I would consider moving the excess funds out of Malaysia so I am not sure how it would stimulate the economy. The majority of those affected will likely save it elsewhere instead of spending the funds.

Someone rightly pointed out earlier that the problem is derived from low salaries in Malaysia. But there is no political will to change that.

To me this sounds like a movement to redistribute wealth a la Cuba. Those experiments have not worked very well. Another way would be to introduce inheritance tax and increase stamp duties. Well you see where it is heading..

Just make sure you are eligible for the deduction in SSPN-i and the fees from the PRS makes sense.

I’ve been looking more into EPF MIS with all that is going on. I take it you are enrolled in it.

How has it worked? Any suggestions on funds?

For instance the SSPN-i deduction requires the person to be a parent of underaged children. You mentioned that you have not contributed over a year, you would need to have a taxable income to make deductions on PRS, SSPN-i etc. Good luck!

This post has been edited by TheEquatorian: Dec 5 2020, 09:02 PM

Btw, what is the difference between using FSM and going straight to the fundhouses (Public Mutual etc)? I understood that the sales fee is anyway very low (close to 0) for EPF MIS.

This is an opinion piece by the Edge, there is no official implementation. It can likely only be implemented next year for FY2022, I am not sure a change could take place for the ”current” year FY2021. But opinions like these is how the ball gets rolling and soon enough some populistic politician will take it as their mission like with the Sinar scheme.

It’s always easy to point the fingers at others.

I have seen this statement before on how it is ”harder” to achieve returns for EPF when a fund reaches a certain level. Maybe this journalist (not investor) should explain to investors how they should try to maintain their funds small so they can get higher returns. I think she can start with Berkshire Hathaway and move on to the Norwegian oil fund and Temasek.

This post has been edited by TheEquatorian: Dec 15 2020, 12:51 AM

How does the dividend calculation work?

Is it calculated on daily basis? I am wondering if I should self contribute from 1/1 or hold until end of the month.

Thanks.

Thanks, the last link did not work for me.

This essentially means that you only get 1 day interest for January’s deposit - but when is the deposit counted (at any point in January)?

I guess the best is to deposit it in EPF towards the end of January (25-30th) and earn interest on the funds in my savings account for the same month?

Yes, I am above the threshold for withdrawal so I will likely deposit and if any implementation on the tiered scheme withdraw.

I read that the bonus of 0.75 was only up to the first 30k. Has ASB done this before?

Guess we know what is in store for EPF. Does EPF have the provision to do something like this?

This post has been edited by TheEquatorian: Dec 23 2020, 05:42 PM

Cindy Yeap has found a friend in Jeffrey Chew. I wonder why The Edge is actively seeking out people in the top tier that are positive to this change, they cannot be majority.

I see that cimb has two choices for self contribution this year - self employed or i-saraan. Has anyone tried any of them?

Is i-saraan for the govt incentive and self employed the same one as previous years?

This post has been edited by TheEquatorian: Jan 24 2021, 07:08 PM

Nice! It sounds like the announcement may come later than usual.

It’s hard to see epf underperforming in q4. I think the only possible reason for below 5% is external forces (MOF etc) or stringent dividend distribution policy this year.

Is there a dividend policy stated anywhere?

Makes sense, I would opt to use around 10% and split between US and China equity to add som growth gearing to EPF.

How is the experience in investment thru EPF? Can everything be done online? The 0% sales charge is interesting - I wonder if it will be extended, most funds have high management fees anyway.

Yes, the sales charge is 0% until Q2. It is usually shared with distributor but when you use EPFs online platform they are the distributor. Thus there should be no issues in extending it if the fund management companies want to access EPFs pool. EPF has no reason to ”earn” on their users.

As for the management fees, they are in general very high - above 1.5%. This is quite common for actively managed funds in opaque markets but not mature markets.

So for the EPF investment scheme all fees are to the fund manager if we assume EPF is not trying to earn money on their users. I don’t see why EPF wouldn’t be able to negotiate away the sales charge for an extended period.

3% - I hope you earned that back. I wrote in their survey that they need to open up EPF to reputable foreign ETF providers like Vanguard. It is amazing that Msians have to donate so much to financial institutions.

I recall seeing somewhere that it was launched as 0-0.5%. But even 0.5% doesn’t make any sense these days.

This post has been edited by TheEquatorian: Jan 31 2021, 07:17 PM

The sheer size of EPF makes it very important for fund managers to be available there.

I think they could easily negotiate a 0% sales charge and 30% discount on the management fees for their members.

The management fees should be similar to offshore mutual funds unless they are able to show how they are overperforming them.

It’s not a manual calculation. The fund states their management fee and you are reimbursed 30% of it. It’s quite common for fees to be lower through pension funds overseas due to the volume.

EPF needs to use its size to favor its members not the FIs in the country.

Let me give an example, I have an emerging markets ETF today that charges me 0.3% pa in management fee. If I was to choose the ETF through the pension fund in the country it cost me 0.18%. This is also clearly stated on the pension funds marketplace.

Ie the pension fund is justifying the value of its existence.

This post has been edited by TheEquatorian: Jan 31 2021, 08:01 PM