Your name sir?" asked the hotel receptionist.
"Saeed," I replied.
"Your last name sir?"
"Saeed" I said.
"No sir, I meant your last name."
"That is my last name," I sighed and watched my inquisitor's face register incredulity and suspicion.
"That is not very common," he muttered before checking me in.
This is more or less a good encounter. Being blessed with a double moniker has sometimes been an interesting talking point, but it has also been the cause of hours of inane conversations at the most inappropriate times.
Like five years ago in a Washington, DC, terminal where I was in a hurry to catch a bus to New York.
The eyebrows of the man at the ticket counter arched upon hearing my name.
"Do you know a guy called Fred Fred?" he asked deadpan.
During another trip in Spain, the hostel owner laughed hysterically. Tears were coming out of his eyes and it took him quite some time to recover enough to check me in.
Back in my former home of Australia some wondered whether the name was a cultural or religious practice. Well, let me unveil the reason behind this double mystery: my parents' motivations were neither cultural nor religious, but rather purely practical.
I was originally born Saeed Abdul Hamid Saeed Nassir. However, before we migrated to Australia it was decided somehow that it was too long and the last name was unsentimentally snipped.
Ironically, the decision ended up causing more controversy than intended and probably caused many job applications to be rejected by hiring managers who didn't believe it could be the name of a real person.
Recently I decided to search the internet for other people who have the same first and last name.
I was astonished to discover a large population of the double-named. Unlike me, their names were not even manipulated, they were all the real McCoy. Such as Lance Lance and Thomas Thomas from the US, and Mehmet Mehmet from Istanbul.
And just last week an Australian Egyptian called Farid Farid got in contact with me.
All of this had me thinking of setting up what could be the first ever gathering of people with the same first and last names.
Naturally, it will be held every 11 years and alternate between the rural Australian towns of Wagga Wagga and Woy Woy.
I would invite the small boutique Philadelphian gallery David David Inc to display art work and entertainment would be provided by American comedian Bruce Bruce and 1990's RnB singer Lisa Lisa.
The best part of it all would be that no money would have to be wasted in sending out invitations.
Everybody would know if their name was on the list.
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
The five pillars of Islam
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
