Unicorn Financial Solutions

[Shiny Things]

like i said, i am just an accountant and i find your question kinda profound.
probably you would know more about investments than i do. plus, maybe i am just so lucky that i have such a FA
as for the hudden costs, there are costs, but not hidden. when i put in, there is a 3% initial cost. annually, there will be a 1.25% vost i think?

THAT IS A HELL OF A LOT OF MONEY.

You're absolutely getting ripped off.

Look at it this way. Your ILP charges 3% upfront and 1.25% running; or you can get a similar investment through ETFs for 0.2% upfront and 0.2% running. If you put in $10k a year for thirty years, and it grows at 5% per year, then in thirty years' time you'll have about $805,000 in a portfolio of ETFs - but the ILP will only give you about $640,000.

That's $160,000 ripped out of your pocket by fees. Imagine what you could do with $160,000!

This is why I flip my lid about ILPs. You're giving huge amounts of money to your FA. You're not lucky to have him; he's lucky to have you.

 

[vbhelper]

Hi influxrush,

There is more to Unicorn Financial than you can think of.
I am currently a Unicorn Client and i am really happy that my friend recommended one of the senior IFA to me.
Well, first of all, they are not like how others think of them.
1) they are not into ILPs
2) they give the name for a reason
3) they are not bad consultants

to answer those questions, firstly, you need to know what they do and how they come about.
yes, they WERE from IPP. but the group people do not like what IPP does and so they jumped out of IPP to start their own financial consulting services.
they are professionals who believe in investing in integrity.
they do not just do ILPs. they do Endowments, term, whole life, and ofcos ILP is just part of them.
moreover, i once had an AIA agent that i buy ILP from but they do not manage it. When i have policies under Unicorn, they even transfer the ILP funds to the funds that they believe are reliable and are able to grow (they DO manage them!). they are transparent in doing things.
They follow through each client (so far as i know) through their needs. they update and they have lots of seminars and events!

Their name: Unicorn Financial Solutions.
I personally know the boss of UFS and i have been to their events.
they believe that Unicorn's horn is to heal and is sacred, hence the name.
oh. btw, they have been through thick and thins from MAS before they are able to start up.

And, they do investments as well. i have saw some of my friends who had invested and loss money over the years. from $10,000 to $8,000 to $5,000. no idea when will it increase actually.
for me, i started investing 2 years ago. though for the last 1 and a half years, investments dont seem to jump alot, but recently, my profit increases by 43%!
i almost wanted to take my money out but my IFA educated me. but ofcos he dont force me in doing things that i dont like. eventually, after my thoughts, i dont need the money urgently anyway, so i did not withdraw them.

I really hope this reply would help the people out there to find a true, willing to serve IFA like i did.
because i have heard so much about ill-managed investments and badly recommended policies.

Cheers!!

Recommend ur advisor to me leh

 

[winedz]

So this is my experience with Unicorn:
I met unicorn IFA in 2013, as what normal IFA have, they have wide range of insurance products (term, whole life, endowment, accident plan, ILP, etc).
The guy tried to sell me endowment at first, which I quickly cut and told him "Is this endowment? Sorry I'm not interested", then he start talking about funds. At first I thought it was ILP, I was not really paying attention already, just drinking my coffee (free coffee in their office, which was quite nice ). Then after finish talking, he told me there is some cost when investing with them, I was like "huh, what cost?? i thought is ILP" , lol too bad i wasn't listening .
Since he was a nice guy and I don't want him to feel offended that i ignore his long talk, I pretended that I understood, then I told him "Sorry, I need to go already in 10 minutes, can you explain to me the cost and send to my email so I can review again tonight?"
He emailed me their document, which list down services they provide, I read the whole thing and found interesting thing called financial plan at 0.5% of your annual income , i wonder what they will give me if I try this service

So, I believe this is what he was trying to sell me (from the 2013 handbook, maybe now different already):

Well to be honest, the agent was quite a nice guy, no hard-selling, and they have nice list of beverages (the coffee was good, and it's free for their "prospects"), too bad I didn't see any chio IFA there

edit: If I remember correctly, you buy unit trust through them using iFast platform, and then they will manage for you, but I'm not sure if you have access directly to your fund and how you can buy/sell additional units (do you need to go through them or DIY), maybe jjjaslyn can enlighten us?

 

[Perisher]

and you do have a point. ETF may be a good thing to save the cost. but seriously, i would rather spend the time not to study investments and do my own job and make more money. you just gonna let the small fish go to catch a big fish

ETF is precisely for people with no time or can't be bothered to study the market. I'm assuming you meant Index ETF like STI or S&P500.

 

[Shiny Things]

well, first of all, its not ILP.
i have no idea how many times i have to repeat that -,-

So it's an asset management thing instead - thanks for clearing that up.

That makes it even worse than if it were an ILP: the going rate for asset management, even for small portfolios, is zero upfront and <1% trailing (or even less, if your advisor charges by the hour like a good advisor should).

These guys charge too much. It's that simple.

