Endowus subscribes to funds like Dimensional that charges lower fees because it does not charge a broker commission. What proportion of funds with Endowus are like this? How does this structure work?

Thank you for your question. The reason our overall cost of investing is lower is because we have removed the costs at every layer possible. The reason Dimensional fees are lower is because 1) we access the institutional share class of the funds. and 2) These institutional share class funds have no trailer fees - the commissions paid by the fund manager to the distributors (banks like DBS, brokers or fund platforms like FSM/Dollardex, or FAs). Broker commissions are charged by the platform, broker or bank that you use to buy funds. The distribution commission is paid continuously as long as an investor holds the funds and usually ranges between 0.5% - 1% per annum, or greater than 50% of the fund-level fees. This potentially leads to misalignment of incentives between an investor and distributor, and higher fund-level fees. At Endowus, we try to use the institutional share classes of funds whenever possible, which do not have any trailer fees. If we have to use the retail share class funds, we will rebate any trailer fees received from the fund managers 100% back to our clients. We strongly believe in not accepting trailer fees as we want to stay independent and aligned to the client's best interest and completely focused on building the best portfolios for you rather than selling you products that pay us the highest fees.​​​

It is not so much a question of brokerage fees, that are anyway low today

Endowus uses in aggregate:

Dimensional Global Core Equity Fund
Dimensional Emerging Markets Large Cap Core

Equity Fund
Dimensional Pacific Basin Small Companies Fund
Dimensional Global Core Fixed Income Fund
Dimensional World Equity Fund
Eastspring Singapore Select Bond Fund
First State Dividend Advantage Legg Mason

Western Asset Global Bond Fund
Lion Global Infinity US 500 Stock Index Fund
Lion Global Infinity Global Stock Index Fund
Natixis Harris Associates Global Equity Fund
PIMCO GIS Global Bond Fund
PIMCO GIS Income Fund
PIMCO Emerging Markets Bond Fund
PIMCO Global Real Return Fund Schroders

Global Emerging Market Opportunities Fund United SGD Fund
They are somtimes o.k. performing, somtimes not. The fees are relatively high

up to 1.70 % annually.

Mostly a passive indexing ETF DIY approach could be more successful.