FAQS

Simply follow the steps below:

1. Tell us about yourself through our AutoWealth Platform.
2. Review our recommended portfolio based on your risk profile and responses.
3. Open an investment account with us. You can either do it online or meet our financial consultant.
4. AutoWealth will then manage your investment portfolios, from portfolio constructing to periodic rebalancing, while you can sit back and track your accounts 24/7 to see your money grow.

Compared to other DIY investors, investing through Autowealth has several benefits:

• Less time needed to do the investment. When using AutoWealth, you just need to tell your profile to us, and our algorithm will do the execution and monitoring your portfolios for you, while you can use the time to do other important things (and of course you can still observe how your investment growth anytime).
• Less amount of fees charged. To reduce the risk of unexpected circumstances, generally it is better to diversify your portfolios and do some rebalancing after some time. However, to buy and sell each portfolio, there is transaction cost that you need to pay. When using AutoWealth, outside our 0.5% + $18 annual management and platform fees, there is no additional cost charged to you for diversify (all AutoWealth portfolios are automatically diversified across 8000+ stocks and 600+ bonds) and rebalancing your portfolios (which is done automatically using our algorithm).
• AutoWealth uses "passive strategy" that outperformed 80-90% professionals in terms of return values. It is known from research that most active investment managers and professionals are consistently underperforming compared to market returns for both short term and long term. Hence, in AutoWealth, we take passive market-returns approach without any additional speculation such that you can earn more than 80-90% of active investment managers and professionals.
• 24/7 portfolios monitoring. There is a limit how long a person can monitor his/her own portfolios. However, in AutoWealth, monitoring your portfolios is done 24/7 by our algorithm.
• Access to a team of professionals. When using AutoWealth, you don't need to rely only in your own knowledge. We have a team of professionals, which is our own manager (10+ years of experience) and advisors (collectively 60+ years of industry experience) that you can contact anytime (only one WhatsApp away).

Compared to other financial planners, investing through Autowealth has several benefits:

• Lower fees. A lot of other financial planners have multiple hidden fees, including commission, sales fees, and so on, which in total can compose of 2-4% of your money, which is a large percentage to your returns. On the other hand, besides our annual fees of 0.5% + $18, AutoWealth have no other fees, such that you yourself can take most of your returns.
• Customized profile. In AutoWealth, you can choose your own risk profile and our algorithm will do the rebalancing of your portfolios based on your chosen profile.
• Uses of technology to answer most of your questions. Although each client is given a wealth manager which is one Whatsapp away, most of your queries about your investment can be answered using our platform that you can access 24/7.
• Consistent algorithm. When using human financial planners, you will get assigned to a different one every some period of time since your old financial planner may change workplace or other similar stuffs. In AutoWealth, we have a consistent algorithm that knows you consistently.

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We generally do not comment on other similar service providers. However, we can share that AutoWEalth has the following features:

• Holds a Financial Advisor license from MAS (same license as AIA, Aviva etc).
• Track record of 23 months – accepted our first batch of users in May 2016. Generated 12.8% returns, net of currency impact and fees, for our first batch of users (users that registered between May 2016 and March 2017) despite the corrections in Q1 2018.
• Follows a pure market returns strategy with no “black box” discretionary elements. Proven by many well established studies to outperform 80 to 90% “black box” discretionary strategies over a short (5 years) to long (15 years) period.
• Low fees regardless of investment amount. AutoWealth has a simple non-tiered fee structure of 0.5% of asset under management + US$18 platform fees per year.
• All client assets are held in legally segregated Saxo (our partnering MNC custodian) custody account under their own name. In any bankruptcy situations, no one except the client, has any legal claims on the assets.
• Each of our clients is assigned a wealth manager who is always one whatsapp away.

For more details, you can visit this page .

Yes, AutoWealth has a Financial Advisors licence (Licence No.: FA100064-1) issued by the MAS and the company is regulated under the Financial Advisors Act.

In accordance with the Financial Advisors Act, AutoWealth clients’ monies and portfolio assets are held in a personal and segregated custody account at HSBC through Saxo Capital Markets, our partnering MAS-licensed financial institution that is regulated to provide custody services. This means that monies and portfolio assets legally belong to the client and are fully segregated from AutoWealth or Saxo Capital Market’s own monies and assets. Clients enjoy full protection against the insolvencies of both AutoWealth and Saxo Capital Markets.

AutoWealth help clients achieve their financial goals in 3 simple steps:

1. Clients tell the AutoWealth Platform information about themselves through a concise online questionnaire;
2. Clients receive and review the recommended risk profile and corresponding investment portfolio tailored according to their responses;
3. Clients decide and open an investment account with AutoWealth at their convenience;

Thereafter, AutoWealth manages clients’ investment portfolios, from portfolio construction to periodic rebalancing, while clients may access their investment accounts anywhere anytime 24/7 to see their investments grow over time.

AutoWealth delivers significantly better returns than most mutual funds (unit trusts).

AutoWealth charges a fee as low as 1/4 that of mutual funds (unit trusts).

AutoWealth manages clients’ investment portfolio from end to end while clients sit back and enjoy.

