Never let a Crisis go to Waste

Ruvan J Grobler • March 31, 2026

In a quiet corner of a garden, a tiny egg rested beneath a leaf, unnoticed by the world. In time, it hatched into a caterpillar—small, vulnerable, and endlessly hungry. Day after day, it consumed everything in its path, growing rapidly but remaining earthbound, exposed to every passing threat.


Then, without warning, it stopped.


It found a still place, attached itself to a branch, and formed a chrysalis. From the outside, it looked lifeless—fragile, even pointless. To an observer, it might have seemed like the end of its journey. But inside, everything was changing. The caterpillar was breaking down completely, dissolving into something unrecognizable before slowly rebuilding itself into something entirely new.


Time passed.


When the chrysalis finally opened, the creature that emerged was no longer confined to the ground. Its wings were soft at first, uncertain. It struggled, pushing fluid through them, strengthening them with effort. Only after this resistance could it take flight.


And when it did, it soared—no longer bound by the limitations of its former life but shaped by every stage that came before.


It’s been six years since humanity’s last global threat, the Covid pandemic. A lot has changed, but we as people have not. Just as the butterfly in the story above goes through its cycle the global economy does too. But the butterfly does not know its going through this cycle, its merely following its path. We are very aware of the cycle as it has an effect on our every day lives especially on our finances. But just as the butterfly follows its path, we do too.

 

Focus on what you can control.

We often stress the issues out of our own control and isn’t exclusive to finances. Not a single person reading this article has any control of the global economy and the current conflict in the Middle East. None of us also knew exactly when it would happen and when it is going to end. Don’t get me wrong, I too struggle to manage my thoughts and emotions when we go through the tough parts.

 

Shifting the focus towards finances; except for being in control of how you earn an income, the only other factor you can control is your spending. Stick to your budget! Never stop investing! Stay disciplined!

 

Crisis Asset Allocation

I get many questions on what we are doing to manage risk and potential losses. This is where financial planning becomes extremely important. Every single investment in your portfolio is linked to a need or a goal, not just any goal but a time-based goal. This specific time horizon has influenced the type of assets bought in order to reach these goals. The longer away the goal, the more risk is taken and vice versa.

 

Investments where liquidity is needed will be affected much less than a long-term share portfolio. More liquidity, less risk. Meaning that if you need cashflow you should not be worried as the asset exposure will be less affected. Retirement products will have exposure to many different assets where there are conservative assets to provide protection in the short-term. The growth asset exposure that may be volatile now is the part that gives you the long-term inflation beating returns.

 

During this part of the cycle certain assets have become less desirable and opportunities have popped up elsewhere. All portfolios are monitored to make sure that the original mandate is followed, and the investment goal is reached at the end of the applicable term.

 

All asset managers have started to make asset allocation changes to match the changing of the cycle and the Bovest investment committee has also done so.

 

Is it time to sell and move to cash?

In short, no. We don’t know when markets will turn and no one else either. Historically in these crises it takes on average around two weeks to reach the bottom of the market and then more than a month to recover. This does create many buying opportunities for asset managers but also for you as investor. Warren Buffet always says, "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful". This is the time to buy assets on “sale”, don’t sell them.

 

Getting out of the market is the biggest risk, this is where investors lose money. Stick to the plan and stay patient, you will be rewarded.

 

Ruvan J Grobler RFP™ (PGDip Financial Planning)

OORSESE KINDERS EN JOU FINANSIËLE PLAN

By Dr. Riaan Botha • July 30, 2026
Internasionale lughawens in Suid-Afrika is bedrywig gedurende skoolvakansies, want kinders en kleinkinders wat oorsee woon, kom vir hul jaarlikse besoek by oupa en ouma kuier. Dit is opmerklik dat, wanneer die kinders in die ontvangslokale aankom, die glimlagte en opgewondenheid aansteeklik is. Die teenoorgestelde emosies is egter teenwoordig in die vertreklokale twee of drie weke later. Wanneer jy persoonlik deur hierdie emosionele ervarings geraak word, besef 'n ouer hoe hierdie realiteit, wat in baie Suid-Afrikaanse gesinne voorkom, jou familie se finansiële plan beïnvloed. Kom ons bespreek 'n paar aspekte hiervan: Jaarlikse reise na familie wat oorsee woon, is duur en daarom moet daarvoor begroot word. Nie alle kinders wat oorsee werk, het 'n standhoudende inkomste om hul lewenstandaard te befonds nie. Die moontlikheid bestaan daarom dat hulle soms deur hul ouers finansieel ondersteun moet word. Die beplanning van vererwing aan kinders is uniek omdat vaste bates hierdeur geraak word. Dit is byvoorbeeld nie prakties om die familie se woonhuis aan 'n kind wat oorsee woon, te laat vererf nie. Dit is bekend dat familiewelvaart meer as net materiële besittings behels. Daarom behoort familielede met mekaar gesprek te voer oor hoe familiebande sterk gehou kan word nadat vererwing plaasgevind het. Blootstelling aan die daaglikse ekonomiese aktiwiteite van ander lande verbreed die ervaringswêreld van kinders wat oorsee woon. Hierdie nuutgevonde kennis en ervaring kan weer met die Suid-Afrikaanse familielede gedeel word. Dit is bekend dat arbeid in ekonomies ontwikkelde lande, soos die VSA, Australië en verskeie Europese lande, duur is. Daarom moet daar begroot word vir enige arbeid wat oorsee benodig word, veral indien ondersteuningsdienste benodig word. Daar bestaan min twyfel dat die ervaring wat kinders oorsee opdoen, plaaslike finansiële beplanning binne families beïnvloed. Hierdie nuwe werkservarings kan ook 'n positiewe bydrae lewer tot die skepping en behoud van die familie se welvaart.

