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In previous articles, we already touched on what a unit trust is and how it works. Most probably, you will have rough ideas of how unit trust works in Malaysia and what unit trust is. How about the benefits of unit trusts?

Let us now take a closer look at the benefits of a unit trust investment. You may consider investing in a unit trust after being well informed about this product.

If you don’t follow what unit trust is, please have a read first at Unit Trusts, The ‘Safest’ Investments For Beginners In Malaysia?

Benefits Of Investing In Unit Trust

What are the benefits of investing in a unit trust? ASB is one kind of unit trust investment. Keep in mind that ASB is only for the Bumiputera. How about the others? Does investing in unit trust profitable enough?

1. Managed By The Professionals

You know what? An expert is looking after your investment. Worry not, it’s better to have someone professional to take care of our investment portfolio rather than most of us who know nothing when it comes to investing.

Fund managers are responsible for managing and investing the pool of money from the investors. They’re skilled investors who understand the market, spending a lot of time analysing shares as well as the industry and economy at large.

They’re always on the market to be as fast as they can to take advantage of the market price movement. Would you be able to do that?

2. Diversification Of Portfolio

You have a small amount of money, but there are so many potential things that can be profited from your investment. Well, unit trust can help you diversify your investment portfolio. Diversification will help you to reduce your investment risk.

Let’s say you have 10 eggs. Would you place all your eggs in one basket or place them into a few different baskets? If anything happens to one basket, then what about the rest of the eggs?

The same goes for investment. If anything happens to one or more of these shares while you put everything in the same stock or industry, your investment portfolio will be affected. To reduce the risk, diversify your investment!

3. Liquidity

Most investors prefer their investment to be liquid. It means that the investment can be easily converted to cash. Unit trusts provide this feature. Any unit can be bought or sold easily. Some of the funds can return your investment to cash within the same day.

This option will help those in their emergency time to gain cash by liquifying their investment easily.

Unit trusts may be the best investment, especially for beginners but it will not suit every investor’s appetite. Make sure that you understand your risk and also the investment products before making any investment decision.

Over the course of the Movement Control Order in Malaysia, brought about by the global pandemic of COVID-19, the lives of every individual in the country have been upended in more ways than one. Changes to our daily routine that we would not have imagined half a year ago have become part and parcel of the “new normal” and almost second nature by now: wearing a mask in public spaces, having a bottle of hand sanitizer available on hand anywhere we go or constantly keeping a social distance from friends and colleagues.

Apart from adopting new habits, a silver lining has emerged where some have ended up discarding unhealthy habits such as late-night suppers, smoking or regularly eating out. Had it not been for circumstances forcing a change in lifestyle, many individuals would probably carry on less than ideal practices without giving much thought to them.

Likewise, when it comes to making investments, many individuals may not realise that some of their investment habits are actually detrimental to their financial health and can impede their ability to grow their wealth optimally. It is important that these “unhealthy” investment habits are recognised so that they can be addressed in a timely manner to avoid long term repercussions. These are some of the most common habits that we observe among many investors:

1. Investing TOO Safely

Many people particularly retirees may prefer to play safe by putting all their money in FD alone because it is deemed to be the safest form of investment. However, in the current market environment where FD rates are below 3%, the impact of inflation is very apparent.

The Rule of 72 states that when you take 72 and divide it by the rate of return, the answer will tell you the number of years required to double your money. So, if you are getting a 3% return, it will take you 24 years to double your money! With inflation eating into your money, your purchasing power 24 years later is going to be a lot less than today. In comparison, if you can navigate through a moderate risk diversified investment portfolio and earn an 8% annualised return, it would only take 9 years to double your money. 

2. Emotional Investing

Some investors tend to wait for the “right time” to invest, anticipating a feel-good factor when markets go up and this is when they decide to ride the wave of the moment in hopes of buying high to sell even higher.

In contrast, when the markets come down, they stay on the side-lines and play the waiting game, using negative market sentiment as justification for inaction when instead they should be taking the opportunity to bargain hunt. This is contrary to the investment philosophy of “buy low, sell high”.

3. Following The Crowd (FOMO: fear of missing out) Mentality

When it comes to investing, word of mouth among friends and relatives is a common approach. Often what you hear are the good things informed to them by the salesperson and passed on without verification of facts or supporting evidence.

Victims of investment scams are commonly “recruited” into it by people they know and trust. It usually starts off innocently enough with a nominal amount put in for the sake of maintaining a cordial relationship with the so-called referrer and also out of curiosity to see how the scheme pans out.

