Hi Fellow Automated Millionaires,

As Investment is the final portion of becoming an Automated Millionaire, I am going to relate something happened over the weekend regarding about Investment through the banks like what most people are doing...

I was going down to the bank with my mom to check out her financial investments done with the local banks last Saturday. And I am amazed how each banks treated their client, my mom differently.

First bank we went to was DBS Bank. We were served by a Senior Relationship Manager who have worked there for about 1year plus. He was quite knowledgeable to point out that my mom made money in the first batch of money that was invested but subsequently lost money in the 2nd batch of money that was invested. In total, my mom lost about S$3K. Nothing wrong with that, most people lost money in a Financial Crisis like now anyway.

Second bank we went to was OCBC Bank. We took a number and waited like ten minutes when there is no one waiting in the queue (How efficient!). When we sat down, the first thing the Relationship Manager told us is that there is no printing of statement of my mom investments nor knowing how much dividend was given out as all the information is stored in the warehouse and not retrievable until Monday! Wow! That came in as a big surprise to me, as I thought that now we are in the 21st Century, information should be easily accessible given the IT infrastructure is so well established. The Relationship Manager gave us a lecture on how we as investors should keep all the letters that was sent to us by the bank (sometimes I wonder what's the use of Customer  Service and Relationship Manager for, if we keep all information that is sent by the bank)

Third bank we went to was UOB Bank. We were swamped by numerous Relationship Managers (I think they are) and was immediately referred to Investment Banker who then brought us to the Banker who sold the investment to my mom. He has a good memory and remembered my mom's name. He skillfully answered all our questions and access all my mom's investment portfolio through the computer including interest paid, penalty and maturity date. Of all the banks, I personally felt that UOB Bank is one of the best bank when comes to Customer Service and Investment Knowledge. :)

The question remains is Is investing through Banks a better option than through Independent Financial Advisors? Ask my mom, I think she is the best person to answer you that question. But just to let you know why did she switched most of her liquid investments into our iFAST platform:

1. 0% Sales Charge for money that are already invested, hence, doesn't affect the performance of the funds
2. 0% Charge for Fund Switching that are already invested in iFAST, hence, the performance of the funds will not be affected by the initial selected funds. The Relationship Manager told me that unless it is switching within the same Fund House, otherwise, it will be treated like a new sales (which means about 5% sales charge!)
3. More than 300 funds available in the platform for her Advisor to choose from to achieve a compounded returns of more than 10% per annum
4. Only a 3% Sales Charge for any new money investing into iFAST platform
5. Most importantly, a 1% wrap fee of the total amount invested to keep her Advisor inline with my mom's goal. Most Relationship Managers and Advisors out there because of their compensation scheme are more interested than getting new sales than helping existing clients' portfolio to grow. That explains why no one personally informed my mom nor reviewed her fund performance after so long except for a few pieces of paper once a while...

I strongly felt that everyone has each different personal finance needs and investment goals (if there is one). Therefore, going through bank without anyone really attending to the needs is really not a good way to protect, accumulate and manage their wealth. What do you think? ;)

Best Regards,
Max Tay - The Automated Millionaire