The meltdown resulted in the collapse of several large banking and financial institutions in the United States and Europe due to weakness originating from the mortgage and mortgage backed securities markets.

However in Asia, many were not too worried about the property market due to the regulated control of the banking system by their country National Bank and the well-established and matured property developers.

As a result of planned developments and sale of property, the Asian property market has remained healthy, despite the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contraction of 6.2 % in the first quarter of 2009.

As an indication of the strength of the property sector, the National Property Information Centre (NAPIC) recorded higher transaction volume of some 4.0% compared with a decline of 17.8 percent in 4th quarter of 2008.

In its study, NAPIC also recorded 79,149 transactions valued at USD 4.701 billion in 1H 2009 with the Residential property sub-sector being the most dominant. Total transaction volumes were 63.8% while total transaction value was 55.1%.

The development of residential property remained promising with upward trends in the completion and starts category but dwindling numbers in new building plan approvals.

Currently, by 1H 2009, the residential property sector recorded an existing supply of 4,230,328 units with and incoming supply of 544,926 units. Planned residential supply is recorded at 669,554 units.

In the demand scenario for the residential sales performances there were lesser units that were launched into the market in the past quarters. However, sales performances during the nine months were between 70% and 85% since the first quarter of 2007.

There were also signs that the Asian property market was affected by global economic and financial crisis but the market has remained healthy overall.

This is an opportune time for business owners to seriously consider investing in commercial properties, most notably shop houses, office lots and factories, as a means of expanding their operations, utilizing surplus funds or simply to diversify their investment portfolios. Investment in private real estate such as houses for rent may also help positively diversify investment portfolios.

Commercial properties are a good buy at this juncture because business owners can capitalize on the significant drop in mortgage rates which was preceded by some national bank’s cutting of the overnight policy rate to an all-time low of 2% per- annum in February 2009. Borrowers will be able to enjoy the prevailing low rates and save substantially on interest payments by leveraging on the low mortgage rates and lock in at this level for the tenure of their loan.

For risk conscious investors, current alternative investment instruments may prove to be beyond their risk profile in this bearish environment. To mitigate risk, investors should balance their portfolio with a selection of differing investments. As such, some banker and investor believe that commercial properties offer a more stable rental yield. As the latest property induces have shown, demand for commercial spaces has remained relatively constant and unabated compared to other investment vehicles. Properties continue to be excellent assets to hedge against inflation when prices start to rise on the heels of an economic rebound.

While it is ideal for investors to buy at the right time, the right place, and at the right price, most of the time it is all about striking a balance. An estimated 3 million square feet of office space as well as another 3 million square feet of retail space will be added to the Kuala Lumpur landscape this year as a result of launches from the past couple of years. Investors will have ample opportunity to select from diverse locations and types of spaces, and also reap the benefit of numerous freebies offered by developers ranging from free legal costs to discounts in prices. They will also be privy to an array of financing schemes.

Business Mortgage One Account (BMOA) is specifically designed for SMEs and business owners who in the course of their operations will have periods of surplus funds. The BMOA provides a very smart solution for business owners to enjoy savings by using cash in their current account to shorten their loan principal amount, with the added benefit of redrawing with no penalties charges from their surplus payments.

In situations where the SME wishes to ensure his funds are fully optimized for the operating cycle of his business, our SMI One Account is the perfect business mortgage solution because he gets the best of both worlds — funds in his operating account can generate interest credits for the benefit of his business mortgage outstanding.

While we are mindful that property purchases are long-term investments and being fixed assets, are not as liquid as investments in equity; the return on property investment may not be lower than equity investments.

Every 5 hours somewhere in the world a new “McDonald’s” fast food franchise is opening. Can you imagine a business which opened its door in 1955 is still so strong today? Well, its founder Ray Kroc, sure did. Kroc, was no inventor. But he knew a great idea when he saw one. After all, Kroc’s entire life thrived on discovering just the right idea that would live on well after the man himself. From a paper cup salesman, to real estate broker, piano player, and finally, milk shake mixer salesman, he always had an incredible amount of faith in himself.

