India committed to broad-based trade agreement with EU: President Kovind -The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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19 June 2018

 

Trade and investment (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

India is committed to a broad-based trade and investment agreement with the EU to be achieved in a generous spirit of mutual accommodation and of pragmatism, President Ram Nath Kovind said here today.

The 28-member European Union is among Indias largest trading partners.

Kovind, who arrived in Greece on Saturday on the first leg of his three-nation tour, said that the EU is a critical source of investment and technology, especially for sustainability programmes. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Indian companies are significant investors in the EU, in industries as far apart as pharmaceuticals and automobile components, he said.

"India remains committed to an India-EU Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), to be achieved in a generous spirit of mutual accommodation and of pragmatism," he told a gathering of diplomats, policymakers and academics during his address on the subject 'India and Europe in a Changing World'. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The event was organised by the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy a leading foreign policy think-tank in Greece and Europe.

The negotiations for the BTIA have been held up since May 2013 and both the sides are yet to bridge substantial gaps on crucial issues.

Since June 2007, both the sides have completed 16 rounds of talks and five stock-taking meetings on the proposed pact.

The negotiations have witnessed many hurdles with both sides having major differences on key issues like intellectual property rights, duty cut in automobile and spirits and liberal visa regime.

The two sides have to iron out differences related to movement of professionals.

Besides demanding significant duty cuts in automobiles, the EU wants tax reduction on wines, spirits and dairy products, and a strong intellectual property regime. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

On the other hand, India is asking the EU to grant it data secure nation status. The country is among the nations not considered as data secure by the EU. The matter is crucial as it will have a bearing on Indian IT companies wanting market access to the countries in the bloc.

Earlier, addressing the India Greek Business Forum meeting, Kovind said that India-Greek bilateral trade at USD 530 million is way below its potential.

"With some efforts this can easily be made to cross USD 1 billion in the next few years and India is keen to take lead in this effort," he said.

The President said that there are clear complementarities between the Indian and Greek economies. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

He asked Greek shipping, agriculture, food processing, tourism, infrastructure, technology, defence and start-up companies to look at investment and technology tie-up openings in India.

He said that there are lucrative opportunities for the Greek Shipping Industry in India's ambitious Sagarmala project.

The Sagarmala programme was launched under the port-led growth model and aims to invest Rs 8 lakh crore to create new mega-ports, modernise existing facilities and also have special economic zones adjoining the port.

Kovind also mntioned the opportunities to collaborate in defence manufacturing, pharma, tourism, real-estate, entertainment, infrastructure and technology sectors as well.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

India’s subprime mortgage mania can quickly turn to panic -The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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19 June 2018

Housing (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

Affordable housing in India is a corner of finance that’s expanding almost 40% a year, and even more for some hyperactive lenders. The borrowers are subprime, their collateral is of dubious value, financiers’ cost of capital is rising, and yet the government is whipping up a home-buying frenzy. Investors beware. You’ve seen similar stories play out before; this one, too, isn’t likely to end well. 

But what exactly is the situation? 

Suppose you’re a production supervisor in a footwear factory, earning the equivalent of $800 a month. You decide to buy your first apartment with a $13,000 loan. Normal mortgage rates are around 9%. You, however, effectively pay only 5%. The government tops up the remainder to your financier every month. You can buy a house that’s as expensive as you want. So long as it’s not bigger than 200 square meters, the first $13,000 loan is at 5%. You’re doing great, until your boss figures out there’s no way he can avoid paying the new Indian goods and services tax, or GST. Since his only source of competitiveness so far was tax avoidance, he closes the factory. You’re fired, but you still have the house. And suddenly it’s a problem for the finance company, its investors and the taxpayers who bore the subsidy. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions 

The caricature I presented above is just that. But the lure of a highly subsidized route to home ownership for everyone from the very poor to the middle class (subsidies range from 3% to 6.5%), along with the danger to lenders, are real. Nonperforming advances in housing-finance firms’ affordable loan portfolios have shot up to 4.1% from 3.3% a year ago, according to Moody’s Investors Service affiliate ICRA Ltd. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions 

The souring of loans isn’t a surprise. 

Medium, small and micro enterprises – whose employees are the target segment for these loans – are having a hard time trying to survive the botched-up implementation of a good innovation: the GST. Working capital has always been a bane because big Indian companies pay late to small suppliers.