However, small losses can add up over time and the opportunity cost of missing out on bona fide investments is time permanently lost. 

4. Misplaced Sense of Confidence

This is when an investor applies knowledge garnered from certain investment exposure as THE investment strategy for all investment asset classes, not realising that expertise in one area does not necessarily translate to identical outcomes in other areas as far as investments are concerned.

For example, a share trader who is used to high frequency trading activities decides to apply the same investment strategy in diversified investments such as unit trust, but the experience might turn out to be entirely different. As a result, he decides to stick to investments which allow active trading like forex or crypto currency investing since high frequency trading is his forte.

5. Not Investing Based on the Best of Breed Investments

This is quite typical of investors who, perhaps due to lack of time to do the necessary research, tend to invest with a blinkered approach instead of comparing the best investments in the target category. In other words, are you considering all the available options for the similar type of product to compare, or are you limited to only one or two options as presented by the salesperson?

For example, an individual who wishes to invest in Malaysian small capitalised stocks should comb through the performance of various funds in the same category before arriving at a decision. Thereafter, this process should be repeated periodically to ensure that he remains in the best funds within the same category.

6. Investing Without a Strategic Asset Allocation in Mind

All investments can be loosely categorised as low, moderate or high risk. This categorisation is a function of the inherent price volatility of the investments. When one invests, it is important to understand the appropriate percentage or allocation of low, moderate and high risks assets and this is dependent on one’s risk profile.

As an example, the strategic asset allocation of a moderate risk investor should be around 10% of investable assets in low risk assets, 70-80% in moderate risk assets and the remaining 10-20% in high risk assets. Low risk assets will comprise of assets such as bank deposits, capital protected investments or investment grade bonds.

Moderate risk assets consist of investments such as balanced diversified portfolios, high dividend yielding shares, property investments or REITs. Lastly, high risk assets would encompass highly volatile assets such as growth focused or small cap stocks and alternative assets such as crypto currencies.  

Very often, we come across those who invest a very high allocation (>70%) of their investable funds in their favourite assets, either properties or shares or plain old fixed deposits.

While it is not wrong to invest in instruments that you are familiar with, choosing these over your ideal strategic asset allocation could result in an over exposure in certain asset classes that can leave you vulnerable during in a down market cycle of that asset class, or having to deal with very low yields as is the current scenario for FD investors.

7. No Active Performance Management

Another habitual tendency of investors is investing – full stop. What this means is once they put their money in an investment product, it’s hands-off from thereon. Active performance management is important because it allows:

• Tracking the performance of the investment and taking profit when there’s an opportunity;
• Reinvesting profit when the market goes down to average down your cost;
• Rebalancing your investment portfolio with a target asset allocation in mind; and
• Restructuring in order to move from an under-performing fund to a better performing fund in the same category.

Without active performance management, investors may miss out on time sensitive opportunities to better their investment returns.

In conclusion, while unhealthy investment habits may not bankrupt you overnight, they can potentially pose a large stumbling block to your wealth accumulation in the long run. In the current economic situation, most of us would agree that every ringgit counts. Replacing these habits with new, healthier investment practices only requires some willpower and determination and the rest will follow suit.

About the Author:

Felix Neoh CFP ^{CERT TM} is the Director of Financial Planning at Finwealth Management Sdn Bhd and is a certified member of FPAM. He can be contacted at enquiry@finwealth.com.my

We at Smart Investor and Finwealth is committed to help you better manage your financials. Get a free consultation from an expert by filling in your details here: https://www.smartinvestor.com.my/SIxFinwealth

Are you new to investing? Well, a lot of choices out there that can be used as your investment platform. But in this article, we will look more into one of the investments offered in Malaysia which is unit trusts.

Do you know what unit trust is? Maybe we heard it before but do we know how unit trust works? Is it better than any other investment scheme or is unit trust the safest investments for beginners?

Maybe this article will help you to understand more about this product, unit trust. Be advised that investment goals vary for each one of us. It also depends on our investment goals to decide on which type of product or platform suit us well.

What Are Unit Trusts?

Unit trusts can be simply said as mutual funds that will be invested in various places. It holds assets that will turn into profits which will be given to the investors. It pools money from various investors to invest in assets such as bonds and equities. Fund managers will manage the investments for you. All you need to do is just relax and enjoy your daily life.

But hey! You should understand that investing has its own risk. Your investment may be profitable or you may face some losses.

It’s good that we know and understand a few basic things in unit trusts.

