First established in the late
1980s, GYC is a pioneer in Comprehensive Financial
Planning. As GYC expanded its range of services in
the mid-90s, it played a vital role in shaping the
financial services industry through training
programmes, public speaking engagements and
published articles. During this period, GYC
quickly gained recognition amongst industry
practitioners, financial institutions, industry
associations as well as established banks.
When the Financial Advisers Act (FAA) was
implemented in 2003, GYC made a bold decision to
transform itself into a totally independent entity
to better serve its customers. In that same year,
GYC was granted the Financial Advisers License by
the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Since
then, GYC has grown steadily both in terms of
services and clientele size.
GYC now leads the financial advisory business in
Singapore in terms of its services and track
record. This accolade shows GYCs
expertise in the financial advisory field and
demonstrates GYCs long-term commitment
to its clients in this business.
As proof of its sterling track record, GYC has
achieved
consistently higher than average returns for
clients for the last three years. It is the only
Singapore-based financial advisory that documents
every clients investment portfolio and publishes
online the average returns across all its clients
portfolios.
Focused on giving high quality financial advice
and delivering results for clients, GYC is
constantly pushing the envelope to redefine
financial services delivery, with the goal of
bringing ever greater value to its clients. Beyond
the basic suite of financial advisory services,
GYC is committed to developing new investment
opportunities in response to clients needs.
GYC is licensed under the Financial Advisers Act
by the MAS, and is also an exempt Insurance Broker
under the Insurance Act, an exempt Fund Manager
and exempt Corporate Finance Adviser under the
Securities &
Futures Act.
Ranked top independent financial adviser
under SME 500 in 2007 and 2008 (by net profit).
Organised by DP Information Group (DP Info) and
supported by Ernst & Young, SPRING Singapore, IE
Singapore, and The Business Times.
If you were to examine closely,
retail investors have more often than not gotten
the raw end of the deal. Traditionally, retail
investors are made to pay higher upfront fees or
sales charge of up to 5.5% when getting into
retail unit trusts. On the other hand, the high
net worth pay very little fees due to their larger
investment amounts. Banks generally find it more
efficient to service a single high net worth
client with say, $10 million of investible funds
versus having to service an equivalent 100 clients
with $100,000 investments each or 1,000 clients
with $50,000 each. Effectively the retail clients
were subsidising the rich and the perks they
enjoyed from the banks. The banks could also give
better service to the high net worth client
whereas it is difficult and not cost effective to
have to service retail customers. Financial
Advisers have tried to step in to fill in the gap
and targeted the priority banking market segment.
However they faced the same problem and dilemma as
the banks. Financial Advisers typically earn about
1-2% of funds invested. So being entrepreneurs and
if they desired to earn say $10,000 per mth, they
could either find a client with $1 million to
invest every month or try and find 10 clients with
$100,000 each. The maths is simple. The current
system makes it economically unattractive to
service clients with lesser investible funds. As a
result, the financial industry servicing the
retail investors suffer considerable temptation to
embrace business practices that are good for them
but harmful to investors. As a result, investors
may suffer lower returns, incurring higher risks,
and pay more in fees than they should. We find all
this very disturbing, and we believe that you
deserve better. Hence Everest was conceived.
Portfolio management used to be
only accessible to the very high net worth and
through private banks. Since 2004, GYC has managed
to simplify and de-mystify portfolio management
and made it available to the man-in-the-street
from as low as $100,000 in investible funds.
Everest is an extension of this philosophy, now
systematised and re-packaged to reduce the cost
structure and made available to investors from as
low as $50,000. Your Everest portfolio is managed
by GYCs team and its investment consultants, not
just some adviser pretending to be an investment
analyst.
Unlike stockbrokers who pitch "hot stocks" and the
latest fads in the hopes of "getting rich quick",
EVEREST is based on Modern Portfolio and the
Efficient Frontier theory, backed by research and
proven investment strategies. Each EVEREST
portfolio encompasses different asset classes and
geographical sectors, carefully balanced to help
you reduce the risk of loss should any given
segment of the financial markets perform poorly
while providing you with the opportunity to enjoy the
profits offered by the overall investment world.
Note: Diversification is used to control degree of
risk and does not ensure positive portfolio
returns.
Investment success is achieved by
building a highly diversified portfolio, owning
that portfolio for many years, and managing it
through strategic rebalancing. That's why your
EVEREST portfolio will feature different asset
classes and geographical sectors, using
market-based (not manager-based) investments.
