teams, diverse offering of advisory and financial products, many interesting deals and opportunities to learn (b) a strong presence in specific markets or industries (c) and the most important, tons of wonderful and smart people with whom you talked with during your recruiting process and whom you really made a connection with. Networking is a critical component for your interview preparation but we will discuss this area in one of our
future postings.

Why (should we hire) you? To answer this question you need to reiterate your main strengths, interest in a specific bank and a great fit you feel for the bank you are interviewing with.
You should prepare for this question especially well as a banks approach to this question will usually be that a person who cannot sell himself cannot sell the banks products and banking is definitely a sales job.

Good to know Other challenging fit questions examining your understanding of the
investment banking can be:
– What does an investment banker actually do?
– What is the role of an associate in the investment banking?
The answer to the first question will usually go in the following way:
An investment bank serves as intermediaries between their clients
who need capital in the form of debt and equity
It provides strategic advisory services by structuring transactions
that meet clients needs and objectives
Overall, Investment bank works with companies on the transactions
that will enhance their value. This may include accessing capital
markets to find growth or expand operations, as well as investing in another
company through merger or acquisition. Banks are not only the
matchmaker between parties involved in a transaction, but also the primary
architects of the deal.

A typical answer to the question about the role of an associate will
go like this :
Analyzing industry and company data related to the transaction
Building excel models to valuate companies
Joining strategic meetings
Performing due diligence meetings with the clients
Creating, editing client presentations
Monitoring, paying close attention to documentation associated with
the deal (prospectus, internal memos)
Managing relationship with an analyst
The most important attributes that an associate should have are:
quantitative skills, the ability to learn quickly, discipline, a strong work ethic, the ability to
work in teams, detail orientation and dependability.

While answering competency and behavioral questions you should be structured and succinct. Banks like well organized and structured thinking and will quickly dismiss candidates who ramble or cannot distinguish important points from the less important ones. We recommend creating 3 bullet points for each of your answers and putting them on the paper in advance. Practice your answers with friends and be sure that your story is consistent and flows well before the interview.

The technical part

The technical part of the interview will test your familiarity with the accounting and financial terms. This will definitely require thorough preparation even if you study at one of the top MBA programs . First of all you will need to be familiar with the financial statements and their analysis. The profit and loss statement, the balance sheet and cash flow statements are all fair game in the interview.
Secondly, you will need to have a basic understanding of the company’s valuation methods. You should be very familiar with terms such as cost of capital, cash flow discounting, multiples, accretion and dilution, LBO, CAPM, WACC and Beta.

You also may be asked how M&A and IPOs work and even be given a case study on a business situation. It is strongly recommended that you start b-school having at least a basic understanding of accounting and finance.

Here are some books that can help you.
VAULT Guide to Finance Interviews by D. Bhatawedekhar, Dan Jacobson,
and the Vault Staff
Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking by Tom Lott, Derek Loosvelt
and the Staff of Vault
Heard on the Street by Timothy Falcon Crack.
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies by Tom
Copeland, et al, John Wiley & Sons Inc
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies
by McKinsey and Company
Financial Modeling, 3rd Edition (Hardcover), Simon Benninga

In the industry part of the interview the interviewers will test your understanding of the industry and your professional interests.
You will be asked about financial news and trends, current articles related to investment banking, discussions of the economic environment and economic trends, trends in M&A and definitely about specific deals.

To be prepared for this part of the interview its advisable to start reading financial and economic newspapers and journals. The Wall Street Journal, FT and Economist are good sources to gain relevant knowledge.

A couple of additional hints:
– Know recent interesting deals executed by banks with which you are interviewing.
– Talk about deals with passion the interviewers will test not only your level of knowledge but also your passion for IB
– And finally, always read the news in the morning before your interview

Some additional books to better understand investment banking before your interview include:
The Business of Investment Banking: A Comprehensive Overview , by K.
Thomas Liaw
Blue Blood and Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley , by
Patricia Beard
The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frres & Co. , by
William Cohan
The Accidental Investment Banker: Inside the Decade that Transformed
Wall Street , By Jonathan Knee
More entertaining books include:
Barbarians at the Gate , By Bryan Burrough and John Helyar.
Bombardiers , By Po Bronson
Monkey Business: Swinging through the Wall Street Jungle, By John
Rolfe and Peter Troob.
Liars Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street , By Michael
Lewis, Norton Books.