1. Unit Trust
   Have you heard about Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB)? The concept is about the same. ASB is one of the funds in unit trust but it’s only for the Bumiputera. ASB will give you bonuses and dividends as your profit while you will gain profit from unit trusts via dividends and the increment of the funds’ price per unit.
2. Unit Trust Management Company (UTMC)
   Malaysia Security Commission (SC) monitored UTMC. For UTMC to operate in Malaysia, it will need approval from the Central Bank of Malaysia and the Ministry of Finance. Based on the report by SC, there are 39 approved unit trust management companies in Malaysia as of March 2022.
3. Fund
   Based on the same report from SC, there are 761 authorized funds and 279 of them are shariah-compliant funds.

Is It Safe To Invest In Unit Trusts?

As what being said before, any investment will have its own risks. Depending on our risk appetite, we can choose our investment that can cater to our needs in investment. Unit trusts make it easy to diversify our portfolio but different funds will have different risks and rewards. I’m sure that you’ve heard this before, but a high-risk investment will provide you with a high return. Be in mind that not only you’ll be served by a high return but there’s a chance your investment might not work well and prepare for your losses (most probably with high losses too!).

What Are The Fees Incurred In Unit Trusts Investment?

Unit trusts investment use fund managers to manage our pool of money to invest. There are fees that need to be paid even if the investment are not profitable.

1. Management Fee
   Charged once a year
2. Trustee Fee
   Charged once a year
3. Switching Fee
   Charged when switched to another fund
4. Redemption Fee
   Charged when unit sold
5. Sales Charge
   Charged for each ‘buy’ transaction

Safest Investment For Beginners?

Have you understood what unit trust is now? At least, you get a rough idea of what and how unit trusts work.

Do you think that unit trusts are the safest investment for beginners? Well, the answers are yes and no. Each one of us has a different risk appetite. Before you make any investment decision, make sure that you’ve studied and understand on how things work.

Don’t rush and jump into something that you’re not well of. Investment is a journey. It’s not some kind of Skim Cepat Kaya.

Investing for retirement is undoubtedly an investor’s biggest goal. After all, a successful retirement is not a birthright but something one must earn through hard work and proper – if not cautious – planning.

However, those approaching retirement have found themselves in a unique position today, with the Covid-19 pandemic giving way to market volatility. Businesses across almost all industries are affected, as are share prices, and the concern about losing money is one that equity investors know better than to take lightly.

Upping Your Nest Egg Game Plan

“By not investing, you are losing your purchasing power by almost 1% each year,” Alpine Advisory director Gor Sheau Shuenn tells Smart Investor.

As a result, most of the soon-to-be-retirees hesitate to retire and suffer from the ‘one-more-year’ syndrome, which sees them staying in the current job for one more year before they retire.

“For those who do not have the luxury of delaying their retirement, they will worry for their slowly-depleting life savings and thus, defeating the objective of retiring in the first place, which is to have a rewarding and worry-free life,” he adds.

Gor’s suggestion for those whose retirement is on the horizon?

“Start looking into your personal finances. You will need to understand how your retirement life is going to look like, and what are the possible hurdles and hassles that may affect your nest egg.

“Most of the time, retirees do not actually deplete their money by spending it on themselves but rather, to sponsor their children’s dreams or their parents’ medical expenses, or even dealing with the aftermath of a wrong investment decision.”

Therefore, he continues, every pre-retiree should have their financial plan on the table at least five years before they plan to retire. This enables them to adjust to their lifestyle, settle unwanted loan commitments and prepare adequate funds to sponsor their loved ones’ dreams, which will then prevent any premature withdrawals from their retirement fund.

Where To Put Your Money?

In general, as a person approaches their retirement (say less than three years), the less risk they are able to take.

“Given that today’s investment environment can be said to be uncertain with interest rates at a multi-year low, stock market valuation above their long-run fair valuation and an economic outlook that remains weak, it is only prudent to err on the side of caution,” Maybank Asset Management Sdn Bhd Head of Investments, Unit Trust Chen Fan Fai explains.

Having said this, the main chunk of a person’s capital should be allocated to low-risk assets like fixed income so that the income generated from coupons can at least match their minimum cashflow requirements without having to dip into capital.

Balancing the need for yield in these low-interest rates environment and the possibility of rates moving higher in the coming years, a duration of five to seven years may be considered.

“Should there be a surplus capital after the exercise, the balance can be invested into higher-risk assets such as REITs, equities and precious metals depending on one’s appetite for risk and desire for capital growth,” Chen adds.

Rethinking Financial And Retirement Strategies

The current market conditions and the pandemic should force you to rethink your financial and investment strategy for retirement.

