facebookBest Digital Wealth Management Services: SaxoWealthCare vs Endowus vs MoneyOwl

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Best Digital Wealth Management Services_ SaxoWealthCare vs Endowus vs MoneyOwl

Best Digital Wealth Management Services: SaxoWealthCare vs Endowus vs MoneyOwl

profileJustin Oh

31 August 2023 Update

As reported by the Straits Times, MoneyOwl is closing down:

MoneyOwl is closing shop following a review with its shareholder NTUC Enterprise Cooperative.

Clients will not be affected as an agreement has been reached with iFast Financial to take over MoneyOwl’s investment and insurance business. iFast has already been providing system support and custodial services. Users will enjoy the same level of fees as well as access to iFast’s team of more than 60 advisers for both investments and insurance.

Investment clients may transact on MoneyOwl’s portal until 24 Oct, and can do so on iFast’s portal from 25 Oct. iFast will contact MoneyOwl customers from September.


I remember first looking at the word ‘investing’ and being completely turned off by it.

The notion of investing meant complex charts, reading endless reports and trying to understand all the investment jargon that I simply had no time or appetite for.

Source: Giphy

Then again, with our money losing its value to inflation, coupled with rising costs of living, investing is ever more crucial to grow our money.

Luckily, we are living in extraordinary times with revolutionary technology that brought innovation to the masses.

These days, we have a slew of robo-advisors that allow you to pick investment portfolios without going through the pain of DIY investing.

And more recently, digital wealth management services have entered the scene, offering innovative investment solutions with the added human touch at low-costs.

So, if you’re a time-starved adult, here are the best digital wealth management services to help you on your investment journey.


TL;DR: Best Digital Wealth Management Services

Digital Wealth Management ServiceMoneyOwlEndowusSaxoWealthCare
Minimum Investment AmountS$100 (Dimensional)

S$1,000 (WiseIncome)
S$1,000S$25,000
Advisory/Management Fees (p.a.)0.6% (Up to S$100k)
0.5% (Above S$100k)
0.25% - 0.60%0.45% - 0.75%
Investment PortfoliosDimensional, WiseIncome, CPF PortfolioCore, Satellite, Income, FundSmart (Custom Portfolios)Completely unique and personalised portfolios
Minimum Age182118
Cash, SRS, CPF SupportCash, SRS, CPFCash, SRS, CPFCash

Best for personalised investing with innovative features: SaxoWealthCare

Best for investing CPF, SRS and thematic investing: Endowus

Best for low initial investment amounts: MoneyOwl

Disclaimer: This non-sponsored article is updated as of 27 April 2022. Do note that the information provided by Seedly serves as an educational piece and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment product(s). It does not take into account the specific investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of any person. ​Readers should always do their own due diligence and consider their financial goals before investing in any investment product(s). The writer does not own any investments in the services mentioned.


What Are Digital Wealth Management Services?

Unlike robo advisors, digital wealth management services incorporate both humans and technology to curate an investment portfolio personalised for you.

Aside from the use of various automations, algorithms and/or engines to rebalance portfolios, digital wealth management services also incorporate fund managers and/or client advisors to support your investments.

As such, there’s the human element to it when you invest with these services and the opportunity to learn more about your investments directly from the people in these companies.

Depending on the digital wealth management service, you may have access to the three common investment methods: DIY, active funds and passive funds.

Generally, these services focus more on active and passive funds such as unit trusts and ETFs so time-starved investors like us can focus on the things that matter.

Comparison Criteria

Before we dive into the nitty gritty, this comparison will highlight the portfolios offered, the tools and support available, as well as any unique selling points that each service has.

The digital wealth management services listed below are all licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).


MoneyOwl

Update: MoneyOwl announced on 31 August 2023 that it will be closing down. Current investors with MoneyOwl do not need to worry as their funds will be taken over by iFast Financial, the company that has already been providing system support and custodial services to MoneyOwl. Users will enjoy the same fees and no immediate action is required. Current users may use the MoneyOwl portal/app till 24 October 2023 before transitioning to iFast’s platforms.

As a social enterprise and a joint venture between NTUC Enterprise Co-operative Limited and Providend Holding Private Limited, MoneyOwl is both a financial adviser and fund management company.

In this comparison, we will only be looking at it’s digital wealth management service, focusing on its investment portfolios, Dimensional, WiseIncome, and CPF.

MoneyOwl Dimensional

As its name implies, it gives retail investors access to Dimensional Fund Advisors’ (DFA) funds, which are touted as one of the best funds out there backed by research.

