Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Additional charges under the fund

Dear Mr. Tan,
I just found out that Y is offering funds, which invest into low cost ETFs. The management fee is 0.75% p.a. and the sales charge is 1.00%. I think this is sufficiently low cost.
http://invest.avivadirect.sg/SG/index.cfm?current=fasttrack/index

HK

REPLY
My colleague did an analysis and found that there are other charges. His observations are set out below:

a. There is a 1% upfront sales charge by Y
b. Annual management fee of 0.75% (for passively managed funds) and 1.2% (for activately managed funds)

However, if we read more deeply into the prospectus, there are more charges as follow:

a. An additional 3% charge (one time), placed under "Initial Service Charge". This amt can be as much as 4% in the future.
b. Up to 0.1% of NAV as Annual Trustee feec.

A separate annual fee of 0.09% to 1.25% to pay for the fund's operating expenses. Realization and switching is free for now but can go as much as 1% in the future.