Keeping EPF safe and sound

The 5.35% dividend announced last year would have ranked the EPF 22nd in terms of return. — Bloomberg

RECENTLY, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), the nation’s largest pension fund, declared a dividend rate of 5.35% for conventional savings for 2022.This was a lower sum compared with 2021’s 6.1%. Over the course of a decade, EPF dividends for conventional savings had ranged from a low of 5.2% in 2020, to a high of 6.9% in 2017.

The perennial question has been just how does the dividend by the EPF compare with individual asset class funds like unit trust which allows investors to gain bigger exposure in their investments by diversifying their asset holdings.