Importance of finding the right mutual fund agent
I’ve always told people that it is very important to engage a good stock broker and a mutual fund agent. Why? Because I personally have made such mistake before. My stock broker is okay so far since I am not someone who takes tips from others when it comes to stock investing. I used to be like that but ended up lost a lot. Haha.
As for Public Mutual agent, it is not about tips but commitment from the agent. Can your agent really commit his or her time? Is what your agent say relevant (more like advice than tips)? And is your agent efficient enough?
Those are few questions you need to ask yourselves before locking yourselves up with a particular agent.
As for me, I engaged my ex-supervisor who is a part-timer. She used to help me a lot in the past and I did not hesitate much then. But the end result is not really that pleasant.
- I told her I need to change my equity to bond. That was before the market crash. She told me not to do that because China funds are sustainable. I know China funds are better than some other equity, but I also know bond funds are better options when the economy is bad. To date, the bond funds which I was looking at have gone up quite a lot, but my equity funds have dropped nearly 30-40%
- I also told her to stop the auto debit in September. She said it will only take effect in October but until now, it is still the same. I was hoping to collect enough cash for myself to use and keep during this difficult period since I expect the equity funds to drop further in early 2009. Save up now, and use the money to buy more at lower price later.
- Also, I have no ways to know how much money I have invested after all this while and how much money I have left based on the current fund price. It’s important to keep track of the total loss or profit but I just don’t have the mean to do so since my agent doesn’t help me with that.
- It’s very hard to meet my agent since she no longer works in the same building as I do. There’s not much communication between my agent and I.
To some, these 2 might not be very big problems. But to me, I was hoping my agent will listen to me and do what I told her to do. If she is not free, then she can tell me and let me know how I can get it done by myself. In the end, I consulted my friend who is in Penang. Here are the solutions for point (2) and (3).
- I can call Public Mutual’s number if I want to stop the auto-debit or I can leave my bank account balance to be less than the auto-debit amount for 3 months, and the auto-debit feature will stop automatically. Or I can just go to the Public Mutual office (I know there’s one in Damansara Perdana) to fill in a form to stop the auto-debit.
- Go to the Public Mutual office and seek help from them to check your outstanding balance and how much you’ve earned or lost. They have the system to calculate that.
- If you want to change to another agent, you can go to the Public Mutual office and fill up a form.
As for my case, I will talk to my current agent first and will most probably change the agent to my stock broker uncle. At least he stays nearer to me and I do meet him quite often.
Hope my personal experience here can help you.
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Comments
@ ChampDog
Yea, we do have to give relatives face esp after getting the ‘pressure’ from other relatives.
“Ah? Why you don’t support your uncle 1?”
I can’t just go saying “Oh, because he not good lo”
Hahaha… I deal with that all the time. That is the hardest thing to deal with. Perhaps better answers as below:
“Oh ya, he also agents? Maybe next time I can buy from him”
But dunno how many this kind of answers we can give, sometimes quite testing our creativity too. LOL
Anyway, for those stuff that need minimum services from agents, I”m usually don’t mind to buy from an agent who are not so good. Happy New Year!
@ ChampDog
That line, I’ve used before. It cannot work twice. Hahah. So I just told them I already bought and should inform me if there’s newer fund. Then I disappeared. haha. But mana tau, now i have to go change the agent to my uncle…still better than my current agent. =_=
I agree with you that we should get a reliable Mutual Fund agents. My agent quite good. She sends me earning/losing report once a while. Thinking of it, it has been quite some times I don’t get a report from her. You remind me to ping her again.
Yupe, if you don’t like the agent just change it. Sometimes when relatives involved then we left no choice (have to give face) even though their services are just so so.