Wealth Management

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hi,

It's interesting because Aberdeen Asset Management advertise a lot on Singapore's MRT trains. All about safeguarding your financial future if I remember right from seeing them 2 months ago.

I was in AAM's office in Singapore a few months back. It's located off Raffles Place in a renovated shophouse. It's a very attractive group of colonial style units, distinctive.

At the time I was on my way walking down to Han's eating house for one of their omelette & chip lunches. It was hot so I thought that a few minutes of air-con would be nice and there was AAM.

I went in and had to say something other than "can I crash here for a while" so I asked about funds for my retirement cash. The staffer who was in the reception area looked around and semi-whispered that it would be better to keep my cash somewhere else.  I left, cooler and wiser   

The omelette & chips was nice.

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I read a lot of books. Diversify that's the mantra. So I decided to get the wealth management section of a large bank to help advise. They recommended a fund that they ran which was a series of portfolios of shares from various regions worldwide, plus shares from a wide variety of sectors. And the money could be split between stocks and bonds. I chose the "conservative" approach of 50% stocks and 50% bonds.

Actually if it's in a capital gains tax free investment why take a conservative approach? Better roll the dice. The diversification comes through the rest of your holdings including outside savings accounts, property, etc...
Create your own mixed portfolio with a blend investments. Not in one product. Paying 1.5% fees for a bond portfolio?!? (50% bond allocation * 3% fees = 1.5%) That was one big mistake right there. So many people fall into that trap.

I'm getting fee'd to death on my SIPP. I'm not happy about it. But without a SIPP I wouldn't get the 40% tax refund(20% HMRC tops up, 20% I claim back). It's part of the machine here in the UK. So I have to go along to get along.
The 3% fee sets a high hurdle rate. So you really need to put it into something that can really return at least 10%. That usually means equity or perhaps high yield bonds.

Max out your shares ISA as well. HSBC has one where you can get JPMorgan's Emerging Market fund for around 1.5% fees. The fee is still a bit large. But works out well since profits are not subject to capital gains.

FWIW, for the US investor who is thinking of MM2H, you might want to take a look at MAY:US (that's the bloomberg ticker) as a hedge for future exposure to Malaysia. Morgan Stanley runs a closed end fund that is roughly the KLCI and it trades at 13% discount to it's intrinsic value. This discount acts as a kicker. If the KLCI rallies the discount will close and you get a little extra profit there.

But I don't want to talk business. Let's get back on the visa issues.

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While many Greeks understand that severe measures are necessary, it appears some things are not negotiable. And Greece isn't the only country in the EU suffering economically and needs assistance. Portugal, Ireland and Spain (collectively known with Greece as PIGS) all have sovereign debt problems.
Bob

Not true, Bob. Ireland is not the ''I'' in the Pigs, Italy is. Although Ireland's national debt has doubled in the past two years, it was coming from a very low base as it had one of the lowest national debts in the OECD in 2007. That is not to say, of course, that things cannot get worse but the OECD and the EU have congratulated Ireland on the steps it has taken to ameliorate its situation.


This has come at some price, however, both in jobs and public service cuts, which is one of the reasons I will happily spend the next five years or so in Malaysia while the powers that be get the situation back to something like what it was when the Celtic Tiger was roaring.

Maybe I better plan for 20 years in Malaysia!!! 

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PIIGS and PIGS are acronyms used by international bond analysts, academics, and by the international economic press that refer to the economies of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain, especially in regards to matters relating to sovereign debt markets and external debt. With respect to GDP these countries had a high external debt. When rendered as "PIGS", the "I" originally refered to Italy, but has recently become also a reference to Ireland. Some news and economic organisations have limited or banned their use due to criticism regarding perceived offensive connotations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIIGS

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Beat me to it Corporateangel,

Basically, Greece is facing years of a downward economy.  The PIGS can only look forward to increasing debt. They are trying to borrow their way out of debt.


Bob

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I'm getting fee'd to death on my SIPP. I'm not happy about it. But without a SIPP I wouldn't get the 40% tax refund(20% HMRC tops up, 20% I claim back). It's part of the machine here in the UK. So I have to go along to get along.

But it's still a gamble - everything in my opinion.  You just cannot win sometimes.  This tax relief thing in the UK - In my last few years in the UK when I was getting stung big time with income tax.  This  is money I'd worked damn hard for.  I decided to do a couple of little private pensions, only really to get some tax relief - government contributed back, or something like that.

So now I've got a couple of little frozen UK pensions in the UK which will yield what in the future?  And it'll be in Sterling which is going down the tube.  So how many ringgits will it yield?  Who knows.