INVESTMENT IN UNIT TRUST: March 2009

Friday, March 6, 2009

How to Invest In Public Mutual Trust

HOW TO BUY, SELL OR SWITCH UNITS OF FUNDS
Read and Understand the Prospectus of the Fund(s)
Firstly, get a copy or download the Master Prospectus from our site. The Master Prospectus will describe all aspects regarding the fund(s), ie; the investment objective, distribution policy, portfolio risk, fees and charges etc. You may also access the interim and annual reports of each fund from our site.
How to open an account
You may complete an Application Form which is attached in the Prospectus. If you are opening a new account, most of our unit trust require a minimum RM1,000 to start.
You may enclose cash or cheque together with your application form. Cheques must be made payable to Public Mutual Berhad.
For EPF members investment scheme application, the KWSP 9F (AHL) is required to be completed and submitted along with the Application Form.
Please bear in mind that you will require the assistance of a servicing agent on opening a new account. The servicing agent will help submit your application form and initial investment to Head Office or branch office or via our collecting centres for processing.
Once you have completed the Application form submit together with a cheque made out to Public Mutual Berhad, to our Head Office via our Public Bank collection centres. You are considered to be a unitholder of your selected fund upon your banking-in and acceptance of first investment with us. Please ensure that you retain the bank-in slip issue by the bank for future reference.
How to Invest Regularly to Your Investment Account
You may add on to your existing investments as and when you wish, or on a regular basis. The minimum additional investment for most of our unit trust is RM100. You may make your investments at our Head Office, branch offices or at Public Bank and Public Finance branches or at any of our collection centres throughout Malaysia.
To elect to invest on a regular basis, you may arrange a Bank Standing Instructions with Public Bank, Public Finance, Maybank Autodebit or Bank Simpanan Nasional. Want to know more about the benefits of regular investment strategy or "dollar-cost averaging" ?
" The Principle of Dollar-Cost Averaging involves a disciplined regular investment technique, which may be applied to maximum effect in unit trust investing. All that an investor has to do is to invest a regular (monthly) sum of money with a selected unit trust fund over a period of time in order to arrive at his target principal investment amount at the end of that period. This way, he does not have to worry about market timing, or where shares prices or interest rates are headed. His regular investment amount will buy his less when the market is up, and more when the market is down. He may be accumulating the units at their lowest average price over the period."
Exercise of Cooling-off Right
The request to exercise your cooling-off right must be submitted either to the Public Mutual Head Office, or to any of its branch offices within 6 business days from the date of the application form (deemed to be the date of depositing of investment monies into the collection accounts of Public Mutual). You will be paid a full refund of your investment principal within 10 days from the date of exercise of this cooling-off right.
For EPF unitholders, the cooling-off period shall begin from the date of the application form (deemed to be the date of acceptance of the application form by Public Mutual).
Corporates or institutions, staff of the Manager and persons/agents registered to deal in its unit trust funds are not entitled to the cooling-off right.
Under the cooling-off request, the refund for every unit held by the unitholder will be the sum total of :
a) the NAV of unit on the day the units were first purchased; and
b) the sales charge per unit imposed on the day the units were purchased.
Exercise of Repurchase, Switching and Transfer of Units
Repurchase
Should you decide to either partially or fully redeem your units, you may contact either your nearest Public Mutual branch office or Public Mutual Head Office for a copy of the "Request For Repurchase" Form. Complete the form and submit to Public Mutual Head Office or its branches. You will be paid the repurchase proceeds within 10 days from our receipt of your repurchase request.
Switching
You may move your investments between funds in response to changing financial goals or market conditions by contacting either your nearest Public Mutual branch office or Public Mutual Head Office for a copy of the "Request For Switching" Form. Complete and submit the form to our Head Office or a branch office.
Transfer
For the transfer of units, you may follow a similar route of procedure but make sure to request for and complete the "Request For Transfer" Form.
Minimum Investment Balance of 1000 Units
Whatever you may do by way of repurchase, transfer or switching of funds, you must always ensure that you leave a minimum balance of 1000 units in your account at all times in order to maintain your account with the fund.
In the case of partial repurchase, the Manager may elect to repurchase the entire account if the effect thereof would be that the unitholder holds less than 1000 units.
Pledging of Units as Collateral
Units held by you may be pledged as collateral for securing loans with Public Bank under the Unit Trust Flexi-Loan Express (UNIFLEX) Plan. The UNIFLEX Plan has many advantages. For details on the UNIFLEX Plan, you may call Public Bank Hotline : 1800-883323.
Borrowing to Purchase Units
You may utilise the loan financing scheme available with a maximum loan margin of 60% of the total investment amount. The two financial institutions offering such loans are Public Bank and Mayban Finance. These institutions, however, retain the right to determine the availability and extent of this loan facility. You are required to read and understand fully the risk disclosure statement on the loan scheme before signing off on the statement (Please refer to Loan Financing Risk Disclosure Statement attached to the Prospectus).
It is our company policy to discourage the use of loan scheme in the purchase of units.
Unit trusts are considered long term savings vehicles which should, theoretically speaking, return better than bank deposits or bonds through its investment in equities or other market-related securities. But likewise, unit trusts cannot avoid assuming to a certain extent the market risks inherent in its portfolio investments, and it would be considered unwise for the unitholder to undertake borrowing to purchase his units as it may serve to accentuate any capital loss incurred by him in the event of a prolonged weak (bear) market. Cash purchase of units is encouraged, and unitholders should instead, seek to invest regularly (through time) to accumulate the total number of units desired by them.

