18 May 2015

A Fantastic Investment Deal at the Bank - Or Maybe Not

I received a call from a relative recently. She was at a bank. Apparently, she had a fixed deposit that had matured and she wanted to cash out. The Bank Officer had proposed that she invest the cash in a Unit Trust offering a return of 2% per month. She was pretty excited. I laughed.

Obviously it wasn't a Bank Officer. It was one of those Customer Relations Executive (CRE) pedaling investment products to the innocent individual.


At 2% a month, I told her to ask the CRE to put that down in writing and guarantee it. If it was so good, I also want. I laughed big time.

I then asked if the CRE had told her how much they charge for the sales charge. Apparently, the CRE had said that they were offering a *huge* discount, reducing from the usual 5% to *just* 3%. Come on, Fundsupermart and POEMS charge a lot less.

The relative of mine had an interesting reaction to all these. She said, "I knew it, it's a con job! Never mind, I'm keeping the money in my savings account."

Oh dear. Sigh.

4 comments:

Singapore Man of Leisure said...

Lizardo,

That CRE must count his/her lucky stars that your relative did not pursue the matter further. The CRE could get fired.

A few months back a CRE was sent to jail for "lying" to clients their unit trust investments won't "lose money".

Like that also can?

Lizardo said...

SMoL,

That would be a crushing end to a career. 8)

la papillion said...

Hi lizardo,

I'm just curious why your relative calls you to ask for a second opinion? Haha :) this that a system that u set up? It's always good to step out of the heat of the moment and review again.

Lizardo said...

la papillion,

Hah.

It wasn't some grand scheme of mine. It so happens. I think the relative concerned already had some self doubts, and just wanted a second opinion.

It's certainly an interesting notion.