Offshore Investing: What Your R2 Million Allowance Actually Buys You

By Ruvan J Grobler • July 24, 2026
Is investing offshore just for people who've given up on South Africa? I get some version of this question a lot, and the honest answer is no. It's really just about not keeping all your eggs in one rand-denominated basket. And it got a lot more relevant this year, because in April 2026 the Reserve Bank doubled the Single Discretionary Allowance from R1 million to R2 million per person, per year. That's a meaningful jump, and it's worth understanding properly before you use it. Here's how the allowance system actually works. Every South African resident over 18 gets a Single Discretionary Allowance of R2 million a year. No SARS approval, no tax clearance, you just instruct your bank and off it goes, for travel, gifts, or offshore investing. On top of that sits the Foreign Investment Allowance, up to another R10 million a year, but that one needs a SARS Approval for International Transfer first, which comes off your tax compliance status on eFiling. Between the two, that's R12 million per person, per year, without needing special Reserve Bank sign-off. A couple, or a family with adult kids, can add that up quickly. Worth knowing too, this is different from the rand-denominated offshore funds most people already hold through their local platforms. Those use asset swap or feeder structures, and your allowance never actually leaves the country. Direct offshore investing means the money physically converts to dollars, pounds or euros and sits in an account in your own name, offshore. Different animal, different mechanics. Side note: if you've got a retirement annuity, you already have some offshore exposure, Regulation 28 lets retirement funds hold up to 45% offshore. That's real diversification, but it's locked inside a retirement structure with its own rules on access and estate treatment. Using your personal allowance is a completely separate lever, money you actually hold in your own name, offshore, that you can access, restructure or leave to whoever you want without waiting for retirement age. Who actually uses this in practice? Families with kids studying or working abroad. People planning to retire partly offshore, or just wanting a foreign currency buffer for when they travel. Business owners who've built most of their wealth locally and want a real counterweight sitting outside the country. It's rarely about chasing better returns, it's about not having every asset you own exposed to the same risks at the same time. So why bother with the direct route? Two reasons come up in almost every conversation I have about this: currency, and geography. On currency, if your salary is in rand, your house is in rand and your whole portfolio is in rand, your entire financial life rises and falls with one currency. Holding some of your wealth in hard currency doesn't mean you think the rand is doomed, it just means you're not betting your whole future on one outcome either way. On geography, the JSE makes up less than 1% of total global stock market value. Some of the biggest growth stories in the world right now, in tech, in healthcare, aren't listed here at all. Investing offshore isn't a vote against South Africa, it's just access to the other 99%. Now here's a case worth knowing about, because it shows how badly this can go if someone tries to get clever with the rules instead of just following them. In Singh v South African Reserve Bank, decided by the Pretoria High Court in 2023, an attorney and businessman moved R80 million between local accounts, with about R20 million of it headed for a UK bank account. The problem wasn't the amount, it was how it moved, in R1 million chunks, each one apparently using someone else's Single Discretionary Allowance instead of his own. His bank picked it up and reported it to the Reserve Bank, who placed a blocking order on the remaining R40 million sitting in his account back home. He went to court arguing his bank had approved the transfers, so it must have been fine. The court didn't agree. A bank can't lawfully approve something that breaches exchange control in the first place, and the blocking order stood. If you genuinely need to move more than R2 million a year, that's exactly what the Foreign Investment Allowance is for. It just takes proper paperwork, not creativity.  A few practical things that catch people out: Your allowance resets every calendar year, it doesn't carry over if you don't use it. A clean SARS record matters. Outstanding returns or disputes will delay your approval, and it can take up to three weeks even when everything's in order. Financial institutions want proof of where the money actually came from, especially as the amount grows. Moving a big amount in one go means you're stuck with whatever the exchange rate happens to be that day, that's a separate risk from the compliance side, and worth thinking through. One more thing, since estate planning is where I spend most of my time. Assets held directly offshore, in your own name, usually fall under the estate administration rules of wherever they're held, not just South Africa's. That can mean your executor needs a foreign grant of probate before anything can be dealt with, on top of the local process. It doesn't mean don't do it. It just means the structure deserves as much thought as the decision to invest offshore in the first place. This is general information, not advice tailored to your situation. Ruvan J Grobler FSA® PGDip (Financial planning)