MoneyOwl provides five different asset allocations for its Dimensional portfolio, depending on your risk appetite:

  • Conservative: 20 (equities)/80 (fixed income)
  • Moderate: 40/60
  • Balanced: 60/40
  • Growth: 80/20
  • Equity: 100/0

MoneyOwl WiseIncome

For those who prefer an income focused portfolio, MoneyOwl offers WiseIncome, a flexible income solution with three types to choose from:

  • Grow & Invest: Reinvest payouts
  • Balance Growth and Income: Receive payouts and realise capital gains
  • Income Focused: Maximise payout

You may also choose to invest with your Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) with WiseIncome.

MoneyOwl CPF Portfolio

Lastly, we have the MoneyOwl CPF Portfolio that let’s you invest your CPF Ordinary Account (OA) savings into three portfolios:

  • CPF Balanced: 60 (equities)/40 (bonds)
  • CPF Growth: 80/20
  • CPF Equity: 100/0

MoneyOwl Portfolios

As seen above, the portfolios offered do give you some options depending on your risk appetite. However, for the more savvy investment crowd, there isn’t an option to cherry pick underlying funds.

MoneyOwl Tools and Support

Every MoneyOwl user will have a dedicated client adviser to advise you accordingly based on your life goals and aspirations.

These advisers are non-commissioned based.

Thus, there is no conflict of interest and their focus is simply to help you grow your investments with your best interests at heart.

When it comes to the investment portfolios, MoneyOwl uses technology to rebalance their portfolio allocations, much like robo-advisors.

Operation License:
MONEYOWL PRIVATE LIMITED – MAS Capital Markets Services licensee (fund management) and Exempt Financial Advisor advising on investment products and issuing or promulgating on investment products like Collective Investment Schemes, Securities, etc.

Management Fees / Platform Fees/ Advisor Fees:
0.6%
 (first S$100k) and 0.5% p.a. for ($100k and above) AUM.

Minimum Investment Amount:
Starting from S$50/month OR S$100 one-off

Cash, CPF or SRS Investment Support:
Cash, CPF and SRS

Methodology:
Evidence-based strategy to investing which is based on leading academic research. Diversifies globally to capture market-based returns.

Safety and Protection:
All client monies/assets managed by MoneyOwl are held in separate accounts in the respective client’s name and are not mixed up with the companies’ assets. All clients’ monies/assets are custodised in a trust account in your own name with iFAST.

Endowus

Endowus is a digital wealth advisor that brings together decades of experience at leading global financial institutions and technology companies.

As of today, it offers some of the most customisable portfolios and number of portfolios in the digital wealth management and robo-advisory scene.

Endowus Core

Under Endowus Core, there are three main types:

  • Flagship: Broad market exposure through low-cost funds
  • ESG: Designed to track market benchmarks while supporting sustainable business practices
  • Factor: Globally diversified solutions made up of Dimensional funds

Each theme has six different portfolio allocations depending on your risk tolerance:

  • Very conservative: 0 (equities)/100 (fixed income)
  • Conservative: 20/80
  • Measured: 40/60
  • Balanced: 60/40
  • Aggressive: 80/20
  • Very Aggressive: 100/0

With the Environmetal, Social and Governance (ESG) and Factor portfolios, you may use your Cash and SRS to fund the account.

With the Flagship portfolio, you may also use your CPF to invest, making it more flexible than MoneyOwl’s CPF investing.

Endowus Income

Looking for a more income-focused portfolio? Endowus has it too with Endowus Income that comes with three portfolios:

  • Stable Income: 100% fixed income
  • Higher Income: 20% equities/80% fixed income
  • Future Income: 40% equities/60% fixed income

Endowus Satellite

With Endowus Satellite, you can choose to invest in the following themes:

  • Global Real Estate
  • Technology
  • China Equities
  • China Fixed Income
  • Megatrends
  • Low Volatility Fixed Income

Endowus FundSmart

Lastly, FundSmart lets you pick your own funds with the Endowus platform at a lower-cost.

Endowus Portfolios

Endowus offers slightly more variation in portfolio allocation than MoneyOwl.

Where it truly shines is the sheer number of portfolios that you can pick from, and the ability to customise your own portfolio by picking your own funds if you’re a more savvy investor.

Endowus Tools and Support

Like robo-advisors, Endowus also rebalances its portfolios using technology and lets you turn off the auto-rebalancing feature (save for Factor portfolios) if you want to.

Aside from its website, users can access a well-made mobile app, complete with graphs and projected returns for you to visualise your investment journey.

Source: Endowus

Moreover, Endowus will advise you based on your circumstances on the best times to optimise your portfolio’s exposure.

Endowus Trailer Fees Rebate 

Apart from management, platform, and/or advisory fees, there are fund-level fees involved. Endowus is unique in that they rebate 100% of any trailer fees from asset managers back to you.

As a result, you get to keep more of the returns and get better returns in the long term.

