Thursday, January 28, 2010

Mutual Funds Products

By John Wong

Hi, I am a former financial planner in AIA, one of the larger insurance companies the world. A financial planner is in substance a salesman according to my experiences. And today I would like to tell you some facts about investing in mutual funds products. These kinds of products are getting more and more popular over the last few years. But in my opinion, many of these customers do not really need such a product. I'll explain the basic structures to you now.

These kinds of product are getting more and more popular because they can generate large sum of income. The investors believe that help them save and earn the sum of money for their needs like retirement, therefore they are willing to put in a large sum of money first. When an investor pays his payment to the insurance company, the company transfers the sum to the fund managers. Some platforms allow you to allocate your payments to several different funds. The insurance company is effectively breaking down the mutual fund units into smaller blocks so that small investors can participate. The fund managers gather the money and invest it on financial assets like stock. When they earn in buying and selling or the worth of the underlying assets increase, then the price of the fund unit rises accordingly. And on your account statement you will see increases in your account values.

However, you also need to understand the cost structure of these investment linked products before you can decide whether they are really suitable for you. Firstly, why do these products gain great market shares in a comparably short period of time? It is because of the effort and time spent by our brilliant salespersons. A well trained salesperson can sell the most ridiculous product to the weirdest man in the world. Trust me, I've met them personally. So what drives them to do it so hard? Yes, you guessed it right. Money. These investment linked products always provide the salespersons with enormous amount of commission. As high as 50% of your first year payment could possibly entirely goes to the pockets of the person who handed you the pen for signature. What I can say is there is nothing you can do about it in a capitalism society.

The second cost is the fee for the insurance company. It is usually calculated as a percentage of your account value. The percentage is not large on first sight as well as the amount initially. However, as the account value grows, the amount of money paid out to the insurance company from your investment is enormous. And that's why they are so wealthy.

The final main fee you'll be paying with your installments is the management fee for the fund managers. They manage your money, try to give a competitive growth rate and they take a percentage of you capital, hopefully covered by the value increase.

In conclusion, mutual fund linked insurance can help you invest in mutual funds with a relatively small capital. But the cost is high because multiple parties are involved. It is left to the reader to decide whether this kind of products suit their needs. - 22871

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