Finally, at the young age of 52 his biggest idea (McDonald’s) was about to emerge. However, Kroc had to muster enough courage in his new idea to once again mortgage his home and borrow lots of money to get it going. He wasn’t a picture of health either. He’d been plagued by years of arthritis, diabetes, lost his bladder and most of his thyroid gland. But, he never lost the courage to persevere and believe in himself. In fact, Ray Kroc was known to say:”The best is ahead of me,” according to those who knew him. The “McDonald’s” brand name is ill^, second most recognizable name in the world, next to “Coca Cola.” Not bad for 52 year old with health problems, huge debts, and tons of dogged determination! Ray Kroc was a simple man with a simple plan to achieve huge success.

Ray’s formula is:

1 Never give up. 2 Always persevere. 3 Don’t forget (No.1) .

Impressed by a small chain of hamburger restaurants based in San Bernardino, California that used the multi-mixers, Ray acquired franchising rights from the owners, the McDonald brothers. He then founded McDonald’s Corporation in 1955. In 1961, he bought out the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million and borrowed at interest rates that eventually made the cost $14 million. It turned out to be a bargain, as McDonald’s grew into the world’s largest quick-service restaurant organization.

In 1963, Kroc’s firm had sold 3 billion burgers, opened its 500th store, and, in a somewhat cynical attempt to target children, chosen Ronald McDonald as the icon of the firm. By 1965, the clown was more familiar to US children than the President.

Opening its 1000th restaurant in 1968, in 1971 Kroc moved the firm into Europe. Creating an enterprise of thousands of almost identical franchises throughout the globe, Kroc was respected in the business community for his high standards and effective leadership.

Under Ray Kroc’s leadership, McDonald’s set standards against which other chains were measured. He created an enterprise comprised of thousands of small businesses, run by independent franchisees that own and operate approximately 85 percent of McDonald’s restaurants. “If you work just for money, you’ll never make it,” Mr. Kroc often said, “but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.”

Ray Kroc served as chairman of McDonald’s Corporation from its founding in 1955 until 1977, when he was named senior chairman of McDonald’s Corporation in 1977.”We take the hamburger business more seriously than anyone else,” tidy Kroc, said, explaining McDonald’s success. His dedication to strict standards hi’, diligence in providing customers with consistent quality, service, cleanliness and value – and his innovative use of cooking techniques prompted a Harvard Business School professor to describe him as “the service sector’s equivalent Henry Ford.”

Kroc has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Horatio Alger Award (1972),The Presidential Star (1972) and American of the Year (1973) presented by Lions International. He was inducted into the Advertising Hall Fame in 1988. Ray Kroc died on January 14, 1984, in San Diego, California.

Whatever it is you’re trying to achieve in your precious and valuable life, we are convinced Ray Kroc’s traits must be present. Especially, belief! If you don’t believe, you won’t achieve.

Died    : November 22, 2001 in Dallas, Texas, USA

Occupation      : Founder of Mary Kay

Children          : Richard Rogers, Marilyn Rogers, and Ben Rogers

“You can do it, honey!” That’s what Mary Kay Ash heard “thousands of times” from her mother while growing up. Since Mary Kay was seven years-old, her father was an invalid, stricken with tuberculosis. Her mother was forced by circumstance to support the family, leaving the young girl with household responsibilities far beyond her years. Finally, Mary Kay grew up to be a woman who built the $1.2 billion cosmetics empire of her own name. She is fond of saying, “If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you are right.”

Mary Kay was born on May 12, 1918. As a young housewife and mother of three, she began selling books in order to make extra income for the household. Her husband worked, but yet there was not enough money for the family of five to live on. This woman was successful in her sales effort, and she was able to sell more than twenty-five thousand dollars worth of books within her first six months all the job.

In the year of 1938, this woman found herself divorced. She then changed her career to selling Stanley Home Products by conducting home parties. She sold for Stanley for the next twenty-five years even though it was a most unhappy and unfulfilling occupation. She enjoyed the selling part of her job as well as the meeting and dealing with customers, but she felt that she was underpaid and not promoted as far as the men who worked there. She also claimed that her ideas for changes in the company were ignored and joked at. Finally in 1963, wanting something better, she was able to retire from Stanley Home Products.

Undaunted by her negative experience in business, the same year, Mary Kay began to write a book for women who were part of the working world. This book, she decided, would help other women face the challenges and problems that she had already encountered in the ever-changing world of business. While working on the outline of her book, she made two lists. One list was made up of the positive things of the companies she had worked for, while the other list was made up of negatives. When she looked the lists over, she realized that she had the rough plans for the perfect company. This company would allow women to work hard and succeed in their goals.