Public Mutual is a Leading Unit Trust In Malaysia 2008

Public Mutual Berhad (Public Mutual) is the largest private unit trust company in Malaysia and currently manages 67 funds with total NAV of more than RM23.3 billion for more than 2,000,000 accountholders. Incorporated in July 1975, Public Mutual began its operations in 1980 with the launch of the Public Savings Fund, and soon went on to become an industry leader and setting forth new trends in innovative fund development.

Market Share And Distribution
Public Mutual anchors 38.9 percent market share in private unit trust funds when measured by net asset value (source:The Edge-Lipper, 19 January 2009).

Public Mutual markets its funds through its dedicated and trained unit trust consultants force which is currently the largest and collectively the most productive in the entire private unit trust industry. Public Mutual is linked extensively through its national network of branches, as well as agency offices to provide better service to the investors.

In addition, investors of Public Mutual can also take advantage of Public Bank branches that act as effective collections centres for Public Mutual.

Financial Strength And Track Record
Public Mutual as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Public Bank subscribes readily to the Group's excellence-oriented corporate culture and high standards of financial integrity in the management of its unit trust funds.

Public Mutual's Investment team comprises a group of 16 portfolio managers who are supported by more than 25 investment research analysts. Public Mutual adopts a value-based investment philosophy which incorporates a Top-Down and Bottom-Up approach in the investment process. The Top-Down approach takes into consideration factors such as the macroeconomic outlook, the current business cycle, interest rate trends and other economic factors. After assessing the overall market conditions, the Bottom-Up approach is used to construct the funds' portfolio.

Public Mutual is the most awarded unit trust fund manager in Malaysia with 121 awards received to date. In 2008, Public Mutual was the biggest winner at The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Fund Awards 2008, sweeping 8 out of the 21 awards presented including Best Equity Group for 3 Years. We were also the biggest winner at the prestigious Morningstar 2007 Fund Awards (Malaysia), winning four out of six awards presented. In addition, we were named the Best Islamic Fund Manager in Asia by Failaka Advisors, Dubai for the second consecutive year. We also won The Most Outstanding Islamic Fund Manager Award at the 5th KLIFF (Kuala Lumpur Islamic Finance Forum) Islamic Finance Awards 2008 for the second consecutive year. Other notable accolades we received include two AsianInvestor 2008 Investment Performance Awards, two awards at the Asia Asset Management (AAM) Best of the Best Country Awards 2007, The BrandLaureate for brand excellence in the Financial Services – Investment Funds Category for second consecutive year and Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands Gold Award for the Investment Fund Company category in Malaysia for three successive years.