To answer your first question, yes your dividends are re-invested back into the portfolio. It will go back into your account and it will be whon in the transaction statement monthly. In fact, I think most robo advisors witholding tax will all apply. If you transfer that amount into your Robo-advisor account (it is basically their bank account) the total amount will be managed by them (usually they will keep a small % as cash) but almost 95% or more will be invested based on your risk preference and appetite. Hope this helps!

Regular investing into smartly/roboadvisor is good. But your idea of withdrawing it to pay insurance premium is not. Investments will fluctuate and by withdrawing the investments at its downturn point would actually hurt the portfolio returns in the long term. If you need the daily savings to pay off insurance premiums, you should put it into a bank deposit or Singapore savings bonds. Just withdraw the singapore savings bonds 1 month before the premium due date.

A robo adviser is alway removing human emotions and helping you to diversify in a low-cost way. I don't see the point of diversifying if your capital or monthly amount is small. You should probably lump into one for easy checks. (Do NOT check daily, investment should be long term, check once or twice per year... easier said than done thouhg) Stick to one. Find the best that suits you and stick to it. Any small disadvantages or advantages that crops out later probably is insignificant.

Dear Anonymous, This is a great question and Endowus has reviewed the pros and cons of accessing various products and we believe that the most efficient way to access certain asset classes or funds is through a third option - Irish UCITS Funds(Unit trusts). I have seen many comparisons but nobody has really delved into the key issues in detail. Because they normally compare the US ETFs vs Irish UCITS ETFs or UCITS ETFs vs UCITS funds. I will review the pros and cons of the respective fund vehicles below; 1. US ETFs on the surface look good as they have lower fees and have narrow bid-ask spreads but this is more than offset by the huge witholding tax that it is subject to (For example, if dividends are 3% then you will be charged 1% which dwarfs any benefits of lower fees/narrow bid ask spreads). Recouping taxes is notoriously difficult as the money is co-mingled (meaning the dollar invested is not in your name and the tax refund is not specific to you) - you only get partial refund and you have to wait a long time after the money has been deducted to get a refund and God forbid you take your money out from the platform before the refund comes through as you may never get it back. 2. Irish UCITS ETFs simply solves the tax issue but on the other hand you have less choice in terms of ETFs, the bid-ask spread is quite wide as liquidity is poor, and finally the fees are higher as they tend to be smaller in scale and scale vs cost is directly and inversely correlated. However, you can bypass the bid-ask spread issue by accessing them through market makers at a small fee at NAV (this is the actual price/value of the fund = and please remember ETFs are funds as well but they are just listed to provide intraday liquidity and readily tradeable. This is a key point I elaborate on later). 3. UCITS Funds. Apart from the fact that these funds are tax-efficient like the UCITS ETFs, they also have no bid-ask spread. NONE AT ALL. This is because you can buy/sell it at the actual NAV. Even US ETFs have bid-ask spreads and some US ETFs are very wide at times. The whole point of ETFs and the reason they have bid-ask spreads is because it is exchange traded. If we trade US or UCITS ETFs from Singapore then we normally trade only once a day so it defeats the whole purpose of using ETFs which is supposed to provide live intraday liquidity. They trade once a day and provide liquidity once a day. So there is no benefit to ETFs other than the other factors focused on cost, which on balance including tax and FX risk, they lose out on. We are not taking advantage of the most important aspect of why ETFs exist. Furthermore, for UCITS funds, because you are buying at NAV at daily liquidity there is no additional cost of transaction and no need to inefficiently fractionalize shares(llike ETFs) as you can invest to the cent at NAV price. Finally, these funds have a broader choice than UCITS ETFs and they tend to be at scale much cheaper in terms of total costs. There is also another important factor that many people don't discuss as much as taxes, and that is the impact of FX on risk and returns. We pursposefully build and access UCITS funds denominated in SGD or Singapore dollar hedged products in the case of fixed income products. Whereas you are taking FX risk with US or other ETFs, which involves additional costs. This is a big additional benefit to accessing the products through Irish UCITS fund structures. So if you combine all of that, UCITS Funds from the likes of PIMCO and Dimensional that Endowus uses, are in fact the most cost-efficient, tax-efficient vehicles and removes completely any FX risk. Thereby allowing you to invest your Singapore dollar savings as a Singapore based investors with peace of mind. Thank you! Yours Sincerely, Sam

Since 2001 when world data was first available. This would have covered many market cycles and crises including the 2001 Dot-Com bubble, 2003 SARS epidemic, 2008 GFC, 2010 Euro Debt Crisis I, 2011 Euro Debt Crisis II, 2015/16 China meltdown. The backtesting is carried out to provide scientific basis for our return & risk projections. That said, we strongly urge you to assess our actual investment returns which are published and updated on our website https://www.autowealth.sg/strategy.php This practice of publishing investment returns is a reflection of our confidence to deliver superior returns and also a reflection of our values to provide transparency. We note that we are the first in the robo-advisory space and the only one to do this.

HI Zhirong, I didn't have a chance to answer your question at the live question session yesterday night, partly because it gave me pause and actually a little moved -- that you would ask us robo/bionic advisers, coming to market a relatively new business model, about our ideal customer; when surely it is our job to ask you, what you wish to see in your advisor and how we can journey with you in a way that really adds value to your life. For MoneyOwl, our purpose is really getting advice right for the ordinary man in the street so that every family can have a plan for sufficiency in retirement, adequant protection against the things that can destroy this plan, from a holistic viewpoint, and enough buffers for peace of mind and give the stretch to that hard-earned dollar. For some customers, this would mean investing in a way that has little guesswork. For others, it could mean just sorting out or saving through CPF without having to buy any products or even invest with us. Yet for others who need it, just budgeting advice and saving into instruments like the Singapore Savings Bond. Perhaps our perspective is a little different because we are not just doing investing, but comprehensive advice.

