Invest Made Easy

Lipper Fund Award, Seems Like Every Unit Trust Fund Has One!

Shane My
Publish date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013, 09:27 PM
Shane My
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Like many of us, we seek for financial security and ultimately financial freedom. This blog is intended to act as a journal of investment as I journey towards that dream. At the same time, I hope that the articles written here would also benefit many others who share the same vision as me.

 

How many of us have come across "Lipper Fund Award" when approached by Unit Trust Agents? Like my Facebook page if you have! Be it Public Mutual Agents, MAAKL Agents, CIMB Wealth Advisors or any other fund agents, the term Lipper Award will surface whenever the conversation is about investing in unit trust. In fact, I'm sure you've also come across "Lipper Fund Awards" in various Unit Trust websites such as CIMB's "We're the best" banner:

 

The new leader in Unit Trust Invesment!

Or seeing AMB proudly boasting their Best Equity Malaysia Fund Award!

AMB...best Equity Malaysia Fund!

Not forgetting good old Public Mutual:

10 awards in 2010 and only 6 awards in 2012...hhmmm

Similar to the Oscars and Grammys, Lipper Awards are given in recognition of outstanding performance by a unit trust fund or a unit trust company. The problem is that almost every single unit trust company has a Lipper Award to boast about. Some have 10 awards...hint hint. The term Lipper Award has been abused used so often that I find it difficult to differentiate the different types of award. This brings me to today's post about dissecting the meaning of Lipper Award and to differentiate the different awards given out. 

Many award winners can be purchase from Fundsupermart!

 

Facts About Lipper Fund Awards

 

  • The Lipper Fund Awards is held to honor the best funds and fund houses.
  • It is held once every year, normally between Jan - April of each year. The 2013 Lipper Fund Awards for Malaysia will be held on the 25th February 2013.
  • Since there are about 600+ funds in circulation with different nature of investment and risk profile, the Lipper Award has to cater these differences by offering 35 different award categories (expecting more categories in the future such as best PRS fund). Now you know why there are so many different types of Lipper Awards.
  • Award winners are selected based on the criteria available HERE. Generally to select a winner for a particular category,the effective returns of a fund over a certain period is taken into consideration. The highest effective returns among the competing funds will be judged as winner.* 

 

*I'm generalizing the criteria for selecting an award winner. Detailed explanation can be found in the link above.

 

Winners for 2012 Lipper Fund Awards

Apart from providing the list of award winners for 2012, I have also added:

1. A personal rating on how important that particular award is in helping you to decide the best fund to invest in for long term. 

2. The winning fund latest performance based on annualized returns. That way, you can see that not all funds will produce positive returns and/or produce higher then EPF's 5.5% average annual returns.

 

Category : GROUP (by Fund House)

Classification

Importance factor when considering to invest long term

(LOW, MEDIUM & HIGH)

2012 Winner

Current Performance of Fund Winner based on Annualized Returns

(as of 24th Jan 2012 unless stated)

Bond

LOW

Am Investment

N/A

Equity

LOW

Pacific Mutual

N/A

Mixed Assets

LOW

MAAKL

N/A

Overall

LOW

CIMB

N/A

Category : 3 YEAR (by Fund)

Bond Malaysian Ringgit

MEDIUM

AmDynamic Bond

+8.61%

Equity Asia Pacific

MEDIUM

Public Asia Ittikal

+3.17% *

Equity Asia Pacific Ex Japan

MEDIUM

CIMB Islamic Equity

-1.84% **

Equity Global

MEDIUM

Pacific Dana Dividen

+3.51% *

Equity Malaysia

MEDIUM

CIMB Principal Equity

+11.98%

Equity Malaysia Small & Mid Caps

MEDIUM

Public Focus Select

+14.32%

Mixed Asset MYR Bal - Global

MEDIUM

PB Asia Real Estate Income

+11.28% (as of 31 Oct 2012)

Mixed Asset MYR Bal - Malaysia

MEDIUM

Hwang Select Balanced

+12.43%

Mixed Asset MYR Conservative

MEDIUM

Hwang Select Income

+11.68% (as of 30 June 2012)

Mixed Asset MYR Flexible

MEDIUM

MAAKL-HDBS Flexi

+16.20%

Category : 5 YEAR (by Fund)