 

[limster]

So it's an asset management thing instead - thanks for clearing that up.

That makes it even worse than if it were an ILP: the going rate for asset management, even for small portfolios, is zero upfront and <1% trailing (or even less, if your advisor charges by the hour like a good advisor should).

These guys charge too much. It's that simple.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetno...id-advisor-service-with-17-billion-in-assets/

Karin Risi, head of the new service, noted that Vanguard’s research shows a crucial part of the “alpha” advisors provide is to “act as an emotional circuit breaker during periods of market volatility, make adjustments to a financial plan when a client’s financial situation changes, and counsel clients on other financial issues.”

Based on the length and details of jjaslyn's posts, he/she either likes to talk a LOT (first person to have an extended conversation with Wahkao in a thread?), or he/she's paid by the number of words posted. So if he/she constantly calls the Unicorn IFA for long, indepth conversations, and emotional counselling on financial issues, then maybe he/she feels that the management fee is worth it.

So maybe sometimes the human element is important (which may be why Vanguard is not going the full Roboadvisor route but trying out a hybrid) I only started using SCB trading more often after my Trading Rep left the brokerage and the replacement I was assigned didn't seem very interested in my business, while the old TR would constantly keep me updated.

 

[goldsilvercity]

well, first of all, its not ILP.
i have no idea how many times i have to repeat that -,-
secondly, i dont have so much money for him! LOL!
thirdly, who cares that much when you can actually see the money grow instead of it stucked in the bank with how many percent growth again? 0.05%?¿
fourthly, i believe they spend their time doing and planning. so imagine they spend hours to study the investment to help you earn money and you are spending your time to earn more money for youself. kaching kaching $$$.
lastly, the investment platform would actually receive most of the money for their staff salary i guess? imagine you are one who work there and no salary? cannot be right??

and you do have a point. ETF may be a good thing to save the cost. but seriously, i would rather spend the time not to study investments and do my own job and make more money. you just gonna let the small fish go to catch a big fish
and since i see results, i dont see why i should not let the FA have the reward ya know?

what people are trying to say here is that compared to this "Asset management plan" under the unicorn, yes u do get a bigger fish... but if u had used ETF instead, your original fish would be a lot a lot bigger!

From the Shiny Things example earlier, that fish would be worth $160,000 bigger.

$160,000 i can buy a brand new car.
$160,000 is my living expenses for 10 years.

And this extra $160,000 is for doing the same thing-
Buy ETF and forget abt it....

Thanks shiny thing for the clear explanation

 

[reinphd]

well, first of all, its not ILP.
i have no idea how many times i have to repeat that -,-
secondly, i dont have so much money for him! LOL!
thirdly, who cares that much when you can actually see the money grow instead of it stucked in the bank with how many percent growth again? 0.05%?¿
fourthly, i believe they spend their time doing and planning. so imagine they spend hours to study the investment to help you earn money and you are spending your time to earn more money for youself. kaching kaching $$$.
lastly, the investment platform would actually receive most of the money for their staff salary i guess? imagine you are one who work there and no salary? cannot be right??

and you do have a point. ETF may be a good thing to save the cost. but seriously, i would rather spend the time not to study investments and do my own job and make more money. you just gonna let the small fish go to catch a big fish
and since i see results, i dont see why i should not let the FA have the reward ya know?

cimb is a no brainer of 0.8% up to 750k

and you don't need to study anything if you don't want to. just buy only

 

[littlegrasshopper]

Hedge fund is less than 2/20 now? Didn't realize that.

 

[Shiny Things]

Wow.. are ETFs really that good?
maybe i really should try it when i have a little time to figure things out.
thank you all for sharing.
but may i know... are there any risks to buying ETFs??

The risks of owning ETFs are the same as owning a nicely diversified collection of stocks, or unit trusts. They can go up or down - just like stocks, or unit trusts.

 

[ComPuiTer]

Hmm someone just mentioned about UFS to me recently and google give me HWZ link...so can this company be trusted?

 

[Lidocious]

I was once their client for a good 5 years.

Let's just say they are always pushing ILPs to the clients, mainly due to the high commission they get from selling them.

And I learnt the cold hard truth; insurance and investment should not come hand in hand. I paid high premium, with diminishing returns. And the FAs are getting a hefty commission of 40% of my premiums! It was so infuriating, knowing that most of the premium I paid went into ILPs, and I felt cheated.

My portfolio then includes unit trusts. And guess what. My returns was roughly 4% for the past 5 years. Not year on year, but throughout the 'good' 5 years.

Tread with caution yeah

 

[SBC]

any final verdict after 5 years?

 

[archcherub]

any final verdict after 5 years?

verdict is
1) buy ETF (you get more returns compared to Unit Trust, or ILPs because ETF has lower fees)

2) buy only protection insurance like critical illness, hospital, or term plans. Skip the endowment, skip the ILP, just go straight to ETF.

times have really changed... there is no such thing as ETF 15, 20 yrs ago and all insurance agents very huat....