But now the government also refunds GST input credits after six months. What are small firms to do except scale back? A 19% drop in just one year in the number of registered medium, small and micro enterprises in industrialized Tamil Nadu is a warning sign. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions 

All this puts lenders at risk. Repossessing homes of workingclass people in small cities will be near impossible. And even if financiers manage to get some front-door keys, they won’t find buyers. The only “investor” for such properties is somebody trying to deploy his unaccounted-for cash. Unlike individuals, banks can’t sell homes for 60% payment by check and 40% in cash. 

Housing Development Finance Corp., the country’s largest mortgage provider, says one in five of its customers is eligible as an affordable-housing borrower. HDFC’s underwriting standards are time-tested, so you can probably expect it to manage scorching growth without losing its head. 

What’s notable is that banks, swimming in soured corporate debt, are too scared to make easy money in subprime. Growth of 13 % for affordable housing by banks four years ago has slowed to 2 %. 

That leaves the smaller and newer specialist housing-finance firms vulnerable. Some are pooling such loans and passing them off to investors as highly rated securities, which then get lapped up by banks because the underlying credit qualifies as “priority-sector lending.” Banks in India are required to meet priority-sector quotas. Almost three quarters of the `36,300 crore ($5.3 billion) in so-called passthrough certificates that have transferred risk from lenders to investors since 2015 has been structured as AAA-rated paper. For now, 10 out of 11 such issuers of fortified securities have auto loans as their mainstay. 

Only Dewan Housing Finance Corp. counts affordable home finance as a key business. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

However, while Dewan itself is rated highly locally, some of the newer players are not. Also, the preferred risk-sharing mode for affordable mortgage loans is not pass-through certificates but bilateral deals, for which data is also not publicly available. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

What we have instead is recent evidence of trouble. Janalakshmi Financial Services, a top microfinance lender, was securitizing its portfolio aggressively before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bizarre November 2016 ban on most of the cash circulating in the economy. Its 90-day overdue claims surged to 26% by May 2017, from 1% in January of that year. 

ICRA puts housing-loan companies’ external-financing requirements at between Rs 7,700 crore to Rs 12,000 crore over the next three years.  Some of the bigger players may even hawk retail bonds. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Investors will soon have many hands tugging at their sleeves. 

But they have to be careful here. If the US subprime mortgage meltdown is any guide, plenty can go wrong. Hundreds of millions of Indians crave a roof over their head they can call their own, but what they need first is a job that’s available today and has some assurance of being there tomorrow. 

Until that problem is fixed, the interest-rate subsidies are an act of untimely kindness. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Global Stocks Tumble After New Trump Tariff Threat-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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19 June 2018

South korea financial markets (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

Global stock markets fell Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated a dispute with China over technology policy by threatening a tariff hike on an additional $200 billion of Chinese goods.

KEEPING SCORE: Germany's DAX was down a sharp 1.3 percent to 12,673 and France's CAC 40 fell 1.1 percent to 5,394. London's FTSE 100 lost 0.4 percent to 7,598. Wall Street looked poised for heavy losses, with the future for the Dow Jones industrial average off 1.3 percent and that for the Standard & Poor's 500 index down 1.1 percent. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

ASIA'S DAY: The losses were even heavier in Asia, where the Shanghai Composite Index fell 3.8 percent to 2,907.82 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 2.8 percent to 29,468.15. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 retreated 1.8 percent to 22,278.48 and Seoul's Kospi gave up 1.5 percent to 2,340.11. India's Sensex shed 0.6 percent to 35,331.28 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 declined 0.6 percent to 6,102.10.

TRADE TENSIONS: Trump directed the U.S. Trade Representative to prepare new tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports, stepping up a dispute companies and investors worry could drag down global trade and economic growth. Trump accused Beijing of being unwilling to resolve the dispute over complaints it steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. China's Commerce Ministry criticized the White House action as blackmail and said Beijing was ready to retaliate. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

ANALYST'S TAKE: "President Donald Trump's unwillingness to back down became apparent this morning, once again sinking markets," Jingyi Pan of IG said in a report. Pan said market attention turned to China for "signs of further retaliation." The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude lost 88 cents to $64.97 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 79 cents on Monday to $65.85. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 47 cents to $74.87 per barrel in London. The contract rose $1.90 the previous session to $75.34. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