At the age of 45, Mary Kay Ash and her remarried husband Mel put their savings to start a cosmetics company. With “the confidence my mother instilled in me,” Mary Kay wrote, “I developed a strategy and a philosophy for my dream company, and invested my life savings in it.” Salespeople had been recruited and hired. Boxes, bottles, and jars were printed with “Beauty By  Mary Kay.”The company’s original name was” Everything Was Set. “But then the dream nearly died. Exactly a month before the company was to open; her husband suffered a fatal heart attack and died. Believing work was the only way to get through the grief of her husband’s death, Mary Kay decided to go forward with Mary Kay Cosmetics – despite her trusted accountant telling her that it would be impossible and ultimately leave her penniless.

On September 13 through much labor, Mary Kay Cosmetics was born. With her life savings of only a few thousand dollars, and the help of one of her children, now-grown son named Richard Rogers, Mary Kay started the long process of making her dreams become a reality for her and the millions of women across American. Through the hard work, dedication, and the values of one woman, Mary Kay Ash’s company boasts an impressive list of having more than a half of a million independent beauty consultants hosting parties, giving demonstrations, and selling the company’s cosmetics and perfumes. In 1996, the company’s retail sales level hit the two billion dollar mark, and today, Mary Kay Ash’s dream company flourishes and continues to enjoy success.

For Mary Kay, her namesake company wasn’t a job or an ego trip. It was her way of passing the message of self-confidence her mother had instilled in her to a world of women who desperately need it. No wonder, more than 850,000 women in 37 countries, who sell Mary Kay Cosmetics, are becoming richer every day. She would refer to Mary Kay beauty consultants as her ‘daughters’ Forbes magazine recognized her pink magic, naming Mary Kay Cosmetics as one of the “100 Best Companies to work for in America.”

In 1963, she once said, “here is a company that would give women all the opportunities I never had. I don’t think God wanted a world in which a woman would have to work fourteen hours a day to support her family, as my mother had done. I believe He used this company as a vehicle to give women a chance. And I feel very humble and very fortunate to have had a part in showing other women the way.”

Mary Kay Ash died in 2001, but lives on as an inspiration to all. On attitude, she said, “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve. Every failure, obstacle or hardship is an opportunity in disguise. Success in many cases is failure turned inside out. The greatest drawback we face today is negativity. Eliminate the negative attitude and believe you can do anything, Replace ‘if I can, I hope, maybe’ with ‘I can, I will, I must.”

Mary Kay Ash was included in the 1999 book Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time and was the only woman business leader profiled.

Always remember what Mary Kay Ash said, “We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know you are aiming, you don’t have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared Aerodynamically, the bumble bee should not be able to fly, but the bumble bee does not know it so it goes on flying anyway.”

With annual revenues of more than $10 billion, the company is ranked 195 on ill^, Fortune 500 and was added to the Global 500 at number 441.

In fact, the visionary entrepreneur was not able to attend college. In 2000, Ii’ presented the University of St.Thomas with a gift of $50 million – the largest gift to the school’s 115 – year history and largest donation ever reported by a Minnesota College or University. Schulze has a special liking for this university; because this is the university he wanted to go but could not!

Schulze, grew up in the St. Thomas neighborhood and attended Nativity of Our Lord School, about a mile from the campus. He had intended to enroll at St. Thomas after schooling, but service in the Minnesota Air National Guard and work for his father’s electronics distribution company derailed his plans. Schulze, an entrepreneur, used all his assets to follow his dream and opened a small audio – components store, Sound of Music, in 1966. It expanded and evolved into what we know as Best Buy that today employs more than 60,000 nationwide through 354 stores in 37 states. Meanwhile, St. Thomas University awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree in December 1998. It is Minnesota’s largest private university, and enrolls some 10,000 students.

The company is spending an estimated $80 million a year on what it is calling “customer centricity,” a massive effort to identify and serve its most profitable shoppers by rebuilding stores, adding staff and upgrading wares. Best Buy has little choice. It also has some experience in navigating through the most treacherous storms.

lo 1966, Schulze opened the Sound of Music, an audio specialty store in St Paul, Minnesota. The company grew over the following years, expanding to nine locations by 1980. In 1981, Schulze’s most successful store was destroyed by a tornado. The tornado ripped through its largest store, in St. Paul, resulting in a $200,000 loss for the year and a near – brush with bankruptcy. “We’d forgotten to buy business – interruption insurance,” says Schulze. The water – damaged goods were sold at a “best buy” sale. Not only ‘BEST BUY’ became the company’s permanent name, similar ‘Tornado Sales’ became an annual Sound of Music event. Best Buy’s first superstore opened in 1984, a carbon copy of Circuit City Stores, which was then nearly 40 times its size. A year later Best Buy went public and began a climb that sent it past its chief rival in 1995; it has enjoyed the lead ever since.

