Robo-Advisors are a digital platform that provide automated with very little to no human supervision. They collect information from clients including their financial situation and future goal and then uses the data to offer advice and automatically invest client assets. [source]
StashAway (SA) is originated from Singapore. They open their way to Malaysia in mid-2018 and are regulated by Security Commission of Malaysia. SA has done several marketing through social media such as Facebook and Instagram. They even held events to talk to their clients and educate about investing to SA. SA also has offer free management fees through referral, Boost and GrabPay.
Registration
Upon registering StashAway, you will be greeted with several questions including basic information such as Age and your annual income. SA will also ask you about your life goal and your understanding about investment so SA will record it as your financial information. If you intend on updating your financial information, you may contact them through Whatsapp.
Once you done with the registration through the portal, SA will contact you via email or Whatsapp and request for a copy of your ID Card (MyKad) for verification purposes. It will take up to 3 days for your account to be fully activated. Mine took half a day.
Features
- Secure infrastructure and custodian setup
- Optimised for better return
- No minimum balance
- Flexible deposits and withdrawal
- App available on iOS and Android
Application Features
- Projection
- Assets
- Transaction
- Statements
- Deposits
- Security – FaceID, Pin, TouchID
- Dark Mode
Set Goals or General Investing
If you got a goal to set, you may want to select Invest for a Life Goal but if you want to do investment only, you may want to select General Investing.
Invest for a Life Goals consists a list out goals people usually aim for; Travel, Prepare for Emergency and more. These goals are already pre-selected with the risk percentage and amount you can aim. Pre-selected risks are based on type of goal, individual understanding on investing and financial information.
Contrary to Invest for a Life Goal, General Investing does not have a long list of goals. You can choose between a balance growth or if you want a little adventure, then choose a little more risk option. Balance growth begin from 6.5% to 20% while taking more risk ranging from 26% to 36%. However, if you answered question that you never done any investment before nor have the understanding of what investment is, your risk will be locked to 20%. To unlock, you need to go through SGX, answer the quiz and submit to SA. SA will unlock the maximum risk index for you.
Balance growth: 6.5% ~ 20%
A little more risk: 26% ~ 36%
The nice thing about this is it can display the projection of your continuous investments so you can decide how much you able to invest every month before creating the goal.
Risk Portfolios and Assets
Every risk portfolio has a different kind of asset allocation. In SA, 6.5%, asset allocation focuses 56% for protection and 44% for Growth. The higher the risk, the asset allocation focuses more on Growth than Protection. Example 20% allocate 31% protective and 69% for Growth. Asset allocation may be different from time to time as it really depends on the market.
You can drag the risk level to see the portfolio composition. As of right now, SA invest more in US Equities. Higher risk does not mean high return you will get. Plan carefully before you decide where to put your money.
Fees
The management fees I think is Okay. There are many ways to get free management fees and one of it are through referral link. SA did release a couple of “Free Management Fees for 3 months” voucher in Boost and GrabReward but at the time of this writing, it is no longer available.
As stated in their website, there are no hidden fees, minimum balance, or fee for account closure or withdrawal.
SA’s Fees Structure
First RM50,000 – 0.8%
Between RM50,001 to RM100,000 – 0.7%
Between RM100,001 to RM250,000 – 0.6%
Between RM250,001 to RM500,000 – 0.5%
Between RM500,001 to RM1,000,000 – 0.4%
Between RM1,000,000 to RM3,000,000 – 0.3%
RM3,000,001 and above – 0.2%
And also, Currency conversion – 0.1%
Deposit, Returns and Withdrawal
With SA, it is a bit of a long process. They do not have a payment gateway such as FPX or MolPay, you need to deposit the money to their account through IBG or JomPay. I am okay with that. But for them to notify they has received the deposit to process the money for ETF investment can take up to 5-7 days. Here is a breakdown for you based on my experiences;
Deposit: 1~3 days. Usually took 2 days
Processing for investment: 2~3 days. Usually took 3 days
And even if you deposit on Friday, there is no guarantee SA will receive the deposit next Monday. It is opposite to SA Singapore where you can get a notification of Deposit Received after 3-4 hours.
You can see the changes to the returns under Peformance 2 to 3 times a day starting from Tuesday to Saturday.
As for processing deposit, it is understandable the process will take long. As the amount of money invest must be to converted to other currency before reaching the broker.
The returns are decent. SA did a pretty good job where I am getting a return 5% plus just after 3 months of investing. In app, you can see the returns, profit and loss for each individual portfolio.
For withdrawal, you can enter your bank account number. There are no fees for withdrawal from SA but there may be a fee during the process like currency conversion fees and broker fees. So, the amount you request for withdrawal may be lower than you expected. And it may take 3-4 days for the amount to reflect in your bank account.
Is StashAway Syariah Compliance?
No. Look elsewhere if you are looking for Syariah compliant Robo-Advisor.
Update: If you’re looking for Syariah compliant Robo-Advisor, lookup for Wahed Invest.
So, Is StashAway recommended for you?
If you are that person who prefer doing everything indoor instead of drive all the way to the office just for registration (you know, it’s a hassle to find a parking) and still want to invest and get a decent return, then StashAway is for you. SA is ideal for millennials and it is a good platform for any beginners.
Sign up with my link and we’ll both get up to RM30,000 managed for free for 6 months! Referral Link
