FSMOne’s ETF RSP and Kristal.AI Review – Which is better?

FSMOne introduced regular savings plan for ETFs on 13th November 2019.  FSMOne’s investors are able to buy into 40 ETFs listed on SGX, HKEX and US stock exchanges at a low investment amount of S$50* monthly. Commission rates are at only 0.08%, subject to the minimum amount for the various exchanges at S$1, HK$5 or US$1 respectively.

What is Regular Savings Plan and Dollar Cost Averaging

Regular Savings Plan allows investors to buy into ETFs (usually) or stocks on a regular basis with just a small sum of money. Dollar Cost Averaging comes to mind when an investor invests using a Regular Savings Plan. An investor will be able to buy more units when prices are low and less units when prices are high. This results in the cost price to fluctuate. With Dollar Cost Averaging, the average cost price will definitely be lower in a bear market than if one were to buy lump sum without averaging down during the same period.

This screenshot shows how dollar cost averaging performs in a bull market. The average unit cost of this ETF increases as the unit price of ETF increases over the months. One might argue that one will be better off investing lump sum during a bull market. However, no one will be able to predict accurately how the market will move in the future. With Regular Savings Plan, it prevents investors from timing the market since no one knows exactly the peak and trough of markets. Best of all, funds will not be lying around in the bank earning interest that might not be able to beat inflation.

FSMOne’s ETF RSP

Investors will be able to select from a list of 40 ETFs (as shown below) that are listed on SGX, HKEX and US stock exchanges. The minimum investment amount to invest in is S$50 except for SPDR Gold Shares ETF which requires a minimum investment amount of S$250. Commission rates are at only 0.08%, subject to the minimum amount for the various exchanges at S$1, HK$5 or US$1 respectively. In addition, investors will be able to own fractional shares of ETFs listed on HKEX and US stock exchanges and up to 1 share of ETFs listed on SGX. ensuring that all of the investment amount for the month is fully utilised. 

Investors have to ensure that monies available for RSP is in FSM’s Multi-Currency Cash Accounts before 8th of every month (or next working day if the 8th is a non-business day). Investors are recommended to apply for Cash Account Top Up Plan for hassle-free RSP deduction thus preventing RSP from getting terminated after 3 consecutive failed deductions due to insufficient monies. 

Sell orders will be executed on the 15th of every month (or next working day if the 15th is a non-business day). Investors are required to submit their sell order instructions before 15th of every month. Investors are allowed to sell their units (by lots based on the stock exchanges) together with their fractional units. 

Kristal.AI

Kristal.AI like any other robo-advisors will first prompt you to fill up a questionnaire upon signing up for an account with them. The questions include whether you are an accredited investor, age, number of dependents, any experience in investments, current liquid net worth, current annual net income among others. 

Kristal.AI would also ask how long would one plan to hold the investments in Kristal and which portfolio will one be comfortable in investing in Kristal. Lastly, as shown above, Kristal.AI would also ask which asset classes have one invested in in the past. Sophistication level will then be decided based on the responses of the questions above. For retail investors, the highest sophistication level will be 5/10. 

With the sophistication level, Kristal.AI will then recommend a list of ETFs or portfolio of ETFs. Unlike other robo-advisors where investors have no freedom to choose which ETFs or the percentage of each ETFs to invest in, Kristal.AI allows investors to select from the list of ETFs. 

Fees

What attracted me to Kristal.AI is their attractive pricing. There will not be any charges for AUM up to USD $10k. There will be a 0.3% p.a charge on incremental account value above USD $10k.

As for FSMone’s Regular Savings Plan, the cost of buying will be 0.08% or min SGD 1, HKD 5, USD 1, whichever is higher. However, the selling fee will be 0.08%, minimum SGD10, HKD50, USD8.80 whichever is higher. There are no extra charges except for USD 50 Voluntary Corporate Action (Such as Rights Issue, General Offer, Spin-off). 

Closing Thoughts

Both Kristal.AI and FSMOne’s ETF RSP are similar in the sense that investors have the freedom to select which ETFs they are interested to invest in.

The differing factor between these two will be the fees in my opinion. Kristal.AI charges investors based on AUM while FSMOne is charging based on trades commission.

In the long run, Kristal.AI will be more expensive as one has to pay more in fees when their portfolio gets bigger while for FSMOne, investors are charged by the order amount and not AUM.

With FSMOne introducing its ETF RSP, it will be better to invest with FSMOne.