CURRENCY: The dollar declined to 109.75 yen from Monday's 110.54 yen. The euro edged down to $1.1552 from $1.1623.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Nifty, Sensex Looking Weak – Monday closing report-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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18 June 2018

The major indices of the Indian stock markets were range-bound on Monday and closed with small losses over Friday’s close, tracking weakness in the benchmark global markets and resurgent concerns of a global trade war. According to market analysts, selling was there in the metal, consumer durables and capital goods stocks, however, buying activity in the oil and gas, auto and banking counters limited the decline. On the NSE, there were 550 advances, 1,177 declines and 342 unchanged. The trends of the major indices in the course of Monday’s trading are given in the table below: The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Truck owners and operators launched an indefinite nationwide strike on Monday against increasing diesel prices and a sharp hike of third party insurance premium. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) on Monday rescheduled the e-auction of the five-star Taj Man Singh hotel to July 18 for a license period of 33 years. Indian Hotels’ shares closed at Rs134.90, up 1.89% on the NSE.

United Bank of India (UBI), which referred 30 stressed accounts with an aggregated exposure of Rs5,961 crore to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in 2017-18 (FY18), is betting on the resolution of bad loan accounts to improve its net profit, its report said. "Thirty accounts in which the bank is having exposure aggregating Rs5,951 crore were referred to NCLT. Resolution has taken place recently in one account in which, the bank received Rs488.23 crore against an outstanding balance of Rs628.42 crore," bank's Managing Director and CEO Pawan Bajaj said in the latest annual report. "It is expected the resolution in more accounts would take place by end of this fiscal, which would bring down the gross and net NPA (non-performing asset), thus improving the bottomline of the bank," he said. The UBI said despite constant follow up with the recalcitrant borrowers, monitoring of stressed assets and tough measures in hard account, the bank was not able to contain further growth in non-performing asset level which reached a level of Rs16,552 crore, 24.1% of gross advances. It has experienced deterioration in its asset quality in the March quarter of FY 18 largely due to the revised framework of resolution of stressed assets introduced by the Reserve Bank of India, accounting for about 65 per cent of the fourth quarter slippages, the report said. UBI shares closed at Rs11.70, down 0.85% on the NSE.

Fortis Healthcare (FHL) on Friday said that National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT) Chandigarh Bench has approved the withdrawal of its scheme of "arrangement and amalgamation between the company, Fortis Malar Hospitals, SRL and their respective shareholders and creditors". FHL shares closed at Rs137.95, down 0.68% on the NSE. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

High oil prices widened India's May trade deficit even as exports rose by 20.18% to $28.86 billion from $24.01 billion worth of merchandise shipped out during the corresponding month of last year.

Budget passenger carrier SpiceJet on Monday announced 14 new domestic flights and enhanced frequency on some routes effective from July 1. "Effective July 1 the airline is all set to introduce new direct flights on the Pune-Patna, Chennai-Rajahmundry, Hyderabad-Calicut and Bengaluru-Tuticorin sectors," SpiceJet said here in a statement. The airline would also enhance its operations on the Delhi-Patna (second frequency), Bengaluru-Rajahmundry (second frequency) and Mumbai-Bengaluru (fifth frequency) sectors, it said. The new flights introduced on the Delhi-Patna, Mumbai-Bengaluru, and Chennai-Rajahmundry sectors would be operational daily, the airline said, whereas the frequencies introduced on the Hyderabad-Calicut, Bengaluru-Tuticorin and Bengaluru-Rajahmundry routes would be operational on all days except Tuesdays.  Patna-Pune will be operational on all days except Saturday, it added. SpiceJet further said bookings for the new flights are currently open. SpiceJet shares closed at Rs114.10, up 2.47% on the BSE.

The Banks Board Bureau (BBB) has recommended 22 general managers to be promoted as Executive Directors at various state-run banks, according to an announcement by the BBB. S & P BSE Bankex closed at 29,593.90, up 0.12% on the BSE. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below: The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below: The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Major Indices (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

Govt committed to meet fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent this year: Piyush Goyal-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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18 June 2018

Fiscal deficit (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

Fiscal deficit this year will be kept within the target limit of 3.3 per cent. We are monitoring to ensure that the deficit is at 3.3 per cent despite it being an election year, Railway and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday. The minister said that the government is hopeful of achieving double-digit gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the country by the fourth quarter of the ongoing financial year.

