AmPRS Funds Explained

AmInvest is the fifth private retirement scheme (PRS) provider in Malaysia that launched their PRS funds on 2 April, 2013. AmInvest PRS scheme will have 3 core funds, namely AmPRS Growth, AmPRS Moderate and AmPRS Conservative. In this article, I will elaborate on the conventional PRS funds.

AmPRS Growth Fund is targeting those investors below age of 40 years old or have high risk profile. This fund will mainly invest in combination of equities, REITs, fixed income and liquid assets. Up to a maximum 70% of the fund can be invested in equities in the Asia Pacific markets. Out of this 70% equities portion, a maximum 20% can be invested in REITS. A minimum 30% of the fund will be invested in fixed income assets while a minimum 1% will be retained in liquid assets.

AmPRS Moderate Fund is targeting those investors between the age of 40 - 50 years old or have moderate risk profile. This fund will mainly invest in combination of equities, REITs, fixed income and liquid assets. Up to a maximum 60% of the fund can be invested in equities in the Asia Pacific markets. Out of this 70% equities portion, a maximum 20% can be invested in REITS. A minimum 40% of the fund will be invested in fixed income assets while a minimum 1% will be retained in liquid assets.


AmPRS Conservative Fund is a fixed income fund with a small portion of equity investment, is meant for those over 50 years old or have low risk profile. Uo to 80% of the fund will be invested in fixed income, of which 20% of the NAV will be in money markets. Up to 20% of the remaining portion of the fund can be invested in local equities. A minimum 1% of the fund will be retained in liquid assets.

The summary of AmPRS funds information is available below:

Note: If you need to open the spreadsheet in another tab, click here.

In my opinion, there are better PRS choices out there as compared to AmPRS. The disadvantages of AmPRS funds can be listed as below:

1. High sales charge and switching fees of 3%, just as CIMB- Principal PRS.
2. AmInvest is not very well known for their equity funds performance, as compared to their bond funds.

To know more information about AmPRS offerings, please visit the official site. To understand the difference between PRS and RSP, please visit this link.

Public Mutual PRS Funds Explained

Public Mutual is the fourth private retirement scheme (PRS) provider in Malaysia that launched their PRS funds on 26 November, 2012. Public Mutual will have two PRS schemes, conventional and Syariah, of which each PRS scheme will have 3 core funds, namely Public Mutual PRS Growth / Public Mutual PRS Islamic Growth, Public Mutual PRS Moderate / Public Mutual PRS Islamic Moderate and Public Mutual PRS Conservative / Public Mutual PRS Islamic Conservative funds.  In this article, I will focus on the conventional PRS funds.

Public Mutual PRS Growth Fund is targeting those investors below age of 40 years old or have high risk profile. This fund will mainly invest in combination of index/dividend/growth stocks. 20% of the fund's NAV can be invested in warrants, while up to 40% of the fund's NAV can be invested in existing Public Mutual unit trust funds. 20% of the equity portion of the fund can be invested in Asia Pacific markets.

Manulife PRS Funds Explained

Manulife Asset Management Services Berhad is the third private retirement scheme (PRS) provider in Malaysia that recently launched their PRS funds. As a beginning, Manulife will have 3 core funds, namely Manulife PRS Growth, Manulife PRS Moderate and Manulife PRS Conservative funds. Manulife PRS Growth Fund is targeting those investors below age of 40 years old or have high risk profile, while for Manulife PRS Moderate Fund is a balanced fund targeting those investors between the age of 40 - 50 years old or have moderate risk profile. Manulife PRS Conservative Fund is a fixed income fund with a small portion of equity investment, is meant for those over 50 years old or have low risk profile. Manulife PRS Growth and Manulife PRS Moderate funds will have up to 30% of equity allocation for investments in Asia Pacific markets.

CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Funds Explained

CIMB-Principal is the second panel member that launch Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) to the public in Malaysia, after Hwang PRS Solutions.  CIMB-Principal PRS Plus comprehensive offerings comprise of five funds based on investors risk appetite and investment styles (do it for me vs do it yourself).

At launch time, three core funds, namely CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Growth Fund, CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Moderate Fund and CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Conservative Fund will be available to those investors who prefer do it for me investment style. This means that CIMB-Principal will manage the fund allocations depending on the preset investment objective and asset allocation. The other two non-core funds, CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Equity Fund and CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Asia Pacific ex Japan Equity will be available to investors who are comfortable with higher equity exposure and would like to manage their PRS portfolio in a more active manner.

HwangIM PRS Funds Explained

HwangIM is the first panel member that launch Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) to the public in Malaysia. Hwang PRS Solutions, comprising four funds based on contributors' risk appetite and needs, are targeting guided annual return of between five per cent and 11 per cent. At launch time, three core funds, namely Hwang PRS Growth Fund, Hwang PRS Moderate Fund and Hwang PRS Conservative Fund. The fourth non-core fund, Hwang AIIMAN PRS Syariah Growth Fund will be launched at a later date.

Hwang PRS Growth Fund is targeting those investors below age of 40 years old or have high risk profile, while for Hwang PRS Moderate Fund is a balanced fund targeting those investors between the age of 40 - 50 years old or have moderate risk profile. Hwang PRS Conservative Fund is a fixed income fund with a small portion of equity investment, is meant for those over 50 years old or have low risk profile. Hwang AIIMAN PRS Syariah Growth Fund is a feeder fund for existing HwangIM fund, Hwang AIIMAN Syariah Growth Fund.

Private Retirement Scheme vs Regular Savings Plan

Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) was soft launched by the Prime Minister in July as an  additional financial tool to supplement our sole retirement funds, EPF. After the initial hoo-hah, the hype about PRS has cooled down with not much information on the details of the PRS available to the public. However, you can refer to this booklet for some basic info and Q & A on PRS.

Since we've got this simple booklet to explain everything about PRS, I'm not going to dwelve in details about PRS. What I'm interested in discussing about is the comparison between PRS and Regular Savings Plan (RSP). Typically for a PRS investment, we are talking about regular top-ups to the retirement funds with your spare cash, be it on monthly/quarterly/one-off basis. This is basically the same principle as RSP.

Now, as an investor, if you already have active RSP with one of the fund houses or via online unit trust distributors, such as Fundsupermart, you might be wondering, should i cancel my RSP and invest in PRS? As a quick recap, let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of investing in PRS:

Hwang PRS Launch

HWANG Investment Management Bhd (Hwang IM) has become the first of the eight appointed Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) providers to roll out its PRS products and services.

Hwang PRS Solutions, comprising four funds based on contributors' risk appetite and needs, are targeting guided annual return of between five per cent and 11 per cent.

Even though there is no minimum dividend policy, unlike the minimum 2.5 per cent that the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) offers and the funds are not capital-guaranteed nor protected, Hwang IM is confident that like other funds it manages, the PRS funds would perform just as good.

"The sound principles and good safeguarding policies put in place by the Securities Commission to some extent provides for a viable framework for this scheme to succeed. But like most things in life, nothing is guaranteed," said Hwang IM chief executive officer Teng Chee Wai.