Vol 10, No 3 - Financial Planning Association of Malaysia

environment ensures that you and your
clients are able to make the necessary
transactions in the shortest time possible
with just a mouse click.
4 Free
Switching
Free switching is available for wrap
accounts. Advisers are able to rebalance
portfolios and switch between funds from
different fund houses as many times as
they wish without incurring extra charges.
This makes portfolio changes very cost
efficient.
5 Alignment
with Clients’ Interest
The wrap account aligns the interests
of the unit trust investors, the CUTAs,
advisers, iFAST Capital, and the fund
management companies. A ‘win-win’
situation is created and everyone would
benefit only when the net asset value
(NAV) of the investment grows. The more
the investment grows, the more everyone
earns.
Training and
6 Research Support
Our training sessions cover topics ranging
from investment planning to economic
and market analysis. In addition, we
conduct monthly updates on market
outlook and fund manager presentations.
Our team of research analysts maintains
five distinct ‘Recommended Portfolios’
and a ‘Recommended Unit Trusts’ list
which are reviewed regularly. These are
provided at no extra cost to advisers.
Independent Unit Trust
7 Consultant (IUTC) Initiative
In line with our goal of bringing
independent financial advice to
consumers, our latest initiative is a
training programme to groom unit
trust consultants (UTCs), insurance
agents and fresh graduates to become
the next generation of independent
financial planners. There is definitely a
shortage of qualified financial planners
“The mobility offered
to IUTCs should
encourage more
people to enter the
unit trust industry
and build their client
assets with us.”
and hence we, along with our partner
CUTAs, are striving to fill this vacuum in
human capital by expanding the pool of
potential financial planners. We believe
that our IUTC initiative will give a much
needed boost to the growth of the
independent financial planning industry
in Malaysia.
Our group chairman and CEO Lim
Chung Chun has always said, “We will
consistently adopt ‘win-win’ solutions for
all our stakeholders — whether clients,
employees or shareholders — and
emphasise a long-term view in decisionmaking.”
Under this programme, IUTCs are taken
under our wings until they attain their
qualified financial planner accreditations.
For the duration of the programme,
training is given to the IUTCs as they
pursue their qualifications. At the same
time, the IUTCs will get to grow their sales,
asset under management (AUM) and
client base.
Upon completion of the necessary
requirements to become a licensed
financial planner, the IUTCs are then
Recruit
iFAST Independent
Unit Trust
Consultant
“We will consistently adopt ‘win-win’
solutions for all our stakeholders
— whether clients, employees or
shareholders — and emphasise a
long-term view in decision-making.”
- Lim Chung Chun, Chairman and CEO,
iFAST Corporation Pte Ltd
EXISTING BUSINESS MODEL
Platform Services
NEW IUTC INITIATIVE
Develop & GROW
transferred to our partner CUTAs. They will
retain full ownership of the client assets
which they have built up during their
tenure with iFAST Capital.
This model compares very favourably
against the tied agency model that is
widely practised currently. Under the tied
agency model, client assets remain with
the unit trust management companies
(UTMCs) even after the tied agent has left
the company. This makes it unattractive
for tied agents to pursue a career as an
independent financial planner as it would
mean resigning from their UTMCs and
hence, forfeiting client assets that they
have built up over the years.
The mobility offered to IUTCs should
encourage more people to enter the unit
trust industry and build their client assets
with us.
For more information, please call us at
+60-3-2149 0600 or email us at: info.my@
ifastfinancial.com
Dennis Tan is the managing director of iFast
Capital Sdn Bhd.
CUTA A
CUTA B
CUTA C
Supply
Licensed
Financial Planners
50 The 4E Journal