All AutoWealth investment portfolios feature a portfolio mix of Equity (Stocks) and Fixed Income (Govt Bonds), diversified across major geographical regions in the world including U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific and diversified across major industries including oil & gas, materials, industrials, consumer goods, health care, consumer services, telecommunications, utilities, financials & technology.

This means AutoWealth’s investment portfolios are generally more defensive against market turmoil and recessions than an investment portfolio that is concentrated in a particular asset class (eg. stocks) or geographical region (eg. Euro-Area) or industry (eg. technology).

AutoWealth achieves the strong diversification effect cost-efficiently through index-tracking Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) listed on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.

AutoWealth has a rigorous process to screen over 6,000 ETFs listed globally and select the best ETFs based on factors including diversification effect, direct holdings of underlying Bonds or Stocks, reputation of the ETF provider, ETF fund size, liquidity and expense ratio amongst other factors.

AutoWealth does not invest in Commodities due to the following:

1. Unlike stocks which pay dividends and government bonds which pay coupons, commodities do not generate any yield at all
2. As commodities do not generate any yield/cashflow, they are hence difficult to value. Therefore, commodities tend to have higher volatility (risk);
3. Commodities trade in contango most of the time. Contango refers to a situation where the commodity’s futures prices are higher than the current spot price and investors lose value over time even though the commodity spot price remains unchanged over time. This downside is a common phenomenon due to the commodity’s storage/warehousing cost. For example, oil is stored in bunkers while precious metals like gold/silver are stored in bank vaults, thereby attracting storage/warehousing cost.

On balance, the downside outweighs the upside of a commodity’s diversification effect.

AutoWealth does not allow fractional shares due to the following:

1. The legal ownership of each unit of exchange-traded fund (ETF) is unclear because multiple owners own the same unit of ETF in a fractional share arrangement;
2. A client’s assets and monies will be commingled with other clients in a fractional share arrangement;
3. ETFs are traded over the stock exchange with a minimum trade size of 1 unit. When one investor seeks to sell his fractional share of the unit of ETF in a fractional share arrangement, other investor(s) may be forced to sell their fractional share due to the stock exchange’s minimum trade size of 1 unit.

The AutoWealth Balanced Portfolio (40% Govt Bonds, 60% Stocks) registered 18.5% returns net of fees and currency impact since its inception in May 2016 to September 2018, due in part to our investment strategy and in part to conducive financial markets. As a reference, MAS core inflation is 1.3%¹, interest on banks’ savings account is 0.2% per annum and 12 months fixed deposit rate is 0.4% according to MAS’s statistics².

¹December 2017 statistics https://www.singstat.gov.sg/-/media/files/news/cpidec2017.pdf

²September 2018 statistics https://secure.mas.gov.sg/msb/InterestRatesOfBanksAndFinanceCompanies.aspx

³Projections are based on robust financial modelling and past performance of portfolio assets. Although such projections are grounded on sound financial concepts, you should not assume that the future performance of portfolio assets or investment products referred to on the Platform will necessarily correspond to the projections.

The AutoWealth Balanced Portfolio (40% Govt Bonds, 60% Stocks) registered 18.5% returns net of fees and currency impact¹ since its inception in May 2016 to September 2018, due in part to our investment strategy and in part to conducive financial markets. This significantly outperformed the median performance of global balanced mutual funds available in Singapore via fundsupermart.com (Global Balanced Mutual Funds: 7.8% returns net of fees and currency impact).

AutoWealth’s superior investment performance is in line with many financial research, including the well-established SPIVA Scorecard by S&P Dow Jones Indices², which concluded that a large majority of professional fund managers consistently underperformed market-tracking investment strategies like AutoWealth’s over the short, medium and long-term.

¹Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. You should not assume that the future performance of portfolio assets or investment products referred to on the Platform will necessarily correspond to past performance.

²https://us.spindices.com/documents/spiva/spiva-us-year-end-2017.pdf

Depending on the client’s risk profile and the corresponding investment portfolio recommendation, the projected¹ returns ranges between 5% to 7% per annum over the long-term.

¹Projections are based on robust financial modelling and past performance of portfolio assets. Although such projections are grounded on sound financial concepts, you should not assume that the future performance of portfolio assets or investment products referred to on the Platform will necessarily correspond to such projections.

Yes, clients receive dividends on the Stock ETFs and bond coupons on the Govt Bond ETFs they have invested in through AutoWealth. Dividends/bond coupons will automatically be reinvested.

Yes, dividends and bond coupons will be subject to a 30% U.S. federal withholding tax in line with tax regulations of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Nevertheless, ETFs listed in the U.S. are still preferred over ETFs listed in other countries like the U.K. after taking into consideration factors including liquidity, bid-ask spread, expense ratio, ETF fund size amongst other factors.

AutoWealth works with our partnering custodian to seek partial reimbursement of the withholding taxes from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, where applicable.

AutoWealth’s investment portfolios are intended to generate market returns over the medium to long-term and are not suitable for short-term speculation. Generally, AutoWealth advise clients to take a long investment horizon as far as is practical. Our investment strategy is designed to ride out an entire market cycle including any market downturn or recession.