Responding to a query at the Growth Net conclave here on how India proposed to go much faster than the current 7 per cent growth rate, Goyal, who also has temporary charge of the Finance Ministry, said his optimism on the 10 per cent GDP growth was based on the revival of domestic demand and the dynamism of a society that has become "aspirational".

"I see double digit growth happening by the fourth quarter of this year. There is a demand optic in the country and this growth will be driven by a society that has become very aspirational," he said.

There is one caveat to this... when this country decides to do business honestly, we will have 10 per cent GDP growth," he added.

Noting that the NDA government was committed to being an enabler of growth, Goyal said its focus had been providing on providing political and macroeconomic stability. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

"Our focus has been on not doing anything that threatens the social fabric of the country. How can we take the entire country along for growth and development... that has been our thrust in these four years," the Minister said.

Asked if rising global crude oil prices were threatening India's macroeconomic stability, Goyal said the government was monitoring the situation on a real time basis, including other international factors like the rise in interest rates in the US and Europe.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Govt asks exporters to comply with global standards to tap intl markets-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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18 June 2018

Exporters(The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

The government today said exporters, particularly from the food and agriculture sectors, should strictly comply with global norms for quality and standards, or else they might lose their export market share to other countries.

Emphasising on the importance of adopting best standards for goods and services, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said it is critical to promote manufacturing, exports and enhancing participation of domestic industry into global value chains. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

She said in the food and agriculture sectors, Indian exporters are repetitively facing trade barriers on account of compliance issues.

"Such situations are prevalent in discerning markets like the US, European Union and Japan and if Indian producers are unable to meet mandatory obligations for standards including the sanitary and phytosanitary (related with plants and animals) measures, we may lose our share of export market to other countries," she said. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Teaotia was speaking at the National Standards Conclave, organised by the commerce ministry and industry body CII.

She said promulgation of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures are very important as India receives so many alerts from these countries.

"We have initiated an inter-ministerial space where agriculture ministry, health ministry and agencies like Fssia, Export Inspection Council, Apeda and Mpeda are now working together to be able to respond more appropriately and efficiently to these alerts," she added. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

She also informed that Indian National Strategy for Standardisation (INSS) will be released tomorrow and urged the industry to give feedback on the suggestions made in this report. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

INSS recommends wide range of policy directions such as standard settings, conformity assessment, accreditation, SPS and technical regulations as well as awareness building, training and education.

"It recommends an implementation framework for realising these goals, identification of the responsible agencies and related activities taken by them and time frames for achieving these milestones..it has a finite time," the secretary said. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

It has also suggested setting up of a high-level committee for regular reviews, monitoring and publication of results.

She added that three areas are important from standards perspective - manufacturing, services and food and agro products.

Global value chains, she said, are fast emerging as a key driver of standards, and participation in these requires uniform standards worldwide.

"There is a need to assess the global standards, and working towards harmonisation and adopting global value standards are critical," she said.

Teaotia further said the government has advised all the line ministries to create and strengthen their technical wings for identifying specific standards and technical regulations needed. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

There is also a need to promote brand India for Indian products and make them globally acceptable. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Talking about global standards in services, Teaotia said it is in nascent stage unlike in goods. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

"We will have to take lead in development of standards in this sector," she added. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

India set to join European Bank for Reconstruction and Development -The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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18 June 2018

 

European Bank (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) today unveiled plans for a first-of-its-kind conference in India to welcome the country as its newest member. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The inaugural EBRD-FICCI Business Forum in Mumbai on Friday is themed around 'Mobilising private sector finance in the EBRD region and how Indian companies can benefit'. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) partnered event is backed by the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) with the aim of bringing together government officials, EBRD experts, and investors and prominent business people to highlight the multilateral bank's efforts to mobilise private sector finance in the economies where it invests, and what the opportunities are for the Indian private sector.

We are very proud to have India on board as a shareholder. The membership was unanimously approved by our existing shareholders, said EBRD president Suma Chakrabarti, before he left for India to address the forum.

India has a very diversified economic base and therefore very diversified companies, which can fulfil investment needs of our countries of operation, he said. In the past, EBRD has worked closely with India and in countries like Russia, Turkey, Romania, and Ukraine.