Good luck with your interview!

Hiring Continues In The Middle East Wealth Management Bonanza

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Despite chilly global credit markets, the Middle Eastern wealth management arena is a recruitment hotspot. Firms are busily hiring senior executives to spearhead new wealth management teams. For example, Merrill Lynch recently appointed Mazin Al-Shakarchi as a financial advisor covering Qatar from the Bahrain office. HSBC Bank Middle East has appointed Walid Boustany to the role of executive director, strategic investments, Middle East & North Africa. He will be responsible for HSBC’s strategic planning across the region. Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, has appointed Fadi Abuali as co-head of its Middle East private wealth management business, alongside current head Farid Pasha.

And there is more: the Central Bank of Bahrain has approved Douglas Hansen-Luke as Robeco’s new chief executive for the Middle East. Mr Hansen-Luke formerly worked in senior positions for ABN Amro Asset Management in Asia, Europe and Saudi Arabia. Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank has appointed Shaikh Salman bin Ahmad Al Khalifa as managing director, group business development.

The rash of appointments seen in recent years will continue, barring an unlikely collapse in demand for wealth management, Professor Amin Rajan, chief executive of Create-Research, a UK consultancy on the investment management industry, told WealthBriefing.

Wealth managers are going into the Middle East in a big way, said Professor Rajan. This is a high-margin business to be in as banks get fees right along the value chain, he said. But although the region is lucrative, making money is not easy. Local investors typically punish poor investment performance quickly – often far faster than is the case with European or US clients, said Professor Rajan.

The real issue is to understand the client mindset. Client money [in the Middle East] isn’t sticky at all. When performance is bad they ask for a rebate, which is how it should be. If [wealth managers] can survive in the Middle East, they can survive anywhere, he added.

Barclays Wealth, for example, has every intention of doing more than just survive in the region. As an illustration of its ambitions, Barclays is moving into a new 14,000 square feet office in the Dubai International Financial Centre, which will be a hub for the firm’s operations in the region. Operating currently in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Barclays Wealth is also planning to make its Doha Qatar office operational this year.

Barclays Wealth leadership believes that the Middle East is a core area of growth. A substantial investment in human resources and capabilities and a rigorous expansion plan will lead to a substantial increase in the scope of operations, Soha Nashaat, managing director, head of Middle East, North Africa & Turkey for Barclays Wealth, told WealthBriefing.
Like Professor Rajan, Ms Nashaat says wealth management firms entering the Middle East from outside the region must understand the local culture if they are to make a success of their business. For example, more than 70 per cent of businesses are family-owned, which requires managers to forge long-term connections.

Wealth managers must understand and cater to the regional trends such as the dominance of family offices, Ms Nashaat said. Investors tend to be intolerant of risk and hold a high proportion of assets in cash and in offshore locations, she added.

Middle Eastern clients put great stress on strong relationships with investment advisors and dislike high turnover in staff, a factor that wealth managers must consider in their staff recruitment and retention plans, Stuart Crocker, chief executive, Emirates Platform and Southern Gulf States, HSBC Private Bank told WealthBriefing.

People don’t like seeing relationship managers moving on every two or three years to other banks, he said. His own bank, part of the HSBC banking group, serves clients both from local Middle Eastern locations as well as from its teams of specialists in Geneva.

The general background for wealth managers is certainly favourable. The investable assets of HNW individuals will rise by 50 per cent between 2006 and 2010, according to Barclays Wealth data.

The number of HNW individuals rose by 11.9 per cent in 2006 from a year before, according to the latest Merrill Lynch/Capgemini World Wealth Report issued last June. Wealth management intermediaries have only started to manage a significant share of assets in the region. Research from Zurich International Life, for example, reveals that expats living in the Middle East prefer to rely on their own judgment or friends and family when purchasing financial products. The survey showed that fewer than one in ten expats would enlist a financial advisor, either in their country of domicile or residence, to help them make the financial decisions. Financial advisors have a vast untapped market to go for.

While researchers like PricewaterhouseCoopers have warned that wealth management firms face a skills bottleneck, hiring staff for Middle Eastern slots is being helped by a benign tax regime and attractive pay packages.

Private bankers in tax-free Dubai earn 25 per cent more than their peers in Geneva and almost 40 per cent more than colleagues in London, according to a recent survey by Dubai-based headhunter Dunn Consultancy FZ-LLC.

