UOB Asset Management (UOBAM) has launched a robo-advisory mobile app for retail investors in Sinagpore.
UOBAM Invest offers clients personalised investment portfolios based on their risk profile, financial goals and investment horizon.
Basically, it is a version of the UOBAM Invest online portal, which was first launched in 2018 for corporate investors in the Lion City, but was not accessible via mobile phones.
It was extended to Malaysian corporate clients in May, and a retail platform is already available in Thailand.
Details
The app’s key function is the ‘digital adviser,’, a portfolio planner that enables retail customers to invest in individual portfolios.
Users can also fine-tune the portfolios by changing their goals, contributions, duration and risk tolerance level, and are able to see the success probability of achieving their desired returns.
The investor presents a particular goal, such as buying a property, sets a time horizon and then completes an online risk assessment profile.
They then receive an investment portfolio, based on UOBAM’s own capital market assumptions, built from US-listed ETFs across different asset classes, including money markets instruments, government bonds, investment-grade corporate bonds, high-yield bonds and equities.
Allocation
However, a UOBAM spokesperson told our sister publication Fund Selector Asia that “retail investors can only make adjustments to their investment goals, portfolio contribution plan, investment duration and risk tolerance level.
“Such changes will lead to changes in the investment portfolios and, correspondingly, the success probability of meeting the stated goals.”
UOBAM has also embedded a so-called “glide-path” formula into digital adviser’s investment model, which automates the shift in retail investors’ portfolio allocation from higher-risk assets to safer ones systematically and gradually, particularly towards the end of their investment period, balancing their apparent need for long-term growth with their capacity for risk.
The spokerperson added: “Through UOBAM Invest, [we] want to remove the barriers to investing for under-invested segments, including young professionals or young people starting out on their financial planning and investment journey as they will not have to make a big commitment upfront.
“The app is available to all local and foreign investors who are non-US persons.”
Fees
The advisory fee is 0.8% a year for amounts of S$25,000 (£14,093, $18,000, €15,424) and below, and 0.6% a year for amounts above S$25,000.
The minimum investment amount is S$1 and there are no account opening or closing fees.
The technology partner on UOBAM Invest is global fintech giant FNZ Group.
For more insight on asset and wealth management in Asia, please click on www.fundselectorasia.com