How about a Robo that invests in value companies? The DFA funds EndowUs and MoneyOwl uses invests in these Dimensions that has proven to generate a higher expected return over a time. Value, small cap, profitable companies.

Hi Anonymous, this is Chuin Ting from MoneyOwl. The uniqueness of MoneyOwl's service is a reflection of who we are behind what you see -- in many senses, we are actually not an investment robo (even though we have a robo - 3 robos, in fact) and not a pure start-up (we aren't VC or entrepreneur funded). Rather, MoneyOwl is anchored in comprehensive and bionic advice that understands ordinary Singaporeans' needs -- made possible by the combination of expertise and mission that we have inherited from our two corporate parents. On being comprehensive, we already have our insurance and will writing services (which include insurance and roboadvisors ready) and right now we are working on a 4th comprehensive module that will encompass CPF LIFE as the bedrock of retirement planning, to be rolled out in the next few months. Currently CPF is often seen mainly as a source of funding for investments, but CPF LIFE is so much more than that. You need to see your investing plan as part of your overall financial plan, to see the trade-offs, layers and buffers in a way that integrates CPF, as well as protection and other aspects. Among our team are experts that have built CPF calculators, been on CPF Advisory Panel, and know CPF, both policy and operations. Our one parent, Providend, is one of the earliest comprehensive financial advisors in Singapore. Just as importantly, being bionic we have the human element -- not just customer service persons, but a substantial team of advisors who can do the whole gambit of financial planning with you, including but not limited to investments, to integrate everything together when your dollar is limited. And stretching the dollar for the ordinary Singaporean is what our majority parent, the NTUC social enterprises group, has been doing for decades. Looking forward to our session tomorrow!

Dear Anonymous Thank you for your question. I understand where you are coming from when you say that you would like to buy low and sell high. while it would be perfect to do that, the reality is that it is quite difficult to do so and evidence tell us that most people fail to beat the market. But what evidence also tell us is that regardless of when you enter the market, over the long term (at least 10 years), the stock markets always go up. It is with this in mind that at MoneyOwl, we do not attempt to time the market (please note that not all robos believe in the same philosophy). You can invest at anytime and at MoneyOwl, being a bionic financial adviser, we do our very best to help you ignore short term noises and stay invested for the long term. What we will also do is that we will do regular rebalancing so that your portfolio will always reflect the asset allocation that you are comfortable with. By rebalancing, it also helps you to lock in some profits. As an example, when the equities markets go up and bonds come down, your portfolio will have more equities than bonds - more than how your original portfolio should look like. What rebalancing will do is that it will sell equities (that have gone up in price) and buy some bonds (that have gone down in price). So in doing rebalancing, you are in effect doing some “buy low and sell”. I have written an article on the topic of marketing timing and you might want to read it here https://advice.moneyowl.com.sg/breaking-the-addiction-to-active-management/ MoneyOwl is also holding an investment symposium and you can sign up for it here https://www.eventbrite.sg/e/moneyowl-investment-symposium-registration-60702740531 Hope this helps!

Dear Anonymous I agree to what HC Tang has said. All the robos that are in Singapore today are in many ways, new. The first robo only really started 2 years ago. And in the past 2 years, except for the last quarter of 2018, the markets were generally good and it is not an indication of true performance and even future performance. What is important is to consider factors that will give you confidence in the firm that can deliver. In my humble opinion, these are the few factors you need to consider before deciding who you want to go with. Also, I can only share from MoneyOwl's perspective with regard to these factors and will leave other robos to share theirs. 1. Investment Philosophy Some of the robos are active mangers, in that they believe they can beat the markets by tweaking the portfolios tactically in line with economic changes. Some of the robos do not believe in active management. As an example, MoneyOwl do not believe that it can beat the market. The investment philosophy is one whereby you should stay invested for the long term without trying to guess when is the best time to get in and out of markets. 1. Underlying instruments Some of the robos use ETFs as their underlying instruments whereas 2 of us (Endowus and MoneyOwl) use DFA as our underlying funds. 1. Investment or Financial Advisory Almost all the robos are investment robos. But for MoneyOwl, although we are a fund manager in terms of our MAS license, at the core, we provide financial advisory. The investment service that we provide is just part of our comprehensive financial advisory service to help you reach your life goals. You will notice that we already have insurance, will writing and in a few months time, we will launch our comprehensive financial planning service via robo and human advisers to integrate all the various areas (insurance, investments, CPF, etc) together. So I think you probably have to ask whether you are looking for pure investment advice or comprehensive financial advice. 1. People behind the technology The problem behind tech firms is that the technology is opaque. You do not know what goes behind the algos. So at the end of the day, you have to trust the people behind the company. As you know MoneyOwl is a JV between 2 longstanding local companies - NTUC Enterprise and Providend. Providend in particular is one of the earliest financial advisory firms in Singapore since 2001. It is well known for its deep knowledge in financial advisory and reputation for championing conflict-free and ethical practice. 1. Sustainability and Secured Platform In this world where start ups come and go, and also with the pervasiveness of cyber attacks, it is important that you invest with a company that is stable and secure. In this regard as mentioned, MoneyOwl is a JV with NTUC Enterprise and Providend, both have been around for decades. We are not a pure startup per se. Also, MoneyOwl is ISO27001 certified which means that we are serious in ensuring that our platform is safe and secure. To find out more about MoneyOwl, please visit https://advice.moneyowl.com.sg/investment/ Hope this helps!