Unlike some mutual funds (unit trusts) or hedge funds, AutoWealth has no lock-in period for investments. Clients are free to withdraw their investment funds or close the investment account anytime with no penalty cost.

Yes, clients may request a review or change in portfolio mix through the AutoWealth platform.

Significant market movements may cause portfolio assets to deviate from their original intended allocation weightage. For example, the U.S.-China trade tensions in 1Q 2018 caused Emerging Market Stocks to decline materially and U.S. Government Bonds to rise materially causing an underweight in Emerging Market Stocks and an overweight in U.S. Government Bonds.

AutoWealth rebalances clients’ investment portfolios timely to realign the allocation weightage of portfolio assets for robust risk management and to maintain a consistent risk profile for all our clients.

Our portfolio rebalancing is supported by well-established research, including those documented in “Pioneering Portfolio Management [David F. Swensen, CIO of Yale Endowment Fund]”. The research concluded that threshold-based rebalancing statistically generates extra investment returns by exploiting excessive price volatility.

Apart from U.S. citizens and residents, we accept all other foreign clients regardless whether they are residing in Singapore or overseas.

Yes, you will be glad to know that we have clients who work for financial institutions that prescribes strict compliance pre-clearance processes or guidelines governing personal investments.

AutoWealth can provide you with a Certification of Managed Investment Account letter, which is addressed to your financial institution's compliance department. The letter will certify that AutoWealth takes a market-returns approach, the investment account is managed on your behalf with trades being executed in accordance with our market-returns approach, and that the company does not accept orders to trade in specific securities at the direction of the client.

AutoWealth charges a very competitive Advisory Fee of 0.50% per annum on the assets under advice and Platform Fee of US$18 per annum.

As an illustration, a typical client who invests S$10,000 pays about S$6.20/month in total fees and charges. In this example, AutoWealth’s fees and charges on a monthly basis is lower than a MacDonald’s Big Mac meal, although financial planning is far more important (no offence Macs, we still love you).

In contrast, mutual funds (unit trusts) typically charge about 2% in aggregate for sales charge, annual management fees, custody fees and other hidden fees and AutoWealth’s fees and charges are as low as 1/4 of these mutual funds (unit trusts).

No, the Platform Fee of US$18 per annum is a flat fee regardless of the investment amount.

No, transaction and custody fees will be absorbed by AutoWealth.

Therefore, AutoWealth clients enjoy lower transaction and custody costs vis-à-vis DIY investors.

AutoWealth Advisory Fees and Portfolio Fees are pro-rated and debited from clients’ investment accounts at the end of every calendar quarter. No action is required from clients.

When withdrawing in USD, AutoWealth does not impose additional fees.

However, as the beneficiary, you will receive your payment minus any applicable fees imposed by the correspondent (intermediary) bank and/or the receiving bank. As these fees may differ from bank to bank, please contact your bank representative directly for more details.

This does not apply to withdrawals in SGD.

Clients can start investing through AutoWealth to achieve their financial goals with as little as S$3,000. Investors can now look forward to better investment performance, lower costs and a hassle-free experience.

Clients may deposit funds into the investment accounts through:

• Bank transfer
• FAST transfer
• Telegraphic transfer (subjected to your designated bank charges, if any)
• Cheque

from a bank account opened in the client’s name.

In line with anti-money laundering laws and regulations, AutoWealth and our partnering MAS-licensed custodian do not accept third-party funding and will return funds received from any third-party accounts to the sender.

Through the AutoWealth Platform, clients may deposit or withdraw funds in the following currencies:

• Singapore dollars (SGD)
• U.S. dollars (USD)

Clients may contact clientservices@autowealth.sg if they wish to deposit or withdraw funds in the following currencies:

• Australian dollars (AUD)
• British pounds (GBP)
• Euro (EUR)
• Hong Kong dollars (HKD)
• Japanese yen (JPY)
• Swiss francs (CHF)

Clients who commit to a Regular Investment Plan would be able to Time-Diversify (i.e. Dollar Cost Average) their investments.

Clients can set a recurring monthly or quarterly funds transfer to the investment account via online banking services provided by their respective banks. The recommended date of transfer is the 1^st or 12^th of each month. Once the funds are received and booked, AutoWealth will invest the investment funds on the next available market day, or as soon as is practical.

Clients may refer to the following step-by-step instructions to set recurring monthly or quarterly funds transfer:

- DBS: https://www.autowealth.sg/dbsrecurring

- OCBC: https://www.autowealth.sg/ocbcrecurring

- UOB: https://www.autowealth.sg/uobrecurring

Yes, clients may login to the AutoWealth Platform anytime to submit the withdrawal request.

AutoWealth will facilitate the withdrawal of your portfolio cash balance and/or liquidation of your portfolio assets, in full or in part, whichever applicable, in the same available market day or as soon as practical for any withdrawal request made through the Platform on or before 5pm SIN/HK time. Barring any delay in the bank clearing process, due to public holidays or otherwise, you can expect the funds to be credited in your designated bank account in one week’s time. Please note full closure of the investment account may take up to two weeks.

There are no penalties for withdrawal of investment funds or full closure of the investment account.