Then came the next calamity – a 1989 price war with Highland Superstores, which hurt Best Buy’s bottom line and shoved Highland into bankruptcy. Emerging from this victorious, Best Buy remodeled its stories: open ceilings, concrete floors, fluorescent tube lighting. Staff on commission gave way to hourly employees who did their best to make themselves invisible to shoppers simply wanting cheap electronics. Best Buy grew rapidly from sales of $240 million in 1987 to $7.2 billion in 1996.Who knew the digital revolution could be such a rush? Best Buy did – and it’s selling more pricey gadgets and hook up services than anybody.

It operates retail stores and commercial Web sites under the various brand names, such as Best Buy, Future Shop, Magnolia Audio Video, and Geek Squad, as well as an outlet store on e-Bay. As of July 15, 2004, the company had 619 United States Best Buy stores, 22 Magnolia Audio Video stores in the United States, 109 Future Shop stores and 19 Canadian Best Buy stores internationally. The company is based in Richfield, Minnesota.

Estate Planning will bring you super rich and famous!!!

Well I hope you don’t get the impression that only the super rich can use such instruments like Will and Trust in their estate planning.

The concept of trust may be new to many people in Asian but the Trustee Act had been in place since 1949!

Don’t Just Give the Fruit, Teach Them To Plant

In your estate plan, you should set up a private trust that you can place your assets in the trust and entrusts the appointed trustee to manage and invest your assets, either movable or even immovable and distribute the interest, dividend or even net rental income to your intended beneficiaries in the form of periodical streams of income.

Remember: Your Beneficiaries CANNOT Simply Sell Your Assets

Since the assets are in the name of the appointed trustee, the beneficiaries cannot simply sell your assets! As you instruct the trustee to pay regular income to them; they will be able to enjoy the fruits of the investments without being able to liquidate the assets.

Properties wrapped in Private Limited

I observe many people like to park their properties such as shop houses and lands in private limited companies. As a company is meant for business purpose, it is not suitable for estate planning purpose.

Though you can pass on the properties to your beneficiaries by bequeathing the shares of the company to them, the drawback is that there is nothing to stop them from selling the company or strip off the properties parked in the company when the time comes!

This is because your beneficiaries will the shareholders of the property- holding company and as long as they agree among themselves, they can do whatever they want!

Reason for Setting up a Private Trust:

A)    You run a thriving business but want to ensure that at least a part of your wealth you have built up is preserved for your loved ones. After the world economic crisis, you have learnt that huge and unexpected risks can hit your business.

B)    You want to ensure that should you die prematurely, your children / next generation are taken care of. You can put assets into a trust with specific instructions on how you want to provide for your children.

C)    You are unsure if your beneficiaries are able to manage their inheritance prudently.

D)    You have a successful career and your wife is a homemaker with no income of her own. You want to ensure that after you die, she will have income to reply on in case your children do not look after her well into her old age.

E)     You have a child who may be disabled or unlikely to be able to earn a decent living.

Moreover, you can set up a trust in support of your favorite religious or charity organizations. You can specify how much to give each year and for what purpose, it was for education for the poor students, disaster relief or supplies for the old folk’s home.

What Is The Advantages Of Setting Up Private Trust

The benefits are many. Some of the most important benefits of setting up Trust are as follows:

A)    Assets held on trust are not subject to probate or Letter of Administration and therefore not frozen upon demise. Your assets like your cash or your properties will not be frozen when you set up an inter vivo trust, unlike all your other assets in your Will.

B)    You can specify your own beneficiaries

You will have full discretion in deciding who you want to include as your beneficiaries who will benefit from your Trust. They can even be an organization, for e.g. an orphanage.

C) You can include your own specific instructions

You can “ time release ” your streams of income to your children over a period of time if you are worried that they may not be able to hold on to their inheritance.

Or providing maintenance and education expenses to minor children in the event of common disaster.