Operation License:
ENDOW.US PTE. LTD – MAS Licensed Financial Advisor for advising on investment products (Collective Investment Schemes) and issuing or promulgating on investment products (Collective Investment Schemes).

Management Fees / Platform Fees/ Advisor Fees:
All-in fund level access fee of 0.25% to 0.60% p.a.

Minimum Investment Amount to Start:
S$1,000

Cash, CPF or SRS Investment Support:
Cash, CPF, SRS.

Methodology:
Building of Global portfolio via Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) & PIMCO funds

Safety and Protection:
All your assets are custodised in a trust account in your own name with UOB Kay Hian, one of Asia’s largest brokerage firms. UOB Kay Hian is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and has a Capital Markets Services License to provide custodial services for securities.

SaxoWealthCare

SaxoWealthCare is the latest digital wealth management service by SAXO Markets, a global leader in smart trading and investing online with decades of experience.

In essence, it is a digital wealth manager that makes ETFs highly usable for clients with completely unique and personalised portfolios.

Yes, you’ve read that right.

This means that unlike other digital wealth management services and robo-advisors with cookie-cutter portfolios, SaxoWealthCare tailors your portfolio to suit your specific life goals.

While they do let you pick from three investment styles (Global Growth, Asian Growth, Sustainable Growth), each portfolio curated will be unique to the person since we all have different life goals, investment perspectives, risk appetites and motivations.

SaxoWealthCare Tools and Support

This is where SaxoWealthCare really stands out from existing digital wealth management services and robo-advisors out there.

SaxoWealthCare Interface

While other services do have graphs that show you a projected return on your investments, SaxoWealthCare goes much further with various tools to map out your entire investment journey; from the time you begin investing all the way till retirement.

Source: SaxoWealthCare

The engine it is built upon runs 1,000 simulations to model and map out potential futures and automatically rebalances your portfolio if it moves out of your preferred tolerance.

SaxoWealthCare also considers all your life goals such as paying the down payment for your home or buying a car, deducting the amounts and mapping out your projected wealth after the transaction.

Source: SaxoWealthCare

We all know that life goals have different priorities as well, and SaxoWealthCare allows you to select the priority and gives appropriate advise accordingly.

In other words, if you have a projected amount of $90,000 in 2023 but want to buy a car for $100,000, SaxoWealthCare will show that your portfolio cannot support such a purchase and requires action.

SaxoWealthCare’s Portfolio Protector

Secondly, SaxoWealthCare is an active portfolio management platform, which means that your portfolio is constantly monitored and tweaked if need be.

It has an optional feature called ‘Portfolio Protector‘ that helps you adjust risks by rebalancing your portfolio between stocks and bonds.

This means that on top of rebalancing your portfolio just to fit an 80% equities and 20% bonds portfolio for example, SaxoWealthCare will rebalance your portfolio depending on:

  • Market conditions
  • How far the portfolio is from a life goal

For more conservative investors, this is a great feature to have as it helps reduce risks when the market goes down.

Portfolio protector is also great as the engine uses a math based approach to reduce your portfolio risk when you’re about to reach a life goal, like paying for the down payment of a house.

Operation License:
SAXO CAPITAL MARKETS PTE. LTD. – MAS Capital Markets Services licensee (fund management) and Exempt Financial Advisor advising on investment products and issuing or promulgating on investment products like Collective Investment Schemes, Securities, etc.

Management Fees / Platform Fees/ Advisor Fees:

0.45% to 0.75% p.a.

Minimum Investment Amount to Start:
S$25,000

Cash, CPF or SRS Investment Support:
Cash only.

Methodology:
Guided investing and automated portfolio management tailored to your needs and financial goals. Complex engines that rebalances and optimises portfolio allocation according to market conditions.

Safety and Protection:
Saxo Capital Markets is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. As such all client funds are protected and kept in a segregated client funds account, separate from the company’s own money and assets.


Best Digital Wealth Management Service For You

While investing can be intimidating, there are many robo-advisors and digital wealth management services to help you with the bulk of the legwork.

Then again, it is important to read up about what these services are offering, their fees, and how they plan to invest your money before investing.

For those who have a lower starting capital to invest, MoneyOwl would be your best bet as you’ll only require S$100 to start.

As for those who want to invest their CPF and/or SRS funds, as well as the more savvy investors who want to pick their own funds, Endowus has the best products to suit those needs.

Lastly, for those who want a completely personalised portfolio that comes with innovative features and visualisations to map out your investment journey, SaxoWealthCare helps you take your goal and investment planning to the next level.

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About Justin Oh
Your average Zillennial who is obsessed with anime, games, movies and of course, personal finance. Join me as I break down personal finance into easily digestible and fun bits!
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