Bond Malaysian Ringgit

HIGH

AmDynamic Bond

+8.56%

Equity Asia Pacific Ex Japan

HIGH

Pheim Asia Ex-Japan Islamic

+0.72% *

Equity Global

HIGH

Pacific Focus 18

-1.96% **

Equity Malaysia

HIGH

AMB Value Trust

+11.06%

Equity Malaysia Small & Mid Caps

HIGH

Public Small Cap

+12.81% (as of 31 Aug 2012)

Mixed Asset MYR Bal - Malaysia

HIGH

Apex Dana Al-Faiz-I

No info

Mixed Asset MYR Conservative

HIGH

Hwang Select Income

+7.06% (as of 30 June 2012)

Mixed Asset MYR Flexible

HIGH

PRUdana dinamik

+7.05% (as of 30 Sept 2012)

Category : 10 YEAR (by Fund)

Bond Malaysian Ringgit

HIGH

Public Islamic Bond

No info

Equity Malaysia

HIGH

CIMB-Principal Equity

+12.04% (as of 30 June 2012)

Equity Malaysia Small & Mid Caps

HIGH

Public Small Cap

No info

Mixed Asset MYR Bal - Malaysia

HIGH

OSK-UOB Kid Save

+11.93%

Islamic : 3 YEAR (by Fund)

Bond Malaysian Ringgit

MEDIUM

PB Islamic Bond

+8.6%

Equity Asia Pacific Ex Japan

MEDIUM

CIMB Islamic Equity

-1.84% **

Equity Malaysia

MEDIUM

Kenanga Syariah Growth

+18.09%

Mixed Asset MYR Bal - Malaysia

MEDIUM

CIMB Islamic Balanced Growth

+14.25% (as of 30 June 2012)

Islamic : 5 YEAR (by Fund)

Bond Malaysian Ringgit

HIGH

PB Islamic Bond

+7.24%

Equity Malaysia

HIGH

Kenanga Syariah Growth

+11.01%

Mixed Asset MYR Bal - Malaysia

HIGH

Apex Dana Al-Faiz-I

No info

Islamic : 10 YEAR (by Fund)

Equity Malaysia

HIGH

Pacific Dana Aman

No info

Mixed Asset MYR Bal - Malaysia

HIGH

CIMB Islamic Balanced

+6.68% (as of 30 Sept 2012)

 

* Fund Performance below EPF average annual returns of 5.5%

** Negative returns for Fund Performance

 

My views

As you can see, not all award winning unit trust fund generate positive income. To be honest, any fund that performs below the EPF average return of 5.5% is not worth investing for the long term. Surprisingly lower risk fund such as OSK-UOB Kid Save fund is returning double digits profits over a span of 10 years.This fund in particular is definitely worth considering especially if you're saving up for your kid's education. Purchase OSK-UOB Kid Save from Fundsupermart at 2% sales charge.

 

For higher risk investment, I'm seriously considering Malaysia Equity funds such as Public Small Cap, AMB Value Trust and Kenanga Syariah Growth. All three are on my watchlist. 

 

For investors approaching retirement, low risk bond fund such as PB Islamic Bond should be the best choice for investment. Unfortunately, investor can no more purchase AmDynamic Bond as the fund size has already maxed out.

 

Summary

By writing and researching on Lipper Fund Award, I've gained another new tool to help me decide on the best fund to invest in. I've also realized that despite the high service charge, some of the award winning funds are worth investing as well. With the 2013 Lipper Fund Award just around the corner, I'm expecting a few award winners to be toppled by rival funds. Coupled with the impending General Election, unit price for various high risk funds would most likely drop thereby offering investors and myself an opportunity to purchase more units at lower price.

 

Till then, I wish all of you a fantastic long weekend break!

 

Cheer and Happy Investing!

 

 

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Discussions
2 people like this. Showing 3 of 3 comments

chongkonghui

For open-ended fund, what will cause the Unit Price (Equity Investment) drop drastically?

Answer: The share it invested in drop in prices.

If so, why don't you just buy share directly?

2013-01-25 00:30

WilliamWang

Thanks for sharing . A great article . Bravo

2013-01-25 00:35

talk2pkc

In the past when I was in full-time business, got 4 diff fund managers n mayb I was unlucky , it turn out 3 of them know much less than me ( and I know very little at that time and so as now , ha ha) , the 4th manager was OK but nothing to shout about !! Since I brought back "in-hse" , so far I am in profit every year even during 2008 & 9 .......... ingredient FA+TA+LT and BIG Plus M A G , lah

2013-01-25 00:45

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