D) Protection of your assets from the reach of creditors

You can protect and preserve your hard earned assets from creditors provided it is not meant to deliberately defraud your creditors. However, it is subject to bankruptcy laws in Malaysia.

Conclusion

While you are busy accumulating your assets, do take time off to plan how you are going to preserve and perpetuate your estate.

Wealth accumulation is rarely an end in itself. Plan your wealth prudently so that your beneficiaries can truly cherish the wisdom of your estate plan.

Residence        :  London, England, UK

Nationality      :  British

Occupation      :  Chairman of Virgin Group

Net worth        :  above$2.5 billion

Spouse(s)         : Joan Templeman (1989–present), Kristen Tomassi (1972–1979), divorced

Children          : Holly Branson ,Sam Branson

Richard’s parents continually set him challenges, because they were determined to make him independent. When Richard was four years old, his mother would stop the car a few miles from their house and made him find his own way home across the fields. When he was 12 years of age, one early morning, his mom packed some sandwiches and an apple and told Richard to cycle to Bournemouth that was fifty miles away from his home. There was no water in the pack and his mother told him to find it along the way. Richard’s mother thought such exercises would teach her son the importance of stamina and a sense of direction. Richard says he had no idea how he passed the test, but he walked into the kitchen the next day like a conquering hero, feeling tremendously proud of his marathon bike ride and expecting a huge welcome.

‘Well done, Ricky,’ his mom greeted him in the kitchen, where she was chopping onions. ‘Was that fun? Now, could you run along to the vicar’s? He’s got some log to be chopped, and I told him that you’d be back any minute!’

When Richard was five, during a family holiday vacation, his Auntie Joyce, had bet him ten shillings that he couldn’t learn to swim by the end of the fortnight. He spent hours in the sea trying to swim against the freezing-cold waves, but by the last day he still couldn’t do it. He just splashed along with one foot hopping on the bottom. He’d lunge forward and crash beneath the waves before spluttering up to the surface trying not to swallow the sea water.

‘Never mind, Ricky,’ Auntie Joyce said. ‘There’s always next year.’ But he determined not to wait that long. He doubted if she would remember it the next year. On their last day, as they drove along he saw a river. ‘Daddy, can you stop the car, please?’ he said. This river was his last chance: he was sure that he could swim and win Auntie Joyce’s ten shillings.

He pulled off his clothes and ran down to the riverbank in his underpants. He didn’t dare to stop in case anyone changed their mind. He braced himself and jumped forward against the current, and came back above the surface taking a deep breath. He swam across the surface of the river successfully. After all, he had to win the ten shillings!

No wonder, Richard crossed the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Arctic Canada in January 1991 in a hot-air balloon, the furthest distance of 4,767 miles and he broke all existing records, with speeds of up to 245 miles per hour.

In 1970 he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer, and not long after he opened a record shop in Oxford Street, London. During 1972 a recording studio was built in Oxfordshire, and the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded “Tubular Bells” which was released in 1973.This album went on to sell over 5 million copies! Since then many household names, including Belinda Carlisle, Genesis, Phil Collins, Janet Jackson and The Rolling Stones have helped to make Virgin Music one of the top six record companies in the world. The equity of Virgin Music Group – record labels, music publishing, and recording studios was sold to EMI in 1992 in a $1 billion deal.

The Virgin Group has now expanded into international music Mega stores, air travel, mobile, financial, retail, music, internet, drinks, rail, hotels and leisure, with around 200 companies in over 30 countries.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways, formed in 1984, is now the second largest British long haul international airline and operates a fleet of Boeing 747 and Airbus A340 aircraft to New York, Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, Orlando, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Las Vegas, Delhi, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Shanghai and the Caribbean. The airline, which carries one million passengers annually, is based on the concept of offering a competitive and high quality Upper Class, Premium Economy and Economy service. The airline has won many major awards, including Airline of the Year Award several times.

In 1997 Virgin took over Britain’s two most run-down rail franchises, Cross-Country and the West Coast Main Line. In 2002, the combined sales of the different Virgin holding companies exceeded ELI-billion. In addition to his own business activity, Richard is a trustee of several charities including the Virgin Healthcare Foundation a leading healthcare charity which was responsible for the launch of a health education campaign relating to AIDS in 1987.

In December 1999, Richard Branson was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s Millennium New Year’s Honors List for “Services To Entrepreneurship”