KBC Privilege Portfolio 95 - any thought?

jan

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Hi has anyone use this KBC privilege portfolio investment package? Or any thoughts on it? I would like to invest some money for say 3-5 years..
 
I can't find much information on it online.

Not sure if it guarantees that your fund won't fall by more than 5%? If it does, you pay dearly for such guarantees.

It appears to be invested 75% in bonds and cash with only 20% equities.

This would suggest that it would have a very low return.

upload_2016-10-12_15-4-16.png


And you have to pay 1.49% from the very low return.

Brendan
 
I can't find much information on it online.

Not sure if it guarantees that your fund won't fall by more than 5%? If it does, you pay dearly for such guarantees.

It appears to be invested 75% in bonds and cash with only 20% equities.

This would suggest that it would have a very low return.

View attachment 1627

And you have to pay 1.49% from the very low return.

Brendan

hi thanks for the reply.. yep and there is a 1% subscription fee - and i read something about another 3.5% on line - though they didn't mention that to me when I spoke to them yesterday.

I have a sum of money in savings - due to mature soon - but fixed rates for saving are v poor - i thought that this would be a good alternative.
Any suggestions on an alternative welcome? I liked this KBC investment as its 95% protected.. etc.. and this would be my 1st investment..
 
Hi Jan,
You dont give any information about why you want to save or build an investment portfolio, what you are trying to achieve, what are your other financial priorities/circumstances etc. Hence its hard to recommend anything specific.

If I were an advisor I'd be asking:
How did you arrive at time frame - what's happening in 3-5 years
What age are you
What existing savings have you
Have you any high interest debts like car loan/credit card etc
Have you an SVR mortgage
Have you a rainy day fund of 3-6 months salary
Have you a pension
Have you kids
Are you married
Have you any investment property
What exactly constitutes success for any investment portfolio
How long are you happy to be without this money
What would you do if value dropped 30% overnight
What is your tax rate
Are you taxed in Ireland

Most people when asked why they want to invest generally say "I want to get better return than in normal bank account"......that is not a goal, thats a vague pipe dream that you cannot quantify.

There are lots of similar threads on this forum (and boards), I'd suggest having a good read of them as well before deciding what to do.
 
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There has been enough posts on AAM re funds Investment. Very hard to invest in Irish funds when the company don't have to disclose the TER, which is the Total Expense Ratio, the costs which the investors must pay, normally much more than the Management Fees. KBC is a Bank. Let the Banks deal with money, not investments. Try looking at ETFs or without knowing how much you want to invest (nobody's business) find a stockbroker who will guide you through a decent investment route. It's your money and if you prefer to waste that's your business, but don't give it to somebody to deplete your quantum amount via commissions.
 
There has been enough posts on AAM re funds Investment. Very hard to invest in Irish funds when the company don't have to disclose the TER, which is the Total Expense Ratio, the costs which the investors must pay, normally much more than the Management Fees. KBC is a Bank. Let the Banks deal with money, not investments. Try looking at ETFs or without knowing how much you want to invest (nobody's business) find a stockbroker who will guide you through a decent investment route. It's your money and if you prefer to waste that's your business, but don't give it to somebody to deplete your quantum amount via commissions.
hi thanks for all of that.. good point about banks and investments.. obviously i don't want to waste it - hence i am looking for opinions/thoughts on this one. thanks.. will look into a stockbroker
 
Glad to offer an opinion which might be worth a saving. If you like I'll send you a PM with stockbrokers names I use. Other than that, I strongly recommend you invest in funds that are based outside Ireland, i.e Standard Life, etc, where they have to operate on full disclosure of facts and costs.
 
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Do you know what a "cash locked fund" is.

I didn't either until after I invested in something very similar.

Basically to guarantee the 95% most of the investment is put into bonds and cash as BB points out above.

If at any point during the investment term these perform poorly, then more of the investment must be transferred to bonds/cash to support the 95% guarantee, this reduces the funds possibility to recoup the loss.

Basically if at any time during the period the investment underperforms, it becomes difficult or impossible for the investment to recover.

