UPDATES: Comparison of historical dividends between Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020, Amanah Saham Malaysia and Amanah Saham 1 Malaysia

Updates (as of 8 Nov, 2014): ASW2020 and AS1M FY 2014 dividend of 6.6 cents per unit.

Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW 2020), Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) and Amanah Saham 1 Malaysia (AS1M) are three of the most popular unit trusts funds from Perbadanan Nasional Berhad that are available for non-bumiputra. All these unit trust funds are fixed price funds at the price of RM 1.00. This means that you buy and sell at RM 1.00 irregardless of share market fluctuations.

ASW 2020 which was launched in 1996 is an equity income fund that is benchmarked against 3-months KLIBOR rate. ASM which was launched in year 2000 is an equity income fund that is benchmarked against 3-months KLIBOR rate. AS1M which was launched in year 2009 is an equity income fund that is benchmarked against average rate of 5-years government MGS bond.

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.

Portfolio Rebalancing Strategy

Apart from asset allocation decision, financial experts around the world are advocating periodic portfolio rebalancing to bring your investments portfolio that has deviated from the target asset allocation back in line. In short, portfolio rebalancing is the action of selling of high performing investments to buy lower performing investments, with the condition that the fundamentals of lower performing investments are still intact. While this logic deviates from normal human psycology, what portfolio rebalancing is doing is basically to sell high and buy low. With periodic portfolio adjustments, we can take advantage of the system to take profit devoid of our emotions in making investment decisions.

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.

Fundsupermart Referral Program

Fundsupermart Malaysia (FSM) has launched a referral program for their existing account holders to encourage the account holders to introduce new clients to FSM. This is how FSM referral program works:

1. FSM account holder submit the name, phone and email address of potential client to FSM.
2. FSM will send an email to potential client with an activation link to open an account.
3. Potential client fills in account opening form and activate online FSM account.

It's as easy as that. Of course, you cant run away from submitting from some supporting documents when submitting the account opening form. So you might ask, what's the catch for all this trouble?

AS 1Malaysia Declares 6.6 Cents Dividend for FY 2012

Amanah Saham Malaysia Berhad has declared a dividend of 6.6 cents per unit for Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS1M) for the financial year 2012. The income distribution will be reinvested in the form of new units and will automatically be credited into the unitholders' accounts on October 1.


As a comparison, last year's dividend declared was 6.5 cents.

For comparison of historical dividend payout between ASW 2020, ASM and AS1M, please refer to this article.

Source: Bernama

ASW 2020 Declares 6.6 Cents Dividend for FY 2012

Amanah Saham Malaysia Berhad has declared a dividend of 6.6 cents per unit for Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW 2020) for the current financial year ending August 31. The income distribution will be automatically credited into the unitholders' accounts on September 1. Investors will be getting their payment vouchers and annual reports by mid October.


As a comparison, last year's dividend declared was 6.5 cents.

Source: Bernama

Amanah Saham Malaysia Unitholders Get 6.5 Sen Dividend

Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), has announced a 6.50 sen dividend per unit for Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) for the financial year ending March 31, 2012.


The income distribution was higher than the 6.38 sen per unit paid last year, PNB Chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said today.

He said the income distribution would involve a total payout of RM820.24 million, an increase of 8.6 percent compared to the RM755.05 million paid out last year.

"The payment will benefit 546,341 unit holders who currently hold 12.62 billion units of ASM," he told a press conference here today.

Up until March 21, ASM has recorded a gross income of RM978.32 million.

For comparison of historical dividends distributed by Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020, Amanah Saham Malaysia and Amanah Saham 1Malaysia, please refer to this article.

Source: Bernama

UPDATED: How to declare tax for unit trust dividends?

Updates (13/3/2012): Added clarification on tax liabilities on distribution/dividend declared by unit trust funds

For those who have invested in unit trust funds (either using cash or EPF), many of you would have received dividend vouchers/warrants from the trustees of the unit trust funds. These dividend income (both reinvestment & cash out) have to be declared as an income (filed under Dividend field of the Borang BE).

A typical dividend voucher contains information such as:

• Trustee company name
• Warrant/voucher number
• Payment date
• Year/period ended
• Taxable income
• Malaysian tax
• Single tier dividend (which does not need to declare as income) and etc.

