if can afford usd$500/mth, can put into Investor Trust Assurance 15yrs savings plan, capital protected, potential upside unlimited, historical payout 12%-14%p.a., (guaranteed 4.3%p.a. worst case)

wow.. seriously?
Cayman islands and see the red fonts below from it's website.
"
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U must be either very wealthy and not mind the risks involved
or very knowledgeable to manage such,
to invest in this

Doing it now. Just sent my application form. Hopefully made it in time to qualify for the PRS Youth Incentive.

They're members of the Malaysian Financial Planning Council, http://www.mfpc.org.my/membership/corporate-members
If they cant be trusted, why should we trust other members in it too?

yup, so they are
so is Handsard Group - a huge mis-selling by an consultant to my sister, locked-in 5 years and current losses in USD10K+
the devil's in the T&C + mis- or appropriate selling.

BTW, that ITA scheme you're referring to - is it PRS approved?
ie - tax relief and stuff?
or just suggesting an alternative to PRS?

Wahh how come losses usd10k? But no doubt I don't prefer Hansard as they do hv some hidden charges. ITA very transparent, charges explained in details. Not sure the scheme got tax relief or not. only know It's under offshore platform, roi is tax free

Hi!

Just to ask, has anyone heard or received the youth incentive? Or know when it will be paid out? I've been in since April but no news of the incentive yet so far.

What is FSM?

Fundsupermart, an online distributor.

Has anyone actually compared PRS with actually putting in FD? To be honest, not really a good deal.

For FD, at least you can still take out anytime.

You cannot compare like that as PRS is a retirement investment which works like EPF. You'll reap its return at the age of retirement of 55. Conservative PRS funds are committed to match EPF return.

FD is not considered as investment and rather be classified as saving. It will eventually lose to real inflation.

Actually if you are afraid of inflation, even more you should not put into PRS. Because at least, with the money, you can invest in something that actualy protects against inflation.

The PRS plan which one of the GE agent showed me, is only slightly better then putting in FD even after considering tax deduction.

And you cannot really take the money out after 10 years because it is not worth it.

I think the insurance company is obviously in cahoots with the government to provide a product that is not really acceptable.

GE? heheh - that's annuity or PRS?
anyhow - checkout mutual fund types of PRS lar.
Just because U saw a lame duck doesnt mean all BIRDS are lame.

PRS works for me due to tax rates +0% service charges (Hwang's Growth PRS via FSM)
Each person's mileage may vary with their tax rate + selected PRS.

Nobody is forcing anybody to invest with PRS and not even with the government.

If you think that other investment can perform better and matches your risk appetite, you're welcomed to go for that.

For me, PRS matches my requirement based on risk appetite, tax relief and 0% SC.

Great Eastern ---> Insurance Company. What the guy showed you is DEFERRED ANNUITY.

also, the idea of annuity does work, just not in malaysia. and just because great eastern provided a lousy product, the idea itself is not lousy.

Opps sorry.

Well. If regards to that great eastern product, yes.

Anyway, my friend told me that the deferred annuity product is worse. Any ideas?

It's good if you wanna live longer. Statistics shows that the more annuities you have, the longer your average life.

why?

Anyway. I am pretty sure those plans that are claimable under tax are much worse then those that are not claimable for obvious reason.

Dun u think?

Can you take out everything from your fund after 10 years?

My understanding is that only few insurance companies have the deferred annuity product, and all are eligible for the tax deductible (would be stupid if it isn’t eligible). However, I haven’t seen all the quotations but also my understanding is that the returns from these products is abysmal.
(Note: the purpose of purchasing annuity in a traditional way of speaking isn’t for investment purposes but let’s ignore that because after all we live in Malaysia with high interest rates unlike UK, US)

The slightly better-off situation is that, I think they give you non-guaranteed returns (etiqa does, I think so is GE, not too sure) but I don’t think it’s worth it because your funds get locked for so long.

Unlike PRS though, deferred annuity allows for full withdrawal (albeit there will be penalties).

PRS vs Deferred Annuity (DA)

Big chunk of DA is guaranteed. PRS guarantees nothing basically, just like unit trust. I will choose PRS any other day. Don’t think the fund managers are THAT bad to lose ALL my money.