“Again, time to retirement is an important factor to take into account,” Chen opines, adding that in situations where the time to retirement is relatively short, uncertainties like an on-going pandemic take on added importance.

“However, assuming that time to retirement is far longer – 10 to 20 years, for instance – then it may not be that critical and investors should place more emphasis on an asset with long-term return to enable them to achieve their retirement nest egg.

“In this case, we are talking about a riskier asset with higher long-term return potential.”

The underlying assumption made here, says Chen, is that all asset classes undergo periods of under- and over-performance as they go through different economic cycles and event risks. “However, when given enough time, they will revert to their long-run returns.”

For Alpine Advisory’s Gor, the investment objective during retirement would primarily be capital preservation while your retirement income strategy would encompass the timeline and the amount that you would receive in dividend income, fixed deposit, and/or business dividend pay-out, etc.

As such, a full roadmap of a retiree’s or soon-to-be-retiree’s monthly cashflow statement (which includes large annual expenses such as insurance premiums, car insurance renewals, road tax renewals and assessment tax, for example) is crucial.

At the same time, they will also need to consider incoming cashflows from multiple investment portfolios that will continue to generate passive investment income, and also the capital appreciation to generate enough income to fund the living expenses as laid out in their financial plan.

“Despite retiring soon, you shouldn’t forget that you could possibly live on for another 20 to 30 years, and should therefore diversify your investment into different time horizons – short, medium and long term.

“The advantages of having separate portfolios is to serve as an indicator as to how disciplined a retiree is in terms of his expenditure during retirement.

“This way, you wouldn’t have to panic sell during an economic downturn (if the underlying investment asset is solid) and become stressed out when there is no monthly income credited to your bank account in the first few months of your retirement,” Gor explains.

Building A Resilient Retirement Portfolio

One of the most important factors to take into consideration when building a resilient and growing retirement portfolio is diversification, says Maybank Asset Management’s Chen.

This is in addition to time to retirement, the required rate of return to reach retirement sum, the ability to take on risk and the long-run return and risk of different asset classes.

“We are talking about diversification of not just asset class but also investment style or diversification of fund managers as history has shown time and again that even the best plan can go wrong,” he explains.

With a plethora of investment products in the market with different characteristics that investors can consider, Chen further points out there are many ways to invest for one’s retirement, and everyone has their own personal circumstances.

That being said, there is no standard solution, and the important thing is to keep in mind the aforesaid factors as you go about planning for your retirement.

“One seemingly obvious solution is to buy a fund (or a few of these funds to diversify across fund managers) that are specifically tailored for retirement needs. These funds are commonly known as lifestyle or life cycle funds and they will normally specify the year when retirement is expected.

“An investor will then choose the fund that matches their retirement year. Essentially what the fund does is gradually rebalance the investor’s asset mix to reduce risk as the retirement year edges closer. However, the results have been mixed,” he reveals.

The second option is to construct a portfolio of funds yourself or with your financial advisers taking into consideration the previously-mentioned factors.

“To do this well, you and/or your financial adviser will need to have a good understanding of the financial markets. In general, I find mixed asset funds and absolute return funds to be very useful building blocks for a retirement plan,” says Chen.

Helping Clients Achieve Their Retirement Goals

Before deciding on any form of investment, Alpine Advisory director Gor Sheau Shuenn believes one must have a clear understanding of their current financial position. And based on that, the next thing that needs to be done is to determine the gap between what one has now and their retirement goal.

Why is this important?

“Look at it this way. You see a doctor for pain in one of your knees, telling the doctor, ‘My knee hurts’ and stopping at that. What do you think the doctor will do? Surely, he will ask ‘Which knee, what kind of pain, when did it start, was it a result from a fall?’

“The doctor will then proceed to examine your knee to determine whether there is a fracture or is the knee just inflamed. Only then will the doctor prescribe the necessary medication.

“Investment is like that. In order for you to decide how and where to invest, you need to have a clear idea of how much you have, how much you need and how much time you have to achieve it.

“Investing without a purpose is like sailing out into the seas without a sail, rudder and compass – you will most probably get swept away by the undercurrent, or worse still, capsize during a storm,” he explains.

Once you have determined all these, the next step is to allocate the right proportion into bank saving accounts, fixed deposits, bonds, shares, mutual funds, properties, lands, antiques and other alternative investment products.

Your investment journey is not about finding the best product to invest in but about finding the right product that meets and suits your retirement needs, he adds.

“The most important thing you need to remember is to never invest in something you do not understand, especially when it comes to how the product is managed. Cliched as it is, when something sounds too good to be true, it normally is,” says Gor.