Does anyone have information of how we are going to pay fees to Stashaway or have asked them about it before?

I have read their Account Opening Document and it only states the following:-



Seems like it is important to figure out the following:-

1. Would Stashaway issue a invoice for us to pay them with fresh funds or would they automatically deduct their fees from our invested sum either from cash available or by selling our securities? And would they provide any details for us to verify the correctness of such deducted amount?

2. How do they compute the amount of fees to be charged on the invested sums and based on what time frame? Would it be based on the total amount invested one year from the time of the first deposit? Based on the time of each deposit and charged separately? Or charged at the end of the accounting year regardless of when we started investing and prorated accordingly?

3. The referral program states that we would "get up to RM30,000 managed for free for 6 months", how do they compute the 6 months?

Have sent the above queries to their Whatsapp support and will report back once I get a reply.

In the meantime would appreciate any additional info from you guys too.

Thanks for the information, it is most helpful. I am concerned about the exact amount of fees charged by Stashaway due to the impact it may have over long term compounding.

Sharing the reply I got from Stashaway's Whatsapp support:-

My interest in information on fees charged by Stashaway is to better inform myself and hopefully others investing with Stashaway. It is not a meant as a criticism against Stashaway, nor am I saying that they are "expensive".

Nevertheless, the answer to what is "cheaper" would ultimately depend on what type of investor you are.

For the sake of discussion, lets assume that the preferred style of investing is passive, the time horizon for the investment is around 30 years before you retire and the choice is between buying and owning the US ETFs directly or investing with a robo advisor like Stashaway.

Stashaway's barrier of entry and upfront costs are indeed much lower than going through the hassle of opening a brokerage account with TD Ameritrade or IB to trade US ETFs. Even though Stashaway is fully transparent in what they are investing in and you can just buy the same exact ETFs in the same proportions if you wish to, it arguably also wins out in terms of time and effort required for currency exchange and getting the transactions done.

However, it is worth noting that Stashaway's 0.8%-0.2% annual fee is charged onto your total assets under management (including any returns earned) and is deducted directly from there monthly. Using the analysis in this Youtube video which compares the fees charged by the US robo advisors (with rates as low as 0.25%) and directly owning a Vanguard ETF, the amount of fees paid over the course of 30 or even 40 years could add up to staggering amounts.

Of course the analysis in the youtube video is not directly applicable to the context of Malaysian investors like us who do not enjoy the same ease of access and low trading fees via vanguard or platforms like robinhood. But even in our context, the amount of fees charged by Stashaway over time would definitely add up to being much more than buying and owning the US ETFs directly, albeit to a lesser degree.

Stashaway has pros and cons. For an investment novice like myself who doesn't have enough capital to maintain a brokerage account with TD Ameritrade or IB, Stashaway is indeed a "Cheaper" choice and may be able to bring better returns that the 4.x% FDs currently available out there.

The short answer is that what is cheaper depends greatly on context.

In the context of a Malaysian investor investing in US ETFs, the upfront cost of Stashaway is indeed way lower than buying ETFs directly due to brokerage and currency exchange fees. However, for purposes of compounding over long periods, expending a larger one-time up front cost to buy the ETF directly may make more financial sense than an annual fee charged on the AUM. Stashaway is only cheaper in the short term but becomes more expensive in the long term. A relatively small difference in the fees charged may also have a significant impact in the long term.

Anyway, since Stashaway does not charge withdrawal fees, we have the option of withdrawing our funds to buy ETFs directly when it makes more financial sense to do so.

This post has been edited by pinan: Feb 14 2019, 05:40 PM

According to the Q&A, you need to forward your SGX results to their support email at support@stashaway.my.

I guess if anyone would bother to forge a lookalike email, they would have been dishonest in answering the profile questions in the first place

Honsiong is right, dividends and interest derived from investments outside Malaysia and received by local investors are exempt from tax.

Can read this LHDN public ruling for more info http://lampiran1.hasil.gov.my/pdf/pdfam/PR2_2014.pdf

This is the most relevant part:-

(a) Dividends and interest from investments outside Malaysia

Dividends and interest derived from investments outside Malaysia and received by local investors in Malaysia, other than a resident company carrying on the business of banking, insurance or sea or air transport, are exempt from tax.

[paragraph 28 of Schedule 6 of ITA]

Just chipping in my 3 sen. I don't disagree with you and in fact agree with you about Stashaway being a relatively good option for ikan bilis investors such as myself.

However, as you have pointed out, the 30% withholding taxes claimed back by Stashway/Saxo is only for ETFs that track securities/treasuries/bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury/Government, because such dividend payments are sourced from interest income which are eligible for exemption due to the US tax law on qualified interest income. Such exemption is not applicable for ETFs that track equities like SPY/US domiciled SP500 as mentioned by alexkos or VTSAX/VTWAX, since their dividend payments are sourced from profits of the underlying corporations held.

So for ETFs that track equities, notwithstanding other advantages, Stashaway does not appear to have much relative advantage over hooting the ETFs directly in terms of the 30% withholding tax situation.

This post has been edited by pinan: Mar 7 2019, 08:20 PM

The best way to get an accurate and full answer on the withholding tax issue would be to contact Stashaway's support at support@stashaway.my or call them at +60 3 9212 8536.

If you have a registered account with them (registration is free) you can also contact them on WhatsApp via the Stashaway app.

They are very responsive and provide clear answers to queries.

Do update us on their reply to your query!

I think i have basically answered your question in my earlier post, not sure if you read it or not.



Based on the information provided by Honsiong, Stashaway can and does help to claim back the 30% withholding taxes for ETFs that track securities/treasuries/bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury/Government. As far as I know, this is the only exemption for Msia citizens which have no tax treaty with the US. For ETFs that track equities like SPY/US domiciled SP500, whether you buy directly thru captrader or we hold them thru SA, the 30% withholding taxes cannot be claimed back due to our status as non-resident and non-us citizen aka alien.

So you are right to point out that, in this aspect alone, irish domiciled ETFs with 15% withholding taxes are more cost efficient in the long run.

I do agree with you that the people in this thread can get quite sensitive even when you raise a reasonable question about fees charged by SA. Nevertheless, no one here owes you any due diligence to check their info. If you want a reliable answer then SA customer support is the best choice you got.

This post has been edited by pinan: Mar 7 2019, 08:29 PM