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Continental Group www.cfsgroup.com Insurance and Financial Services

25/10/2026

A question we hear in almost every planning conversation in the UAE, answered by Sreekanth Pillai, Relationship Manager at Continental, in about a minute.

Worth sending to whoever in your family sorts out the paperwork.

For years, a Muslim family planning its estate could have one of two things. Planning built for wealth spread across sev...
22/10/2026

For years, a Muslim family planning its estate could have one of two things. Planning built for wealth spread across several countries, or a structure it trusted to sit within its faith. Having both in the same plan was rare, so most families chose and lived with the gap.

Our Vice President, Nazneen Abbas, is featured in Khaleej Times this month on why that is changing. Families now expect both, and the market has caught up with them. In her experience, compliance has come to mean different routes to the same outcome, with the options as broad as anything conventional.

Nazneen’s line on it stays with you: Islamic finance holds “the idea that wealth carries responsibility as well as returns.”

The full feature is in Khaleej Times - https://bit.ly/4jueKXn

Not every market moved the same way this week. Some had a very good one. Others had a very hard one.Last week’s rise in ...
19/10/2026

Not every market moved the same way this week. Some had a very good one. Others had a very hard one.

Last week’s rise in energy costs added to inflation concerns and could weigh on global economic growth. London and Mumbai had strong weeks too: the FTSE 100 rose 3.13 per cent and the Sensex 3.11. The Dow edged up 0.67 and the ADX 0.13.

On the harder side, technology took the hit. Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 5.37 per cent and the Nasdaq 4.48. Investors weighed AI valuations and rising infrastructure spending, and shifted toward value and defensive sectors. The S&P 500 slipped 1.95, Shanghai 2.56 and gold 0.70.

So what was behind it? Inflation. US prices rose 3.7 per cent in September, more than expected, which leaves the Federal Reserve’s next move less clear. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to around 5.09 per cent as investors looked for safer ground, while energy prices and Middle East tensions stayed in the background.

The picture this week was a change in leadership, not a broad decline. Corporate earnings and economic growth remain supportive. The chart on the first slide shows the full spread in one look.

We post this card every Monday. Save it, or pass it to whoever keeps asking how markets are doing. Our advisers are always happy to go deeper.

Continental welcomed private bankers and wealth managers to a morning of exchanging ideas and sharing experiences at the...
14/10/2026

Continental welcomed private bankers and wealth managers to a morning of exchanging ideas and sharing experiences at the Dubai Polo & Equestrian Club.

The idea was simple: bring a client situation, a question, or a challenge worth discussing.

Led by Lyndon Dsilva, Shilpa Shetty and Arun Bhasi, the session explored how universal life insurance, critical illness cover and savings solutions can complement the wealth structures our partners already put in place for their clients.

The conversations went beyond products. Through practical client situations, the team explored an important question: while holding companies, foundations and family offices help structure and transfer wealth, how can families ensure they have access to liquidity when they need it most?

Our Founder, Ashok Sardana, also joined the conversation. Drawing on over 30 years of experience working with families, he shared his views on protection, succession and the importance of planning ahead.

It was a morning of open conversations, practical discussions and shared learning.

Thank you to Molly Wilkins for bringing everyone together, and to all our partners who joined us and contributed to the discussions.

We look forward to many more conversations like these.

Last week every department at Continental was handed a colour and asked to bring a dish that said something about the te...
12/10/2026

Last week every department at Continental was handed a colour and asked to bring a dish that said something about the team. Then name it. Then stand up and tell the story behind it.

That was the plot twist in our potluck, which ran across the offices. A dish is an easy brief. A dish that has to explain who you are needs the team to agree on who they are first, and that part took some talking.

Team Pink, our HR department, took the win, and we have chosen not to question the judging. Every team went home with a gift, which felt like the right call after an afternoon of creativity, laughter and some very good food.

Seven of the ten markets and assets we track finished the week higher.Brent oil led at $104.42 a barrel, up 2.12 per cen...
12/10/2026

Seven of the ten markets and assets we track finished the week higher.

Brent oil led at $104.42 a barrel, up 2.12 per cent, followed by gold at $4,220, up 1.39. In equities, the S&P 500 rose 1.15 per cent, the Dow 0.93 and the Nasdaq 0.64, even with volatility in AI-related stocks. The FTSE 100 gained 0.86 and the Sensex 0.78. Three declined: the ADX fell 1.78 per cent, the Nikkei 0.90 and Shanghai 0.74.

The backdrop remains one of persistent inflation pressure. Minutes from the latest Fed meeting showed most policymakers expect another rate increase by year-end. Middle East tensions and oil-price swings continued to keep bond and equity markets sensitive to headlines.

A mix of these exposures delivered a steadier experience over the week, despite the volatility implied by individual market moves. The chart on the first slide shows the full picture at a glance.

This card appears every Monday. Save it, or send it on to whoever keeps asking how markets are doing; our advisers handle the longer conversations.

Tap in for the full update → https://bit.ly/48UUYxa

This year’s World Mental Health Day theme is Lived Experiences Heard. Being heard is most of what a first meeting with u...
10/10/2026

This year’s World Mental Health Day theme is Lived Experiences Heard. Being heard is most of what a first meeting with us is.

Nobody brings a spreadsheet. They bring a worry: a fee letter, a renewal that went up, a bill that landed in the wrong month. The numbers come later.

The worry and the money feed each other. The World Health Organization, in a fact sheet updated last month, lists inadequate pay and job insecurity among the risks to mental health at work, and puts the cost of depression and anxiety at 12 billion lost working days a year.

Our part of that loop is the money. Bring the letter, the renewal notice, the envelope that keeps moving to the bottom of the pile. On the first call nothing is sold; it is read, and most things are smaller on paper than they were at three in the morning.

If the worry is bigger than money, please speak to a doctor or someone you trust first. We will still be here on Monday, and the first conversation costs nothing.

"I'm 31, no kids, no mortgage. Why would I need life cover?"We hear it all the time, and it deserves a straight answer r...
09/10/2026

"I'm 31, no kids, no mortgage. Why would I need life cover?"

We hear it all the time, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a pitch.

Life cover replaces an income for the people who depend on it. At 31 with no dependants that list may be short, and that is the reason the question matters now rather than later. Cover is priced on your age and health on the day you apply, and the people who will one day depend on you (a partner, children, parents who stop working) tend to arrive before you get round to the paperwork. Apply at 31 and the medical questions are short, the premium is small and the price is usually fixed for the term. Wait for the mortgage and the first child and you are applying at 38 with whatever your health looks like then.

Two more things. Some people already lean on your salary without being on any form: parents who get a transfer on the first of the month, a sibling's school fees, a loan you co-signed with a friend. And for anyone single, the cover worth asking about alongside it is critical illness or income cover, which pays you if you are alive and cannot work.

So the question is a good one. The useful answer is that the cheapest and easiest year to sort this out is the one where it feels unnecessary.

If you want to see what that looks like for you, DM us and we will go through it with you.

Tower Street, London, 1688. Ship owners came in for the coffee and stayed for the shipping news, because Edward Lloyd ha...
07/10/2026

Tower Street, London, 1688. Ship owners came in for the coffee and stayed for the shipping news, because Edward Lloyd had the best of it. Merchants started asking the room whether anyone would carry a share of a ship's risk for a fee. The ones who said yes wrote their names under the amount. Underwriters, from that day on.

Lloyd moved to 16 Lombard Street in 1691 and the whole market followed him. It is still running.

We think about this more than a brokerage probably should. We started in a corner office in Karama. There are four of ours now (Abu Dhabi, JLT, Bay Square and DIFC) and the one thing that never changed is where the real conversation happens, which is over a cup, at ours or wherever you are.

If you are ever passing one of ours, it is on us.

An open letter to anyone turning 40. You will get a lot of advice this year. This is the shortest piece of it, and it ta...
06/10/2026

An open letter to anyone turning 40.

You will get a lot of advice this year. This is the shortest piece of it, and it takes about twenty minutes.

In the UAE, your first screening mammogram is due at 40, and then one every two years. Nobody posts a reminder for it, so here it is, on a postcard.

The number matters more here than in most places. The average age at diagnosis in the UAE is around 48, and close to one case in five is a woman between 30 and 40, according to Fakeeh University Hospital. At 40, you are on time.

Found early, the Ministry of Health and Prevention puts the chance of recovery at 95 per cent of cases. We read terms and conditions for a living. We have not seen better.

Your medical plan may already cover a screening mammogram. The policy wording will say, and if you would rather we read it, send it over.

Book the twenty minutes. Then forward this to someone who turned 40 and never got the letter.

With care,
Continental

Address

Indigo Icon Tower, Cluster F, 9th Floor, Jumeirah Lake Towers
Dubai
26588

Opening Hours

Monday 08:00 - 18:00
Tuesday 08:00 - 18:00
Wednesday 08:00 - 18:00
Thursday 08:00 - 18:00
Friday 08:00 - 05:00

Telephone

+97145091555

Website

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