Finally, to manage the risk that varying market
performance might accidentally alter your
portfolio, we periodically review and rebalance
each account. This helps maintain your portfolio's
continuity while managing risk.
We apply this approach because investing is not
merely about trying to generate returns; we
believe that controlling risk is just as
important.
For example, say you want to drive to Kuala Lumpur
that's about 360 km away. Under normal
circumstances, it might take 4 to 5 hours to get
there. But if you hired a driver who got you there
in 2 hours, would you congratulate him on his
great performance or scold him for the risks he
forced you to take on the highway eg. by breaking
the speed limits to get there faster? The
probability of an accident would have risen
sharply due to the higher speeds on the road.
Similarly with investing, we believe that proper
and continual risk assessment would help shield
your portfolio from the many market shocks that
are part and parcel of the global investment
world.
Each client's EVEREST account
will consist of different asset and sub-asset
classes and geographical sectors, which may
include :
Large Cap Global Equities Mid to Small Cap Global Equities Emerging Market equities Regional or Single Country Equities
(eg. Asia Pacific, India, China, etc) Global Property Equities & REITs Global Bonds Emerging Market Bonds Singapore Bonds Money Markets Cash Sector Play (eg. commodities)
Our Everest portfolio will feature best-in-class
unit trusts/mutual funds authorised by MAS for
retail investors.
After evaluating your situation,
we will recommend a specific EVEREST portfolio for
you. With your approval, we will open your
accounts for you, transfer assets in and establish
your investments.
The investments themselves are a basket of
unaffiliated best-in-class unit trusts (or mutual
funds), managed by some of the largest and most
respected names in the investment world. We
continually evaluate the universe of fund managers
to ensure that our clients are enjoying some of
the best investment opportunities available.
We will make sure that your
EVEREST portfolio is appropriate for your
situation and risk tolerance. Upon discussion with
one of our advisers and after undertaking a risk
profile analysis, you'll receive a comprehensive
asset allocation model plus specific investment
recommendations in a portfolio that suits your
particular risk profile.
Rebalancing helps ensure that
your portfolio will maintain its original design.
This can significantly control your investment
risks.
Your portfolio will be selected after an
assessment of your financial situation and risk
profile and will comprise different asset classes
and geographical sectors. Over time, some of these
investment categories will perform differently
than others. If left unchecked, this would cause
your portfolio's composition to drift (perhaps
dramatically) from the target allocation we've
designed for you. This makes your portfolio
unsuited to your risk profile. To prevent this
from happening, we will periodically monitor your
portfolio, and if we determine that your account
is out of balance, we will recommend rebalancing
your investments to restore your portfolio back to
its target allocation.
Note: Rebalancing is used to manage your risk
tolerance and investment objectives and does not
ensure positive portfolio returns.
Although portfolio rebalancing is
an essential part of professional asset
management, most consumers never rebalance their
investments. Research has shown that maintaining
an optimum asset allocation is critical to your
portfolios success.
That's why we examine your portfolio periodically
to determine if it is out of whack with your
original allocations. Typically, we expect to
rebalance your portfolio only once or twice per
year, but we may do it more frequently if
necessary in response to significant market events
or trends.
Under current MAS regulations, if
you are not an Accredited Investor (defined as an
individual with a personal net worth of >$2
million or with an annual income of $300,000), we
will need you to give permission (by signing on
our rebalancing form) before we rebalance your
portfolio. The rebalancing form with a short
report will be sent to your registered mailing
address. You will need to sign and return the form
within the stated time period for us to execute
the switches.
If you are an Accredited Investor, you have the
option to give us a limited power of attorney to
execute the rebalancing on your behalf. We think
that your life is already busy enough as it is,
and due to the speed of today's financial markets,
it would not be in your best interests to have
important rebalancing and other changes delayed.
That's why our clients give us permission to make
such changes to their accounts on their behalf,
without having to contact them beforehand. This
advance permission is very limited, and allows us
to only conduct periodic rebalancing or perform
tactical switches.
Yes. Whenever any change occurs
in your account, you will receive a notification
by mail. These confirmations will give you
complete details of each trade in your account.
ZERO upfront. EVEREST clients pay
no commissions, transactions costs, brokerage fees
or other up-front sales charge or administrative
charges. Instead, EVEREST clients will have to pay
a monthly fee (we call it an Portfolio
Administration Fee) of 0.125%, calculated and
debited monthly from your EVEREST account in
arrears, based on the average values of your
account over the month (adjusted for any money you
deposit or withdraw during the month).