If you are using e-Filing for income tax submission, this is how you can declare tax for the dividends that you received for unit trust investments:

The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Awards 2012

The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Fund Awards for the year of 2012 was held recently to recognize top performing unit trust funds in the country. Only funds that have been doing well for the past three and five years are recognized, and the winners are determined based on the Lipper Leaders ratings for Consistent Return, a risk-adjusted investment performance return measure developed by Lipper.

CIMB-Principal emerged as the best overall fund group for this year's event while Public Mutual won the most awards for the ninth consecutive years with a total of 8 individual awards. AmInvestment fund group emerged again as the best bond fund group.

For full analysis of the results, please see this document.

When to give your fund manager the axe

Investing a bit in mutual funds is a bit like running a pro football team. Everything is fine if you make the playoffs or see the progress you expected, but if a season ends and the numbers are ugly, you want to fire the coach.

That’s what many stock mutual-fund investors are going through now. Dim 2011 results from fund managers is enough to convince them to “Throw the bums out.”

Alas, that knee-jerk reaction to raw numbers can create problems.

社會新鮮人第一個基金

所謂理財，要越早越好，社會新鮮人找到工作有了收入后，要如何分配自己的資金？


專家認為，基金算是最適合社會新鮮人的投資工具。但是第一筆投資要如何下手？

根據台灣理財雜誌《Money錢》，年輕人投資前，最常犯的錯誤就是有興趣但沒有概念。

投資前，最重要的就是培養正確的觀念，不要隨意借貸、不要將賺錢的目的設定在花錢享樂。

而且投資沒有捷徑，每個人的投資都是從最基本的基金開始，然后隨著薪水增加、對基金投資更了解，才慢慢提升基金的級別，后依靠基金賺錢。

基金投資專家蕭碧燕指出，就算在市場多年，他的投資策略還是以定期定額為主，所以社會新鮮人初學基金投資，也最好從定期定額開始。

他說，定期定額，也要有正確的認知，對的市場、對的基金，加上定期定額扣款，搭配“停利不停損”的原則，才能讓基金投資無往不利。

AS 1Malaysia Declares 6.5 Sen Dividend

Amanah Saham Malaysia Berhad has declared a dividend of 6.5 cents per unit for Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS1M) for the current financial year. The income distribution will be reinvested in the form of new units and will automatically be credited into the unitholders' accounts on October 1.

As a comparison, last year's dividend declared was 6.38 cents.


Source: ASNB

ASW 2020 Declares Dividend 6.5 cents per unit for FY 2011

Amanah Saham Malaysia Berhad has declared a dividend of 6.5 cents per unit for Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW 2020) for the current financial year. The income distribution will be reinvested in the form of new units and will automatically be credited into the unitholders' accounts on September 1.


As a comparison, last year's dividend declared was 6.35 cents.


Source: China Press, Business Times

基不可失．變中求變 確保基金表現不變

06文：伍咏敏


投資單位信託基金時，最重要的因素是“獲獎基金”嗎？要怎么做才能確保自己的基金能夠持續生財？

專家指出，不時檢討自己的基金投資組合是必要，因為基金不會在自己所設定的投資期限內，保持不變。檢討基金投資組合，不是基于“為什么”而是“何時”。

《個人理財》雜誌指出，若定期對自己的基金投資組合做出檢討並調整，進而可讓自己的財務目標保持在原定的軌道上。

一般上，基金投資者可以遵循5個條件的轉變，檢討個人的單位信託投資組合。


（一）投資目的和風險承受度

專家說，一旦投資目標或風險承受度改變，就必須調整投資組合。

“一開始，您可能以創造財富為目標，投資在基金，因此願意承擔風險。但是，當您年紀漸漸提升，越來越接近退休年齡時，投資目標就會不同，如從創富變成保本，這時風險承受度也會跟著降低。”

“這就是你要檢討自己的投資組合的時候了。”

此外，專家也披露，當人生有些轉變，如放棄了工作，自立門戶做生意，所面對的風險更大，就要考慮降低基金的風險了。

一般人的風險承受度，每5年會改變，但也受促每2年進行測試一次。