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In most cases, people would either live too long or die too young. Both cases need to be
addressed in terms of financial security.
Life Insurance
When you die too young, your dependents will suffer especially if youre the
breadwinner of the family. They will lose the major income earner which they
depended for many years. Aside from the hard time coping for your loss, they will also
have a hard time coping for the expenses of the family. So how do you make sure that
the financial needs of your loved ones will be taken cared of when you suddenly
passed away? The answer is life insurance.
Consequently, when you live too long, you need some retirement funds to address your
needs when old age comes. Nowadays, Filipino men have a life expectancy of 68.72
years while Filipina women are at 74.74 years. When you live that long, you would
need some funds to address your needs most especially your health. You dont want to
be a burden to your sons and daughters when that time comes. So how would you
address this need? The answer is investments.
Dying young or living to old age, we need money in both cases. Life insurance is the
only product that we need to have when we dont need it because we cant avail it when
we already need it. Its like an umbrella. You dont need it not until it starts to rain but
if you dont have it with you when its already raining, its too late to go home and get it.
Performance
When viewing the performance below, take note that past performance is not an
indicative of future performance. In addition, mutual funds have a sales load fee of 2%
which is deductible upfront upon investment to the fund. Thats an additional cost and
a decreased return on the part of the investor.
Below is the top 10 best performing peso-denominated mutual funds as of November
9, 2012 YTD. All of them are equity funds except GSIS Mutual Fund and Philam Fund
which are both balanced funds. BPI Philippine Stock Index Fund has the best return
with 26.72% and to top it off, it has NO sales load as compared to other mutual funds!
Below are the top 10 best performing UITF product as of November 9, 2012 YTD. All of
them are equity funds except BDO Peso Balanced Fund, Metro Balanced Fund, and
China Bank Balanced Fund. The best performing fund is Union Bank Large Cap
Philippine Equity UITF with a nice yield of 39.9%!
However, dont get too much excited on Union Bank Large Cap Philippine Equity Fund.
Based on research, they have sales load similar to mutual funds. In addition, their
NAVPU computation is very tricky. When you checked their website, they have bid,
offer and mid/last price. Based on my research, when you invest in the fund, the
offer NAVPU will be used. When you redeem your units, the bid NAVPU will be used.
They have high OFFER NAVPU and lower BID NAVPU. Higher Offer NAVPU means
less units to be bought while lower BID NAVPU also means lesser gains for the
investor. Whats interesting is, the difference between their OFFER and BID NAVPUs is
huge and Union Bank is earning a lot from the spread cost!
Index Funds
In terms of performance, hats off to BPI for their Index Funds. BPI has two Index
Funds available. These are the Philippine Dollar Bond Index Fund, a dollardenominated bond fund UITF product and Philippine Stock Index Fund, a pesodenominated equity mutual fund.
Both of these funds have been performing really really well. Philippine Dollar Bond
Index Fund tracks the JP Morgan Asia Credit Index as its benchmark while Philippine
Stock Index Fund tracks the Philippine Stock Exchange Composite Index (PSEi) as its
benchmark. I must say that these are the pride products of BPI.
Last September, I made an article that focuses on Philippine Dollar Bond Index Fund.
In my own personal opinion, this is one of the best ways to invest your US dollars if
youre a dollar earner or have dollar savings
UITF Products
BPI has the widest variety of UITF products. With the addition of Odyssey Funds
which they recently acquired from ING, they now both offer BPI Investment Funds and
Odyssey Funds that give the widest array of choice to their investors.
I made a special mention on BPI UITF products because of two things. They are the
only bank which does not have holding periods in all of their UITF products and they
are the only bank which allows additional top-up investments online through BPI
Express Online.
No Holding Period. BPI recently waived all the holding periods last August of this year
2012. This means you can pull out your money from the fund anytime you want. This
gives a chance for investors like you to take advantage of the ultimate strategy of
buying low and selling high. Investors may lock in profits by selling units when NAVPU
is high and buying more units when the NAVPU is low.
Online UITF Investing. BPI Express Online is one of the best platforms for internet
banking. Its a must to have it when youre a BPI depositor. They are the only bank
where you can invest through their UITF products without the hassle of going to the
bank EXCEPT for account opening.
The only time you have to go to the branch is when you open an account. This is
because you have to nominate your settlement account. Once you have it nominated
and enrolled on BPI Express Online, then you can make additional investments online.
No need to visit branch. This is very beneficial to OFWs who dont have the luxury of
time to visit their branches.
When you open an account, just remember to tell the one assisting you that you want
to enroll your UITF investments to BPI Express Online. Once you are enrolled, you
have the capability to view the value of your investments including its net return.
Whats best is that even if you fully redeemed all the units on your UITF investment,
your account will remain and will not be closed.
Odyssey Philippine High Conviction Equity Fund. One of the UITF products offered by
BPI is their highly hyped Odyssey Philippine High Conviction Equity Fund. This is so
because this is one of the best performing fund among UITF and mutual funds
BEFORE.
Looking more closely on where the fund was invested, it suffices to say that the recent
downfall of the return of the fund can be attributed mainly to the falling stock price of
Philex Mining. Its all over the news. Philex Mining has been involved in environmental
sanctions in their Padcal Mine. They were even asked by the government to pay 1
billion pesos worth of damages. This caused the stock price to fall tremendously.
I was invited recently by my branch manager to attend a Coffee Talk session together
with the rest of their Preferred Banking Clients. It was an investment insights seminar
to brief BPI investors about the different investment funds that they offer. One of the
attendees asked the direction of the Odyssey Philippine High Conviction Equity Fund
as the fund is experiencing a downturn on its return due to their holdings on mining
stocks particularly that of Philex Mining. The seminar facilitator told us that the next
big thing are entertainment stocks. The fund managers are keen on unloading mining
stocks to re-invest on entertainment stocks. In the news recently is casino developer
Belle Corp. signing a joint deal Macaus Melco to form a casino complex at Paranaque
City.
Every investment carries a risk. Before investing in a mutual fund and UITFs,
remember to assess your risk profile whether youre a risk averse, moderate risk, or
aggressive investor. After assessment, then you can choose the fund which suits you
best. Happy Investing!.
One of the few professionals who are actively trying to bridge the gap - from not
knowing about financial instruments, to making use of them in enriching an
individuals financial life, are Financial Advisors.
4. Monitor the progress of the implementation of the Financial Plan and make
adjustments, if necessary.
REQUIREMENTS
PHILIPPINES
TO
BE
FINANCIAL
ADVISOR
IN
THE
With that, lets talk about the whole process on how you can be a Financial Advisor
here in the Philippines.
6. After contract signing, and once you have met your branchs minimum
requirements, youll then be coded. Coding is a technical term used to mean that an
advisor has been officially entered in the life insurance companys system.
Once you are coded, you become officially part of the Financial Advisory profession.
However, you should always prove that you deserve that title. You can do that by
accumulating as much knowledge as possible and by becoming a credible professional
that provides advice that makes sense.