Unlike buying investment products from either
banks or other financial advisers where you need
to pay an upfront fee or sales charge regardless
of the subsequent performance of your investment,
we believe in a win-win situation where fees are
concerned. In your Everest Account, we will only
be paid when your investment has an absolute
positive return. So for example, if your Everest
account does well, we will collect a performance
fee of 20% of the gains. Generally, we will only
take performance fees provided:
a. Your portfolio returns a minimum of 2% over a
12 month period (what we call a hurdle rate) and
b. Your portfolio needs to do better than the last
highest value reached (high watermark)
Both the Portfolio Administration Fee and the
Performance Fee will be automatically paid by
deduction of your unit holdings. There is no need
for you to pay any cash separately. Any amount
deducted from your account will be reflected in
your quarterly statements.
If you redeem your assets either partially or
fully out of your EVEREST account during the 1st 2
years, a realisation fee of 3% of the amount
withdrawn in the 1st 12 months and 2% for the next
12 months will be deducted from your account. We
will also deduct any accrued Portfolio
Administration Fees and Performance Fees, if any,
from the amount withdrawn.
We'll tell you the exact cost
before you establish your EVEREST accounts. You
will also receive a prospectus for each fund,
containing important information like fund manager
expenses and other charges.
EVEREST's monthly fee would cover all our
investment management and account-related services
as well as execution of all trades, plus
securities custody and investor registry services.
In addition you will receive a quarterly statement
of your Everest holdings.
However should you require any other additional
services, you will be charged for the cost of
these services eg.
For any request for telegraphic
transfers, the prevailing bank charges plus an
administration charge of $20 will be chargeable.
We will recover an administration
cost of $30 for any cheque which is dishonoured by
the banks (bounced cheques).
Additional requests for hardcopy
statements (apart from the quarterly statements
sent) will be chargeable at $20 per statement.
A schedule of the prevailing charges for
additional services is found in our standard terms
and conditions and will be given to you upon
opening your Everest account.
Due to policy differences with the various
distributors and banks, we will not be able to
process any requests for transfer of your current
unit trust holdings into your Everest account. In
which case you will have to decide whether or not
to liquidate your unit trust holdings and use the
redemption amount to set up an Everest account at
zero upfront fee.
You will be given up to 7
calendar days where should you change your mind
about your investment, you can cancel the
transaction. However you may not receive 100% back
of your investment amount if the funds have
already been invested and there are market losses.
Conversely, should there be market gains you will
only receive up to 100% of your investment amount,
not more. As we have not collected any upfront
charges of any kind, we will have to levy a
cancellation charge of S$500.00 should you decide
to cancel your transaction within the 7 days. This
is to defray our costs payable to the custodian
and investor registrar in setting up your account
as well as transaction charges incurred.
Yes, you can add money or top-ups
to your account at any time via cheque from an
established bank. Minimum top-ups will be $20,000
and in multiples of $5,000 thereafter.
You can withdraw money at any
time. The minimum redemption amount is $20,000.
However you need to maintain at least $50,000 in
your Everest account. A cheque will be sent
directly to you from the redemption proceeds.
If you redeem your assets either partially or
fully out of your EVEREST account and if it
happens during the 1st
2 years, a relisation fee will be imposed.
The realisation fee is 3% of the amount withdrawn
during the 1st 12 months and 2% of the amount
withdrawn during the next 12 months. No fees will
be levied for request made after 24 months.
No. All dividends received from
holdings in your Everest Account will be
re-invested. This is consistent with the principle
of compounding so as to achieve greater returns in
your portfolio.
You can be confident that we are
fully committed to safeguarding your personal
privacy. We hold all the information you give us
in the strictest confidence.
Where your money is concerned, we have engaged DBS
Bank as the custodian for your assets (which means
that we cannot touch your money at all). All
investment sums are not paid to us. They are paid
to the custodian directly who will then purchase
the financial assets from the respective fund
managers.
We have also engaged Tricor Singapore Pte Ltd
(part of the Price Waterhouse group of companies)
as the investor registrar for your investment
holdings.
Having both an external and independent custodian
and investor registrar means that even if GYC
cease to exist as a company for some reason or
other, your assets will still be safe.
And, as a Financial Adviser (licensed under the
Financial Advisers Act and regulated by the
Monetary Authority of Singapore), we are legally
obligated to work in your best interests at all
times.
No, the component funds within
Everest is not registered under the United States
Securities Act or under the securities laws of any
state of the United States of America (US).
