I have experience with cic and old mutual
and judging from the daily yields as given in the daily papers old mutual would come in last..I would vouch for cic..

If you are not in a hurry, you are better off buying NSE blue chips to the end of time..

8-10%? Thats low, inflation is at 7.15% although in actual sense its usually much higher. That means you are making 2-3% gain. In shares you can make more from capital gains not just the dividends. I would opt for a portfolio of blue chip companies if I was risk averse

At that point the dividend yield was good 7-10% but right now the same stocks are over-valued e.g SCOM has p/e of 36(overvalued highest should be 18). That means you to wait 36 years. It's unlikely that company earnings will match up with those prices any time soon. For the record i bought my shares at rock bottom prices KCB 21, NIC 24, kengen 8.3 but I have taken capital gains and re-invested in money market. It depends on timing

I assume I am talking to Wazua veterans here.

And where do we imagine these fund managers take your money? HAHA

Let us put this in perspective. After waiting 12 solid months, the fund promises me 8-10% in a country with 7% inflation at best and we are happy?

To put this to rest.

Buy KQ today 13.50, sell on 2015 FY announcement.

Buy NBK today 31.75, sell by March 2015.

Buy HFCK today 33.75, sell March 2015.

NB: Any negative NSE reaction on sign of fed tapering and sell the above before Sept 2014 for a lower re-entry.

We shall compare notes at this time next year OR before Sept 2014.

And just to hammer the point closer home, buy SCOM TODAY at 11.70/= and sell by this 2014 full year results in June therabouts. Between now and then, price appreciation estimate is 13.50, that is 15% up from TODAYs 'over valued' price for this GROWTH stock!! HAHA

I concur with @Chaka on CIC. I've had good returns with them. I also had an acc at ICEA and BAAM. These two [plus] OMAM have had quite a bad two years. But BAAM is now waking up.

At one point last year, CIC was returning better than T-Bills.... so I moved my cash from CBK to CIC.

Be careful with the rates quoted in the press. They are not reliable at ALL! Some funds quote pre-tax rates while others quote after-tax. Others do not update the figures and the newspapers are not responsible enough to ignore outdated rates.

On Amana, i recall wazuans trying to figure out who's behind the fund and nobody had an idea! You see, we know CIC is the daughter of CIC Ins, which, in turn, is the niece of Co-Op Bank;
ICEA is the daughter ICEA-Lion, which is the sister of NIC Bank;
BAAM is the daughter Britam, which is a cousin of EQTY;
OMAM is the daughter of Old Mutual which has some very tall uncles in SA.

What about Amana?

For the likes of @Chaka who are telling you to put your money in stocks; they don't understand the element of risk. You can lose money with stocks - ask those who bought CMC at 33 and are no being offered 13 in a take-over; or those who bought ACCESS at 45 and were bought out at [was it?] 34.... and those holding a monkey called Olympia - bought at 28 bob upon announcement of some "serious" investments in SA and is trading at 4bob today!

Money market funds are the place you put the kind of money you'd have in a normal savings account - you earn 8% instead of 1.5% and your money is available on demand [well withing 4 working days].

Considering the rates offered and the speed of availability, I'd conclude that they are better than fixed deposits and T-Bills.

At any particular time, at least 25% of a portfolio should be in bonds. in a bull run a maximum of 50% should be in stocks and a maximum of 75% in bonds.

stocks are volatile and a portfolio with bonds is the way to reduce this risk.

no wonder seasoned investors are now rushing to bonds. stocks are becoming overvalued

I know....

Access was taken over at 14/-.. . I still think stocks is the way to go if you have a balanced portfolio and knowing when to exit/enter..

A substantial shareholding was bought by the fellow and his business associates not long ago....

Think makaburi...