Excluding bonuses, private bankers in Dubai with at least 10 years experience receive an average salary of $276,500 with allowances, compared with pre-tax earnings of $221,900 in Geneva and $199,100 in London, it found.

The economics of wealth management in the Middle East certainly look compelling. For the time being at least, the toughest challenge for players in the region is keeping up with the pace.

Find the Correct Vibrational Place to Attract Financial Abundance

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The universe can provide a steady stream of abundance and if you believe and attain a vibrational alignment with this abundance you will receive your share and it won’t be difficult to do and it doesn’t have to take much time because you are already well along the way.

What often happens with most people is they unwittingly provide resistance to their natural financial well-being. If they could shift their vibration around money from worry and concern to enthusiasm and fun their financial well-being would be assured. As your resistance is replaced with allowing and your doubts replaced with belief your abundance will become obvious and real. When that emotional shift occurs, immediate financial manifestations will be the evidence of that shift. If I can convince you that the path to financial abundance is simply an emotional path, in other words when you focus on how you feel and care about how you feel and you feel good most of the time your abundance and in fact anything you desire will become a reality.

Your work is not to go out and try and make this happen through action and effort but simply to allow and relax into a comfortable and gradual rediscovery of your natural state of relief and ease and well-being.

When you attain financial abundance it does not mean that you deprive someone else of theirs. Because the way the universe works is that abundance expands proportionately to match all desires. If you can find joy and happiness when you see the success of another then your resistance disappears and your own success will soar. The fastest way to get an improved financial condition is to look for pleasing things that you already have. For in focusing on that which is already working in your life, more success will come and it will come quickly.

Financial abundance does not occur in one’s life through hard work or good luck or favouritism. Financial abundance is simply the universe’s response to consistent thoughts and feelings of abundance. When you are able to accomplish the feeling of abundance within yourself before the evidence has shown itself to you, the evidence must come and it will continue to come as long as you maintain the feeling of abundance. I know this because I have created financial abundance in this way in my own life.

Any time you are feeling good no matter the reason you are a vibrational match to the feeling of abundance. In your absence of resistance everything that you have ever asked for is making its way to you through the law of attraction. With each passing day your vibrational point of attraction will continue to improve until there will be an obvious tipping point. For a while the only evidence of your financial progress will be your improved emotional state of being. And if you let that be enough, not focusing on where your finances are at the moment, financial improvement will come.

Know that you are doing extremely well and abundance is flowing to you and the abundance that you seek is coming One of the best ways to do this is to feel gratitude and appreciation for where you are and excitement and enthusiasm for what is next.

A Need For Financial Services Consultancy, Why Is It So

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We are living in a world where businesses bloom. The economy is the one thats keeping a certain country alive. Its also a time where corporations are doing their best to maintain and uphold their names in the industry. One of the key factors that determine the success of such institutions is their financial status. How they control the money thats coming in and out of their companies can determine the success or failure of their entity. Without the right financial services management, a certain company might end failing all its operations.
However, financial management isnt just about keeping and updating financial records. Its a work thats not supposed to be taken for granted and left to someone whos not capable of handling it. There are certain elements that should be involved in the entire process like planning, organizing, proper control and monitoring the resources to reach certain financial goals.
When financial management is done the right way, it will be coming with long term benefits. Thats the reason why your organization should never take these things away. Heres a list of great reasons why should ask the help of an established financial services consultancy.
One is that it with their experience and connections to other organizations, they can create a very efficient source and use of different financial resources. Since certain financial services management experts are well trained and experienced, they just know what to do with your situation and they can create solutions to problems you might be having without so much hardship.
Second would be that they can help you attain your financial goals without so much of hard time. Since they have all the knowledge thats needed, goals are easily attained whether it be a long or short term. Third would be that proper financial management will impress your organizations donors and stakeholders. A satisfied donor will give more and its a plus to your company or organization.
Fourth, certain funding institutions will respect and become confident in your companys ability to survive. It will also put a smile to your partner agencies and sister organizations. Fifth, since competition is high especially in this modern world, with the help of an experienced financial management services, you may eventually gain access even to limited sources.
And lastly, all of these things are just for short term basis. Your real goal for having the proper financial management services is sustainability and reaching your long term goals. Surviving the chaotic world of business and organizations needs a sound and stable finances and once you have established it the right way, it will be easier to conquer any kind of market or industry.