70% Malaysia.

Ah.. Thanks!

The Asian sibling is PAIF (Public Asian Ittikal Fund).

Should be an Asia Ex Japan fund with heavily exposed to Greater China.

I'm not too sure if this is the right thread to ask, but I'm just gonna take a stab at it.
I have this person who keeps calling and messaging my friend, wanting to promote PB Mutual funds to him. I'm planning to tag along because he's going to finally give in and listen to what this person has to say. I'm just wondering if there's anything that we can use about this fund as a defensive way of staying away from buying anything from that agent? I know the agent's going to say the best things about it, so we wanna have some good points to use as a mean of not signing up. We've already being upfront and told the person we're not interested, yet, being aggressive and all, the agent still wants to meet up and since we're all former colleagues, we cannot totally say no after rejecting so many god damn times.

I know this funds have its own good points, so I just want to know if there's a quick summary about things that people usually say to not want to be involved?

Do you have the fund name(s) that your agent friend tried to promote?

I can give u a good one - "I invest on my own thru FSM, way cheaper Sales Charge than PM, and I'm very happy and comfortable with it."

Which agent also will die speechless

Safest / best way to say "let me consider" / buy time?
Ask the agent:
1. What do U personally invest in?
2. Why for (1.)?
3. How for (1)? Dollar Cost Averaging, Value Cost Averaging, Trend, Lelong, combinations?
4. How long have U been investing in the above & methods?
5. What is your (agent's) total CAGR for the above?
6. Would U be able to show be the proof of returns for the above? ie. returns pa% / CAGR per transaction or per investment vehicle?

If our buddy can show/answer all the above logically
AND was not invested pre-2008 or better yet, pre-1997
AND is cocky like 'sure win one",
U know this fellow never got hit by worlwide or regionwide market crisis/meltdown. Run Forest, run!

Just a thought

"I'm just wondering if there's anything that we can use about this fund as a defensive way of staying away from buying anything from that agent?"

The plain truth is that Public Mutual has the highest service charge, 5.5%. You would usually need to invest and hold for at least 2 years to cover this charge. If you're lucky! Many more years, if not.

In the mean time, you're losing opportunity cost, that is the lost of interest if your money was put into a no risk investment vehicle like fixed deposit in a bank.

The 2nd fact is that a lot of the agents are fresh and hangat-hangat tahi ayam. They don't last long. They can't. Mutual funds are very long term savings for retirement or to finance your child's education. And these are at least 15-20 years plans. In the course of your 20-years saving plan, agents will come and go.

And this is especially bad since each investment with a different agent will have a different account number, even if in a same fund. When it is time to switch from one fund to another in the latter years, you cannot consolidate these different accounts into one and you will incur extra switches and more transaction costs.

Agents tend to appear out of the woodwork when the stock market is hot. It is the worst time to enter. In actual fact, it is time to take some profits off the table when there are lots of newbies getting in, and a reason why I'm monitoring these forums.

If the agent is really determine, and there are some benefits you see in Public Mutual and you want to get in; please do it conservatively using the dollar cost average method.

The best way without telling a lie that you are already a Public Mutual investor, is by signing up on your own.

Go to a Public Bank and open an account. Make an initial investment buying into a bond fund, and you need only have about RM1000 to open an account.

Bond funds has a service charge of only 0.25%. A bond fund will usually gives a return better than fixed deposit.

Then applied for the Mutual Online account. If you have a Public Bank savings account, you then can transfer, without extra transaction fees. into the bond fund regularly on your own. It is better and more convenient than placing multiple fixed deposits. And re-investments is as low as RM100, which you can't do with fixed deposits.

The only flaw in this method of placing savings in bond funds instead of fixed deposit is that Public Mutual will be going to increase the service charge to 1% w.e.f. October 1st.

But this service charge will be offset and deducted when you switch from a bond fund to an equity fund. Still a good method if you intend to invest into equity funds eventually.

Why Mutual Online? There is a current promotion of 0.5% DISCOUNT (so low, nothing to shout about). And you can invest into both Public and PB series of funds. Direct transfer from savings account. At your own convenient, without paperwork with an agent. Option to select "No Agent" when buying a fund, and hence no multiple agents with multiple accounts on the same fund.

Cheers.


This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Jun 9 2013, 11:34 AM

@j.passing.by: No AGENT still charges 0.5% lower only ---> 5% SC? That's still too high and unacceptable!

David, your PM portfolio will just go on autopilot, or you will still top up when necessary?

NO top up. Auto pilot till it reaches my "personal" goal.

Dear Unitholder, We are pleased to attach the market wrap and bond market review for the week/fortnight ended 31 May 2013 for your information. Regards Customer Service

I find it ironic, u have been staying away from PM but still supporting this thread

PM should really reduce their 5.5% SC to be more competitive la

Social [forum] responsibility ...

What is the most competitive S.C% to be charged in mind? Any thought?

2 to 3%.

Why I said so?

FSM offers: 2%
CIMBClicks eInvest offers 2.5%
EPF scheme: 3%

This post has been edited by David83: Jun 9 2013, 10:03 PM

Takda, cuz don't wanna give the agent the chance to start promoting at all. I only heard something like "do you want your EPF to work for you?", then I stopped replying the sms already, lol =/

You and/or FSM did came to my mind, lol

Thank you so much for these! They are good questions to thread along the way (and also to test that agent's experience, portfolios and etc.), definitely helpful for me and my friend!

Many thanks for your time in writing this! You also helped to answer some questions I have regarding other areas of interest and not only on fending off this agent's approach Will be reading more into this.

And wow, 5.5%...I never knew (or forgotten) that their fee is this high!!

"No agent" in the online option still pays the same service charge. The 0.5% discount is a current promotion.

That's the normal service charge for cash (money out of your wallet) investments. Money out from EPF (which you can withdraw every 3 months, based on some formulas on your total amount in your EPF account 1) is 3.0% in EPF-approved equity funds.

Service charge for investments from both out-of-wallet or out-of-EPF in bond funds is the same 0.25% (which is going to be 1.0% in Oct 1st.)

I have yet to have a good reason why the discrepancy between 5.5% and 3.0% in the service charge in out-of-wallet and out-of-EPF investments, except that maybe EPF has enough clout not to approve investment schemes that charges a higher percentage.

This is despite the fact that you can do out-of-wallet investments online without any aid from any agent, once you have registered an online account after an initial investment.

(You need to do some paperwork. Basically some papers that you admit that you know what you are doing, that nobody is twisting your arm to invest. There is a cooling-off period. For new investors only! No cooling period for re-investment. )

You can't do out-of-EPF investments online. Each withdrawal from EPF needs to hand in a form with thumbprints on it to EPF. Yeah, more work for the agent, but lower service charge? See the irrationality?

Cheers.

This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Jun 10 2013, 03:10 PM