DIGITISATION has enabled us to manage our entire financial world at our fingertips and investment is one area where the digital revolution has facilitated end-to-end services online.
Investment platforms act as a place to buy, sell and hold all our investments, but all are not the same as different platforms offer different services and picking the right one can be tricky without any help.
What are the things to consider when choosing an investment platform?
Products, pricing, service and reputation are things that investors need to consider when choosing their ideal platform, shared FSMOne Malaysia general manager Wong Weiyi.
“With a wider range of products, you would be able to pick the best and most suited products to form a robust, diversified portfolio.
“In terms of pricing, the lower the charging fee, the more you will save, of course. As for good service, a responsive customer service would definitely come in handy in solving arising issues whenever necessary. After all, it’s your hard-earned money that you are leaving with the platform.
“Lastly, reputation. You would definitely want to deal with a properly licensed company in Malaysia where you can find information about them in regulators websites such as the Securities Commission Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia and Bursa Malaysia,” explained Wong.
How is FSMOne different from other investment platforms?
As a multi-asset digital investment platform, not only investors get different asset classes like stocks, unit trusts, and direct bonds but also independent research information for them to make informed decisions.
“FSMOne hosts over 600 funds across over 30 fund houses, so that investors can access to a variety of funds all in a single platform rather than buy from different platforms or agents.
“We also have a huge regional research team, with members located in the countries that we operate in – Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and India, whereby the analysts will share their views via research reports and regular seminars.
“Our fund managers are dedicated to sharing their views with clients consistently. As for new investors, our client investment specialists (CIS) would offer recommendations in terms of portfolio construction for them to have a stable kickstart,” said Wong.
FSMOne’s in-house portfolio management team manages five risk profiles – conservative, moderately conservative, balanced, moderately aggressive and aggressive, for both conventional and Shariah-compliant portfolios.
“While a large part of our clients prefer to DIY, there was an increase in demand for clients who wanted a hassle free way of investing and that’s why we launched the service in 2017, to cater to clients who just want to get a suitable portfolio and leave the decision making of underlying allocations to FSMOne,” added Wong.
For stocks trading, investors can trade Bursa stocks, US and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
While with bonds, investors have a wide choice for both corporate and government bonds in Ringgit as well as a decent selection of bonds in other currencies like USD, SGD, AUD, CNY, among others.
“We also offer research commentaries covering exchange-traded funds (ETF), which is a feature that is unique to us at the present moment.
“FSMOne’s service is affordable, transparent and adopts a straightforward fee structure, which means no minimum deposit and also charges the lowest brokerage fee among our peers,” said Wong.
‘Products, pricing, service and reputation are things that investors need to consider when choosing their ideal platform,’ said FSMOne Malaysia general manager Wong Weiyi.
Additionally, investors can also get access to insurance products, of which some are online commission-free products, on the platform to complete the whole picture for their financial well-being.
Wong emphasised that the company puts in significant effort and resources in ensuring a robust platform.
“We do have a professional in-house IT security team and we have also engaged external vendors to provide top-notch services against cyber security threats. Fortunately thus far, we have not had any untoward incident in terms of cyber security,” Wong added.
How do I start?
While conventional account opening requires numerous physical paperwork and may take
up to a week of internal processing before it is operational, FSMOne allows online account registrations and approvals in mere hours.
Funding of accounts can be done in Ringgit Malaysia (MYR) via FPX to be converted at competitive forex (FX) rates to USD or HKD.
“Our seamless process of account opening and currency exchange allows a new trader to get started in less than one working day,” said Wong.
Interested investors may start by visiting FSMOne’s official website here and learn more about the company.
