After a decade with P-Mutual (PM), I decided to quit invest in PM.

With zero knowledge on investment, I chosen to invest in PM since 2010 as a fresh grad. I invested in an equity fund with adequate growth rate at that point of time (roughly 5-8% per annum). However, the overall return (distribution + capital gain) was unsatisfactory since 2016 for an Equity Fund.
Despite unsatisfactory result, PM still charging 5.5% sales commission and ton of other management fee & cost.

TO ALL OF YOU, if you decide to invest in PM, here is my LESSONS to you before you dump your money into PM:

1) Past performance of the fund tell you what result to expect (high rish high return), but please KNOW YOUR FUND MANAGER as well. My equity fund was managed by competence fund manager at past (roughly 5-8% per annum), maybe headhunted by other firm so the competence fund manager resigned. Based on the return in 2016, I supposed the fund is managed by a new DONKEY fund manager / LOUSY fund manager. Hence, THE OVERALL RETURN BECOME UNSATISFACTORY (roughly 2-4% per annum).

2) An equity mutual fund requires active management to outperform the market, that why we pay expensive fee (5.5% sales commission + other fees) to the fund management team. However, most of the mutual funds in Malaysia failed to deliver satisfactory return to it's mutual fund unit holders. The fund management team STILL EARNING MANAGEMENT FEE OF X% DESPITE THE FUND PERFORMANCE GOOD OR BAD.

3) 5.5% sales commission is fxcking expensive fee, this money can be used to grow into bigger investment sum in long-term. What I hate is, the fund management team STILL EARNING MANAGEMENT FEE OF X% from you DESPITE THE FUND PERFORMANCE GOOD OR BAD. Why should you pay an expensive fee when the management team perform poorly / or incompetency?

4) If you have invested in PM, learn how to detect DONKEY fund manager / LOUSY fund manager and prepare to redeem / quit the fund. The equity fund I invested has low return from 2016 to 2019 despite Malaysia economy is doing well. THESE ARE THE RED FLAG, if you find that the return is low for an equity fund for 2-3 years, QUIT the fund, it is a sign of DONKEY fund manager.

5) Mutual fund is good choice for beginner investor, but you need to learn to invest and managed your own money in long-term. If you dont manage your own money, mutual fund will charge you expensive fee (5.5% sales commission + x% fee) first before help you manage your money. Your CAPITAL WILL BE IMMEDIATE LOSS BEFORE THE MUTUAL FUND HELP YOU EARN ANY MONEY AND DONKEY FUND MANAGER WILL USE YOUR MONEY IN BURSA PLAYGROUND.

6) Most of the PRS mutual funds return so-so only, and PRS lock your fund until 55 years old. If you putting RM3000 for 15% tax relief (M40 benchmark) , around RM450 tax relief. I suggest you use RM3000 to buy some REIT / share, to get better return and no need to wait until 55 years old.

7) When you give all the carrot (5.5% sales commission) to a Donkey first, it will eat the carrot first without doing any job. However, if you put the carrot in front of the Donkey, then Donkey will move in order to eat the carrot. Malaysia mutual fund industry is the former, eat the carrot first, so the Donkey wont bother to work properly. If the mutual fund industry is not practicing performance based reward to the mutual fund management team, I dont see any reason why the consumer should invest on mutual fund in Malaysia.

This post has been edited by hong999: Mar 8 2023, 11:56 AM

8) PM fund information is not fully open to public, it is abit fishy. You need to invest the fund first and gain access to all information. Example: Historical Price Chart plotted on daily basis.
There is no information on fund manager profile as well.

ETF (in USA) also charge very cheap expenses, and the return is mimic S&P500.

However, if the mutual fund requires active management, try to avoid DonKey.

Yeah, but consumer needs to gain access to financial knowledge as well.

Otherwise, there will be more "beginner" investor running into the fund running by Donkey Manager.

1 & 2 ) PB Growth Fund
3) No DCA, only 1 time contribution at beginning and 2-3 time additional contribution after bonus.
4) with 5.5% factor in, my entire capital grew approximately 40%-45% till 2016.
5) No comparison to other fund house was done. HOWEVER, KLCI was at uptrend from 2016 till 2018, but the return from income contribution lower almost by half.
I also expect some argument about capital gain from you, but looking at the historical fund price, highest price was 90 sen in 2011, then below 90 sen a all time until Nov 2021 hit 86 sen. It fluctuated between 60 sen to 90 sen from 2011 to 2022, so I will conclude the capital gain is a trash.
6) I believe you are PM subscriber, you may click into the fund and find out the fund analytic data. A quick summary the fund risky level is 4 out of 5, the 10 years total return is 34.5% and ANNUALIZE return is 3.01%.
7) I dont have other PM / oversea mutual fund, but I invest my self and the return is better than PM.