These guaranteed products are in my experience a disaster.
 
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thanks for the replies - @johnny1234 - yes if you would like to PM me that info that would be great.. @cremeegg no I don't know what a cash locked fund is,..
I am new to all of this and financial lingo does not come easy to me..

Not impressed with KBC not telling me more about this product
 
hi thanks for the reply.. yep and there is a 1% subscription fee - and i read something about another 3.5% on line - though they didn't mention that to me when I spoke to them yesterday.

I have a sum of money in savings - due to mature soon - but fixed rates for saving are v poor - i thought that this would be a good alternative.
Any suggestions on an alternative welcome? I liked this KBC investment as its 95% protected.. etc.. and this would be my 1st investment..

update - the 3.5% only applies to Belgium - not ireland - 1% subscription and 1.49 % annual maintenance

any further thoughts?
 
I liked this KBC investment as its 95% protected.. etc.. and this would be my 1st investment..

No, it is not 95% protected!
- It has an annual floor price protection of 95%, which is a different thing.
- You have an entry fee 3.5.%
- An on going charge of 1.49% based on 2015 figures, so not a standard rate
- The on going charge does not include transaction fees
- The on going charge does not include entry/exit fees in cases where the fund uses fund of fund concepts (which it absolutely will!)
- An exit charge of 5% should you want to dispose of your investment within the month of purchase.
- The fund almost certainly will be using synthetics for achieve the bond allocation

The KII presents performance figures from 2007, but then you come on this little gem:
"This sub-fund has absorbed on 30 April 2013 the sub-fund Privileged Portfolio Pro 95 August. The data in this document regarding the period before that date, concern the absorbed sub-fund."

I you want to have a 95% guarantee then leave it on deposit in the bank.
 
No, it is not 95% protected!
- It has an annual floor price protection of 95%, which is a different thing.
- You have an entry fee 3.5.%
- An on going charge of 1.49% based on 2015 figures, so not a standard rate
- The on going charge does not include transaction fees
- The on going charge does not include entry/exit fees in cases where the fund uses fund of fund concepts (which it absolutely will!)
- An exit charge of 5% should you want to dispose of your investment within the month of purchase.
- The fund almost certainly will be using synthetics for achieve the bond allocation

The KII presents performance figures from 2007, but then you come on this little gem:
"This sub-fund has absorbed on 30 April 2013 the sub-fund Privileged Portfolio Pro 95 August. The data in this document regarding the period before that date, concern the absorbed sub-fund."

I you want to have a 95% guarantee then leave it on deposit in the bank.

Hi thanks for the reply. You will have to excuse me like I said, I am not familiar with any of the lingo here.
First of all, according to KBC the 3.5% does not apply to Ireland.
What transaction fee's would there be? Apart from exiting. I didn't know it was 5%.
What are "synthetics"? I assume thats a bad thing?
"The sub-fund has absorbed etc" - could you explain perhaps what this means?
 
update - the 3.5% only applies to Belgium - not ireland - 1% subscription and 1.49 % annual maintenance

any further thoughts?

If they are investing mainly in bonds they would do well to make the 1.49% annual maintenance fee!

Bond Interest rates are at rock bottom now. Sooner or later they will have to move, and the only way is up. This will cause large capital losses. Funds can plan for this by buying short term bonds or insuring against falls, by buying derivitives, but this is expensive and eats into the already low return.

In summary, and I hate to say this, but if security is your priority and the sum is less than 100k, you might be better just leaving it in a bank.
 
Thanks Jim2007 for highlighting all the hidden bits. Saved the rest of us having to read through the disclosure documents. Promoters of these types of funds always highlight all the good bits in their fliers with all the negative parts (which usually come to pass) hidden away knowing people won't read it.

If you don't want to take risks with your money, leave it on deposit but you have to accept low returns. If want a higher return, you have to take an element of investment risk. That means your money can go up or down. The amount of risk you take it up to you. These structured products are complicated and expensive. If you don't understand how your money is invested, keep your money where it is.

Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
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