Types of Unit Trust Funds in Malaysia

The basic feature of unit trust investment is a form of collective investment that allows investors with similar investment objectives to pool their saving, and invested in a portfolio of securities managed by investment professional.

We can classify 5 mains categories of unit trust funds in Malaysia:

1)Equity fund: The major portions of equity fund portfolios are shares of listed companies. It’s available in the market with higher risk-higher return to those with lower risk-lower returns:

·Aggressive growth fund – generally invests in companies with higher capital growth, but with higher risk.
·Index fund- normally the return will closely resemble the performance of the stock market index, both in

terms of risk and return.
·Income fund – the fund will invest primarily in stocks that earn significant dividend income, rather than

companies that are expected to pay little or no dividends.

2)Fixed Income fund: Mainly invest in corporate bonds, government securities and liquid securities. Generally it will provide regular income with less emphasis on capital growth.

3)Property fund: Invest in real property. The fund returns are generated from rental income and capital appreciation. Most property units are listed on stock exchange, as the assets are highly illiquid.

4)Islamic fund: Investment in accordance with Syariah Laws. Main objective is to invest in a portfolio of halal stocks. Non-halal stock – companies produce or involved in activities, products or services and financial services, gambling, alcoholic, beverages and non-halal food products.

5)Balanced fund: invest in between Equity fund and fixed income investments.

By having good understanding of the above funds categories, we start to evaluate the funds to invest in, by considering our investment objectives and risk tolerance level.

Sheng Feng Ang is currently a Unit Trust consultancy, mainly in investment and financial training. Adelaide has obtained the ” Certified Financial Planner”, is globally recognized in USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, India, Singapore, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, France, South Korea, Brazil, Austria, South Africa and Switzerland.

Unit trust investment is one of the many ways to increase our retirement fund and maximize our gain and minimize our risk along the period of investment horizon towards our retirement age. For more information about unit trust investment, please contact me at: sf_ang2003@yahoo.com or sfang2003@gmail.com