The unit holders are paying the fund manager to invest on behalf of the stakeholders, but entrusting the huge pool of fund to a Donkey, caused the misfortune.

This post has been edited by hong999: Mar 9 2023, 03:57 PM

Top up info:

5) Yes, u r right. NAV tak boleh pakai. When NAV is useless, ur only return is income distribution.

6) stock picking for a fund really depends on the fund manager experience, capability to foresee the global trend and other factors.
The comparison to any other fund is unfair as they hold different portfolio, except for Bursa KL index (which is the benchmark most fund house used).
It is understandable 2020 to 2022 that the market is heading downtrend, so no complain on this period.
However, 2016 - 2019 is my pain.

7) I use my own money, pick my favorite counters in Bursa.

5.5% + other hidden fee investor paid, is for better return, not FD type of return. Otherwise, why should we invest in higher risk equity fund.

High risk + high fee = low return is a joke

This post has been edited by hong999: Mar 9 2023, 04:24 PM

5) Well, if capital gain + income distribution, the average return is 3% p.a.. for an equity fund, that is fund management team problem.

6) To give u more insight, the June 2022 financial report shows significant loss on top glove as compared to June 2021 (share price: 2022-RM1.10 vs 2021-RM4.10). Dont know cut loss at RM3 or RM2? Why top glove still in the book in June 2022 (share price RM1.10)? This is what I meant "prediction" Or "calculated risk". A capital lost of 20% already harmful, 25% should immediate cut loss. See the Donkey? Where is the risk management? Risk tolerance allows 75% capital loss? Sound fishy right?

7) No doubt, before 2010 till 2016 was a golden period of this fund. I supposed the fund was under the same competence fund manager, until 2016 he / she gone.

Anyway, I have given enough information for the audience to identify Donkey Manager. Hope the victim will be reduced, dont just buy what the salesman hard selling to the you.

This post has been edited by hong999: Mar 9 2023, 07:06 PM

I agreed ETF is the best option, especially S&P500.
Low fee, one of the best world index return.

Past performance does not guarantee future return.
This is reasonable and fund house favorite quote when the fund performs poorly.

Again, using my fund as an example, based on the longest period data that I can obtain:

27/10/2003, Fund price: RM0.47 , Bursa Index: 657

09/03/2023, Fund price: RM0.68 , Bursa Index: 1433

Fund price grew 145% over 20 years, Bursa index grew: 218% 20 years.

Lets the figure speaks.
Only income distribution makes the difference, capital gain is a joke

When income distribution also turned bad, time to cut lost.

Salesman always use fancy brochure and new fund to lure its victim, beware.

In house fund seldom shares their performance chat in Malaysia unlike oversea fund house, therefore the consumer can only rely on brochure sheet and limited info access to form the investment decision.

I will end my discussion here and Post #2801 of this thread shall be my valuable experience to you all.

Login PMO and search PB Growth Fund will do. The chart is too large to post here.

I find that some other PM equity fund also hardly got capital gain compared to its benchmark (normally is Bursa), Public Equity , Public Aggressive Growth, Asean equity, China equity and so on...

This post has been edited by hong999: Mar 11 2023, 11:58 AM

Update for my previous post:

Has been waiting for the distribution announcement for FYE 30/6/2023, but no announcement made.
The annual report (FYE 30/6/2023) for the fund finally available.
After the net loss on investment of RM128.7M (FY2022 - likely from top glove), this was part of the UNREALIZED LOSS of RM176M in FY2022.

Of course you have to cut loss right?
When you cut loss in FY2023, this become REALIZED loss of RM81M.
So the loss carry forward to FY2023 and no income distribution for the first time since 2014.

Lesson: KNOW YOUR FUND MANAGER AND STUDY THEIR PROFILE AND ACHIEVEMENT, IF NO INFORMATION AVAILABLE, AVOID THE MUTUAL FUND AT ALL COST. BECAUSE DONKEY DONT KNOW CUT LOSS AND YOU WILL LOSS YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY.
IT IS BETTER YOU BUY MAYBANK SHARE EVERY MONTH AND EARN 6% - 6.5% DIVIDEND EVERY YEAR, THEN REINVEST THE DIVIDEND BACK TO MAYBANK SHARE.