MoneyOwl has shifted away from direct sales and will instead focus on providing online financial advice and recommending insurance and investment products by third parties.
The latter refers to four passive Amundi index funds offered via Phillip Securities’ Poems platform. Users can start with a $1 investment with cash, or funds from their Central Provident Fund (CPF) Ordinary Account or Supplementary Retirement Scheme.
The four funds, which track the performance of global equities, US equities, emerging market equities and global bonds, are available to the public via a Poems account. No MoneyOwl account is required.
Phillip Securities charges no advisory or platform fees, only fund-level expenses from 0.05% per annum. The Edge Singapore understands there is currently no deadline for this offering.
The move undercuts wealth management platform operator Endowus, which has been offering the Amundi funds since mid-2022. Until MoneyOwl’s deal with Phillip Securities, Endowus had offered the lowest fees for the four funds, which carry fund-level fees of between 0.05% and 0.2%, according to Endowus’ website. Endowus levies a 0.3% fee for users who invest in a single fund with cash, CPF or SRS. Fees differ for users who create multi-fund portfolios.
Samuel Rhee, co-founder, chairman and group CIO of Endowus, says his firm worked exclusively with Amundi to bring their low-cost index funds to Singapore and then to the CPF Investment Scheme (CPF-IS).
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“We feel pride in introducing best practices in the industry, such as being the first and only digital advisor for CPF-IS and introducing 100% cashback of trailer fees,” says Rhee to The Edge Singapore. “We are excited and encouraged to see the wider ecosystem adopting these solutions, including social enterprises like MoneyOwl, who can leverage the work of Endowus and collaborate together.”
Endowus and MoneyOwl both started out as robo-advisers, and this is not the first time the two firms have jostled for market share. When MoneyOwl announced in August 2023 its plans to wind down, Endowus released a blog post titled “Dear MoneyOwl clients, Endowus is here for you”, which contained instructions on how users can move their investments to the Endowus platform.
MoneyOwl would later transfer its investment and insurance services to Mainboard-listed iFast, and in November 2023, Temasek Trust announced plans to acquire MoneyOwl for an undisclosed sum.
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Interestingly, iFast CEO Lim Chung Chun tells The Edge Singapore he was unaware of the deal between MoneyOwl and Phillip Securities. MoneyOwl still hosts a banner on its insurance page, where users who prefer not to purchase insurance directly from online providers can contact iFast representatives to arrange for a meeting with an insurance adviser.
On Jan 31, MoneyOwl CEO and CIO Chuin Ting Weber explained on LinkedIn how she got Phillip Securities to agree to the fee-free deal.
“Sometimes, you have to ask,” wrote Weber, who has led MoneyOwl since its inception in 2018. “Lisa Lee, Phillip’s [executive director] and I were on the Financial Planning Association of Singapore (FPAS) Exco together as volunteers (she still is)... A big thank you to Lisa and also her team.”
Insurance plans and rating system
At a Feb 12 media briefing, Weber unveiled a suite of financial advisory resources to meet what she calls “an urgent need for trusted financial advice” here.
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MoneyOwl, now owned by the philanthropic arm of Temasek Holdings, is prioritising young people, “lower-middle to middle-income working adults”, and shift and gig workers. “These groups stand to benefit the most from fit-for-purpose financial solutions but are traditionally overlooked by commercial entities,” says the firm.
Weber says the “dominant model” of financial advice in Singapore is still commission-based. “Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that commission-based advice is no good, but the nature of the compensation can create doubt.”
MoneyOwl’s recommendations on its online platform are aimed at leveraging cost-effective government schemes and affordable commercial products. This includes encouraging Singaporeans to use their CPF as a base for retirement planning and recommending “DIY“ products, which do not involve advisers.
“The CPF is a great system, as we know, but there is probably room for people to do more in terms of saving towards retirement,” says Weber.
MoneyOwl offers two insurance recommendations for each of six age groups — an “affordable” option and a “comprehensive” option. These products do not require an adviser, such as the “portable” Ministry of Defence (Mindef) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Group Term Life plans available to all national servicemen and employees.
Weber, who started her career in Mindef in 1997, says she is still a policyholder. She estimates that the current penetration rate of this scheme among Singaporeans is “significant”.
MoneyOwl’s other insurance-related service is its “first-of-its-kind” OwlStar rating system. Insurance products in six categories, ranging from critical illness plans to retirement plans, are evaluated on whether they are fit for purpose and value for money.
OwlStar then assigns them a score out of five, and users can find out more about MoneyOwl’s “insurance philosophy” on its website.
Healthcare workers in focus
Aside, MoneyOwl’s website also offers a series of checklists of financial actions for users at different life stages (OwlChecklists) along with money management rubrics (OwlRubrics), which offers financial management tips.
Now under Temasek Trust and without direct selling operations, MoneyOwl has shifted to a social mission of financial education. Weber says the firm’s success is measured by its impact on people. “Of course, the quality of impact comes in terms of changing things in the system; are we able to prototype and catalyse things? I think this is very much how we do things, and also how [people] trust us as well.”
While MoneyOwl has “internal” targets on user numbers, Weber declined to reveal these figures.
Aside, MoneyOwl has also partnered the National University Hospital (NUH) to equip healthcare workers and members of the public with essential financial planning skills.
Weber explains: “I think healthcare workers are one of those groups who do a lot for us and for Singapore, but they don’t have the time, and perhaps may not be able to access resources for their own financial well-being.”
MoneyOwl has worked with NUH to organise Healthier SG talks, she adds. To date, MoneyOwl has partnered over 70 employers, unions and grassroots, including SingHealth, SMRT Corp, Public Utilities Board, NTUC social enterprises and various statutory boards.
Photos: Screengrabs/MoneyOwl