Chakrabarti feels that India's membership, which is now its final stages of completion, will open up further investment prospects in markets in Central Asia, Egypt and Jordan. These markets are not very well known to Indian companies.

The advantage of membership is that Indian companies and the Indian government immediately get free access to all of EBRD's knowledge political, commercial, market and economic knowledge, he explained.

London-headquartered EBRD is a multilateral development bank set up in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall to promote private and entrepreneurial initiative in emerging Europe. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

It invests in 38 emerging economies across three continents, according to a set of criteria that aim to make its countries more competitive, better governed, greener, more inclusive, more resilient and more integrated.

Its Indian-origin president described India's entry as the bank's 69th member as a personal high point for him, as he nears the end of his second term in office. He said, In my term as EBRD president, India the country of my birth becoming a shareholder is a high point for me personally".

"Also, it is a very good thing for global governance that India, a leading member of the G20, is now a member of this institution which is slightly different from the others because of our private sector focus and mandate.

It makes us quite special, and having India on board is special as well," he said. Under Chakrabarti, EBRD had also concluded a joint declaration on the India-led International Solar Alliance (ISA) last year.

With India now a member, this declaration is expected to get a further boost in terms of mobilising more finance for solar energy and taking forward solar energy policy and reforms. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The Business Forum in Mumbai will include plenary sessions dedicated to discussing investment opportunities and economic prospects for the region for EBRD's operation. The bank has worked with leading Indian companies, such as Tata, Mahindra, SREI and Jindal, on investments in its regions, with the value of such joint projects worth an estimated 1 billion euros.

It now hopes to introduce itself to even more Indian companies to explore newer investment opportunities. With India now taking a shareholding in EBRD, it is expected that the scope of these joint initiatives will be further enhanced.

While India will not be a recipient of EBRD financing, it will benefit from the bank's expertise and support in the region.

We did a mapping exercise which shows that many Indian companies want to go to these countries of operation and need a safe and sound partner, something the EBRD provides, said Chakrabarti.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

World Stocks Slide Over Trade Tensions, German Politics-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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18 June 2018

Japan financial markets (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

Global stocks dropped Monday on concerns over trade as the U.S. and China scheduled the start of tariffs on each other's goods, and a row over migrants threatened the German government. Markets in China and Hong Kong were closed for a holiday. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

KEEPING SCORE: Germany's DAX lost 1.3 percent to 12,839 and France's CAC 40 shed 1.2 percent to 5,433. Britain's FTSE 100 dipped 0.4 percent to 7,605. Wall Street was poised to open lower. Dow futures dropped 0.7 percent and the S&P 500 futures were down 0.6 percent.

U.S.-CHINA TARIFFS: Tariffs mooted by the world's two biggest economies are set to take effect from July 6, bolstering fears of a trade war. President Donald Trump has announced a 25 percent tariff on up to $50 billion of Chinese products. China is retaliating by raising import duties on $34 billion worth of American goods, including soybeans, electric cars and whiskey.

THE QUOTE: "Caution appears to be the key word for Asian markets today as investors digest the potential implications of the U.S.-China tit-for-tat tariff measures," said Selena Ling, chief economist at OCBC Bank.

DISPUTE IN GERMANY: Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian allies are tangled in a dispute with the German leader over migration, a conflict that could escalate into a threat to her government. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who heads the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union, wants Germany to refuse migrants who were previously registered as asylum-seekers in other European countries. Merkel opposes unilateral action, arguing that it would weaken the 28-nation European Union. A CSU leadership meeting on Monday will likely authorize Seehofer to go ahead with his plan. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

ASIA'S DAY: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.8 percent to close at 22,680.33. South Korea's Kospi lost 1.2 percent to 2,376.24. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2 percent to 6,104.10. Southeast Asian indexes were mostly lower. Markets in China and Hong Kong were closed for the Duanwu Festival commemorating the death of Qu Yuan, an ancient Chinese poet and minister.

ENERGY: Oil futures were mixed after reports that OPEC countries plan to increase production of oil at a meeting this week. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 23 cents to $64.83 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $1.83 to settle at $65.06 per barrel on Friday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 66 cents to $74.10 in London.

CURRENCIES: The dollar inched down to 110.47 yen from 110.62 in late trading Friday. The euro rose to $1.1617 from $1.1607.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions