I think this largely depends on the complexity of your finances and what your overall portfolio is made up of. Generally speaking, most insurances / medical aid/hospital plans etc only change once a year so perhaps for those types of policies you can reassess them on the anniversary date each year to make sure the cover is still relevant and suitable and that the premium you are paying is competitive in relation to the rest of the market.
When it comes to investment and savings accounts, I’d be inclined to investigate them on a more frequent basis as the majority of these accounts fluctuate daily and what you see today can be vastly different to what you see in a year’s time. It’s good to have an understanding of what your investment allocation is, how the portfolio is performing, the fees that are being charged etc to make sure you don’t look back in 5 years’ time and realise the portfolio hasn’t done what it was mandated to do, because generally at that stage it’s too late. .
I advise and encourage investors to get involved in their portfolios, ask the hard questions and really make an effort to try have a basic understanding of what you are investing in. Ultimately it is the advisor’s responsibility to ensure the portfolio meets the requirements of the client, but we’ve seen some very questionable calls made by other “brokers” for additional commissions and incentives which would never make it past the client if they had a better understanding on the inner workings of their portfolio.