EPF Launches i-Invest Online Platform

19 August 2019: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) today announces that eligible members can now make an informed investment of unit trust funds offered by EPF-approved Fund Management Institutions (FMIs) through the self-service i-Invest online platform within the i-Akaun (Member) portal.

For members below 55 years old, the investment can be funded directly from the eligible portion of members’ savings under Account 1 with a sales charge ranging from zero to 0.5% of the transaction amount.

Enabling Unit Trust Investment Directly From EPF Account...

i-Invest provides greater flexibility, functionality, and convenience for members to invest, transact and monitor their unit trusts investment anytime and anywhere. It also enables members to compare different unit trust funds offered by the FMIs, monitor their investment funds through their i-Akaun, and look up information on cost of investment, historical performance, as well as required statutory information.

Tunku Alizakri said a key element of the online investment facility was that sales charges were now practically free, as the EPF has enforced a maximum cap of 0.5% compared to the current 3% for offline and traditional transactions through agents.

As a start, there are five pilot platforms namely:

1. Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd,
2. Eastspring Investments Bhd,
3. Manulife Investment Management (M) Bhd,
4. Principal Asset Management Bhd, and
5. Public Mutual Bhd.

Meantime, for those FMIs without their own platforms will be offering their investment products on EPF i-Invest via two appointed Institutional UTS Advisers (IUTAs), which are iFAST Capital Sdn Bhd and Phillip Mutual Bhd.

He advised members interested in utilizing i-Invest to continue to exercise caution when making any investment decision and encouraged them to arm themselves with the right information or seek professional advice before committing to any transactions.

Members may transfer from their EPF Account 1 up to 30% of the amount in excess of Basic Savings, to be invested in the qualified funds. Members can also open an account to invest in unit trust funds with any FMI through this new facility.

How about members aged 55 and above?

This kind of members can utilize i-Invest using Akaun 55 or Akaun Emas through i-Akaun as a mode of withdrawal, subject to maintaining a minimum of RM1,000 in their account.

For the period of 2019/2020, a total of 389 funds from various categories, namely equity, mixed assets, bond, money market, and property trusts, were approved under the EPF Members Investment Scheme. Read our blog post: NEW 2019/2020 List of EPF Approved Funds

(Source: EPF)

We will engage with a professional consultant to write on this matter specifically.

Stay tuned!

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Update on June 23, 2020:

In a statement today, the EPF said the platforms are from Affin Hwang Asset Management Bhd, Kenanga Investors Bhd, RHB Asset Management Sdn Bhd (which shares its platform with RHB Islamic International Asset Management Bhd), Hong Leong Asset Management Bhd and TA Investment Management Bhd.

“There is now a total of 10 FMI platforms directly connected to i-Invest.” — EPF

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Related Blog Posts which could be of your interest:

What is EPF i-Akaun?https://financemalaysia.blogspot.com/2010/05/epf-i-akaun-series-1.html

[EPF-MIS] Revised Basic Savings Table effective Jan 2019https://financemalaysia.blogspot.com/2018/11/epf-mis-revised-basic-savings-table.html

What is EPF i-Saraan? With 15% Incentive?https://financemalaysia.blogspot.com/2019/02/what-is-epf-i-saraan-with-15-incentive.html