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.

AIA A-Plus Med Schedule of Benefits & Premium Table

AIA A-Plus Med is the replacement medical insurance plan from AIA Malaysia, superceeding the previous medical insurance, AIA Excelcare Plus and Medicare Plus. AIA A-Plus Med o ffers benefits that matches the offerings from other insurance companies' medical insurance plans.

In a nutshell, AIA A-Plus Med insurance plan offers:

1. Coverage until 100 years old.
2. Increasing annual limit (for Room & Board 150 and above): Initial annual limit will be increased by 5% every 2 years starting from the third policy year, for 20 policy years, provided that there is no claims or claims not exceeding RM5,000 over the last 2 policy years.
3. No lifetime limit.
4. Zero co-insurance and deductibles.
5. Hassle-free hospital admission card.
6. Options to include/children (up to max 4 children) into a single medical insurance plan.

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.

Impact of new BNM Rulings on Household Indebtness

Due to the rising household debts as compared to GDP in Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) recently introduced new measures to further tighthen credit lending especially on housing and personal loans as follow:

 

1. Maximum tenure of 10 years for financing extended for personal use.
2. Maximum tenure of 35 years for financing granted for the purchase of residential and non-residential properties.
3. Prohibition on the offering of pre-approved personal financing products.

Now that we have these new measures, so what does it means to the people on the street? This is my opinion on the impact of new BNM rulings to the rakyat:

•  Housing loans will be less afforable to the property investors/buyers, especially for the younger investors/buyers. With the shorten loan period, monthly installment is expected to rise and affect debt-to-income ratio, which is probably one of the factor financial institutions take into considerations.
• Hopefully, the new measure can cool down/reduce the property market speculations, especially those developments without DIBS. Personally, i still wonder why Malaysian government hasnt banned DIBS as done by Singapore government few years back. In my opinion, DIBS is one of the factor that push property prices to beyond the reach for most of the rakyat.
• Reduced availability of personal loans. A lot of youngsters and people in the lower income brackets are taking personal loans to cover for daily expenses as well as paying off credit card debts. With the introduction of such new measures are going to be painful to those people affected, but i do agree that such measure is needed to instill better financial management for the youngsters.

In summary, the measures are good for long term financial stability of the country. No doubt that it's going to be painful for those affected, but it's necessary to bring down household debts. I guess people needs to get the basic fact right: you must spend less than what you earn!