Investment Options/Fund providers

Closed Thread
  1. #1

    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    62

    Investment Options/Fund providers

    I'm looking to set up a low-maintenance, low-fee regular investment plan in a simple portfolio. If I were in the US, investing in Vanguard funds would seem to be a no-brainer, however Vanguard in Hong Kong only seems to offer a single Asian ETF.
    Because I work at a financial institution, I need to obtain pre-clearance each time I buy/sell stocks & ETFs, which makes the process cumbersome. Although I hate the fees, investing in an actively managed portfolio (no pre-clearance necessary) seems to be the easiest approach for someone in my situation. I have found that Fidelity seems to at least waive the sales fee if you invest >HK$20k monthly. Are there any other providers with deals worth looking into, or alternative solutions? I see that Schwab supposedly offers a range of no-load offshore mutual funds, but is there a catch of some sort? Don't see why anyone would buy funds through their banks/insurers if it's possible to purchase them without fees.

    Also interested to hear how people are approaching asset allocation at this juncture in the market, especially with a lump sum to invest.

    Last edited by bascom; 01-04-2014 at 11:44 PM.

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    HK Island
    Posts
    194

    You can still buy Vanguard ETFs in the US if your broker can trade in the US. Best to avoid actively traded funds due to fees.
    It would be great if Vanguard would offer more funds here (at least the standard ones).
    Have you looked at other ETF providers?


  3. #3

    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Posts
    829

    Don't forget to check the total management and admin fees on mutual funds, as well as the load. If you're used to Vanguard active funds, you will be in for sticker shock.

    I'm using DB itraax ETFs listed on the local stock exchange. Would much rather have Vanguard or non-synthetic ETFs, but I also don't want to deal with trading in the US.

    And of course there's the HK Tracker Fund, if you want exposure to HK stocks.

    I have to get pre-clearance too, but getting that for ETFs seems much less painful than for individual stocks, so I just set a reminder in my schedule to buy on a set day each month.

    If you do find decent mutual funds with no load and low management fees, do let this forum know. The HK retail market really needs products like that! Keep wishing Vanguard would enter the retail market here.

    Last edited by z754103; 22-04-2014 at 02:32 PM.