Investing Investment Funds
In banks and insurance industries today, almost half of the sales turnover came from selling investment linked insurance products. These are almost always linked to investment funds. Most of the public how would like to invest on investment funds are either persuaded to buy such products or do not have the knowledge to choose what's really suitable for them. Today, I would like to briefly explain about the basic structures of such kind of products.
The first thing you need to know is the operating structure and the coordination between insurance companies and fund managers. When you pay your monthly installment to the insurance company, the company sends the money to the fund managers. Some of these mutual funds platforms offer multiple funds for you to switch from, from 10 to over 300 funds. You can allocate your payment to several different funds, and buy specific unit of funds. Then if the fund did well increase their prices, your existing units become more valuable and you become better off.
But for me I don't prefer this kind of products due to its high cost. You may not notice that when you look at the brochures or listen to the presentations, because they deliberately play it down. The cost structures are complicated and carefully calculated by actuaries to ensure the gain of the insurance company. The sales man is so good at presenting the numbers; it would sound like the product is a cash generating unit and the cost is so low its negligible. Nothing could be further from truth. In fact, one of the main costs of the product goes to the salesperson. Because the product usually needs fixed annuity payments and the insurance companies have tactics to ensure the continuity of the policy, they are confident to pay out as much as half of all the premiums they receive in the first year.
Next main cost of the product is for the insurance company or the bank. They would suck a small percentage out of the capital you invested into the fund every year, or even every month. The percentage may be small but as the apparent capital grow larger, it can become very frightening. Try computing the absolute amount that they took from you, it may freak you out.
Lastly, the fund manager takes a sip of what they earned for you, of course. This is the only cost I think reasonable. After all, they are the ones who executed the buy sell commands for you. But do not be nave and think that they really work hard to earn as much for you as possible. What they really care is to stick to the policy and make sure the growth rate does not fall below a certain level so that they keep their high pay job.
So now you know. You can go ahead and decide whether to answer the call from your 'personal financial planner' next time. God bless. - 23162
The first thing you need to know is the operating structure and the coordination between insurance companies and fund managers. When you pay your monthly installment to the insurance company, the company sends the money to the fund managers. Some of these mutual funds platforms offer multiple funds for you to switch from, from 10 to over 300 funds. You can allocate your payment to several different funds, and buy specific unit of funds. Then if the fund did well increase their prices, your existing units become more valuable and you become better off.
But for me I don't prefer this kind of products due to its high cost. You may not notice that when you look at the brochures or listen to the presentations, because they deliberately play it down. The cost structures are complicated and carefully calculated by actuaries to ensure the gain of the insurance company. The sales man is so good at presenting the numbers; it would sound like the product is a cash generating unit and the cost is so low its negligible. Nothing could be further from truth. In fact, one of the main costs of the product goes to the salesperson. Because the product usually needs fixed annuity payments and the insurance companies have tactics to ensure the continuity of the policy, they are confident to pay out as much as half of all the premiums they receive in the first year.
Next main cost of the product is for the insurance company or the bank. They would suck a small percentage out of the capital you invested into the fund every year, or even every month. The percentage may be small but as the apparent capital grow larger, it can become very frightening. Try computing the absolute amount that they took from you, it may freak you out.
Lastly, the fund manager takes a sip of what they earned for you, of course. This is the only cost I think reasonable. After all, they are the ones who executed the buy sell commands for you. But do not be nave and think that they really work hard to earn as much for you as possible. What they really care is to stick to the policy and make sure the growth rate does not fall below a certain level so that they keep their high pay job.
So now you know. You can go ahead and decide whether to answer the call from your 'personal financial planner' next time. God bless. - 23162
posted by X - Men @ 6:39 AM
0 Comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home