Money Magnets

BPI Mutual Funds and UITFs Now Available Online

I am a Money Magnet! We are Money Magnets!

"It's more than how your assets perform at maximum. It's how certain." - BPI Asset Management.

A couple of days ago, BPI Asset Management, the company that handles BPI's Mutual funds and Unit Investment Trust Funds (UITFs), announced that on their 160th anniversary, they are giving us 24/7 transactional online investing!  True enough, you can now subscribe and redeem Mutual Fund shares or UITF units through BPI Express Online (www.bpiexpressonline.com).  It was just introduced a couple of weeks back and BPI hasn't actually announced it to its subscribers.  It's still on a "soft start" but it already looks very promising.  Read on to know more about this new feature. 

In their ad, BPI had this to say - "Building wealth is now made easier than ever with the only full transactional online investing facility of its kind.  It's no longer just about monitoring your investments, it's now about taking advantage when an opportunity arises - allowing you to transact online - anytime, anywhere without having to visit your branch."

Money magnets can open an investment fund account for only Php 10,000.  And you can start building your wealth through a wide range of investment funds for as low as Php 1,000 through BPI's Regular Subscription Plan.

The Regular Subscription Plan (SRP) is an investment program that allows you to nominate a regular subscription amount for purchase of units/shares on a periodic basis, either on a monthly or quarterly basis.  This is similar to BDO's Easy Investment Plan (EIP).  Aside from this, you can also do the following through BPI ExpressOnline:

• Subscribe or Redeem BPI UITF units
• Subscribe or Redeem ALFM Mutual Fund shares
• Update your Risk Profile
• Apply for an Investment Account 
• Revise Regular Subscription Plan details

new "Investment" tab in BPI Express Online

I haven't tried subscribing or redeeming my UITF or Mutual Funds placements through this new facility.  However, I think the same rules regarding cut off time applies.  Transactions made before cut off time (12nn) are processed on the same day while transactions made after the cut off time and transactions done on a non-banking day are considered as next-banking day transactions. 

Unlike availing through your bank's branch, the online system will only allow you to invest on UITFs or Mutual Funds that matches or are of lesser risk category compared to your Risk profile.  Please check out the list of BPI investments with their corresponding Risk Category on the picture below.

BPI Investment Products and risk category - Click on the image for a larger view

In order to be able to invest on UITFs and Mutual Funds with higher risk categories, you must first update your Risk Profile.  It's fairly easy to do.  All you have to do is answer a few questions through the site.  Another way to do this is to go to your bank manager and he/she will ask you to sign a waiver form allowing you to invest on funds with a higher risk categories compared to your risk profile.

Sample Risk Profile as viewed from BPI Express Online

Applying for an investment account through the site will take you through a step-by-step guide on the requirements needed to open an account.  The site will take you through entering your personal details,  indicating your settlement account, taking your risk profile,  a client suitability and assessment test, and finally the Participating Trust Agreement and Risk Disclosure sections.  This part however, can't be completed through online transactions alone.  You will have to print out the final form and bring this to your selected BPI branch for final processing.  After you've opened an account though, the rest can be done online.

BPI Asset Management is truly stepping up their game.  After purchasing the Trust department of ING, they seem to be continuously improving their system now and providing more value to their clients.  Recently, they even launched a new site, www.bpiassetmanagement.com, with lots of valuable information for their investors.  They've consolidated a lot of news and information for their investors into this one site.  You can tell that it's still on a trial operation period though as the information, especially for the daily news and updates, are still not updated regularly.  Regardless, it looks very promising and I'm loving BPI because of it.  Now, if only they can improve their stock trading platform, BPI Trade, then they would truly be another step closer to perfection.

Can't wait to try out this new system!  

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11 comments:

1. Anonymous said,

   I get the error, "Order cannot be processed. Please check the status of your settlement account from your branch of account".

   on May 3, 2011 at 12:16 AM  

   
   
2. Money Magnets said,

   Hi!
   
   I haven't tried subscribing yet. I'll let you know how it goes when I do.
   
   In the meantime, check that your settlement account is properly funded. Order will be rejected if it doesn't have enough funds.
   
   ^^

   on May 3, 2011 at 1:32 PM  

   
   
3. Money Magnets said,

   Hi! I was able to successfully buy mutual fund shares today. I'll write a post about it soon. ^^

   on May 5, 2011 at 11:55 PM  

   
   
4. Anonymous said,

   what does the form look like it saids there just to review and print the agreement i dont get it at all ??

   on June 13, 2011 at 4:44 PM  

   
   
5. Money Magnets said,

   Hi!
   
   what form are you referring to? is it the account opening form? After you've filled up all the details it will take you to a page with all your details already included and there would be a print button so you can print it and bring it to your BPI branch of choice. You can also copy and paste the details to Microsoft word and print it from there.
   
   It's a very long form, by the way, with your details and other required documents like the risk disclosure agreement.
   
   If what you wanted to do was buy shares, check out the succeeding post.
   
   http://personal-finance-free.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-buy-mutual-fund-and-uitf-shares.html
   
   Hope this helps!

   on June 15, 2011 at 1:44 PM  

   
   
6. Anonymous said,

   Hi. I just created my UITF account and made my investment. Now i received a letter from BPI confirming my investment. Now my question is this how do i enroll online so that i can be able to monitor the activity of my investment. I have tried the enroll addittional account. I placed there the reference number from the letter i received from BPI. Did i do it correctly or was i supposed to place my name on it ???

   on July 5, 2011 at 2:26 PM  

   
   
7. Money Magnets said,

   Hi!
   
   You only need to input your Investment account number which is your UITF account no. It'll take a few days before it will appear in your portfolio.
   
   If by reference no. you are referring to your UITF account no. and it should be fine. I think there's a tutorial on the site on how to add investment accounts online as well.
   
   I'll try and write a separate post on how to do this. Watch out for it.
   
   Hope this helps.
   Thanks.

   on July 5, 2011 at 3:44 PM  

   
   
8. Anonymous said,

   Hi Money Magnet!
   
   for example i redeemed at 11:00am
   
   what will be the computed price for the fund? was it the price yesterday or the ending price for that day.

   on August 3, 2011 at 5:41 PM  

   
   
9. Money Magnets said,

   Hi!
   
   I hope you put a name to your questions the next time.
   
   It really depends on what type of fund you bought. But the usual procedure is you get the NAVPU/NAVPS at the close of that banking day. It's published in the BPI website at around 7:30pm.
   
   For some funds, it can be the following days NAVPU/NAVPS - I think this is for funds with internationally allocated assets.
   
   After redeeming your funds, you can check the status of your transactions in the site as well.
   Just click on the right icon after your investment account.
   
   Hope this helps.
   
   For the exact details, you can ask BPI directly.
   expressonline@bpi.com.ph

   on August 3, 2011 at 10:21 PM  

   
   
10. Anonymous said,

    I recently opened an Investment Application and received an email "BPI ONLINE INVESTMENT ACCOUNT ACTIVATION".
    
    Then I go to Portfolio > Enroll Additional Accounts > Investment Accounts > Muutla Funds
    
    Now my problem is I don't know what is my Invest Account Number? Where can we get it?
    
    Thanks.

    on November 14, 2012 at 12:52 PM  

    
    
11. Money Magnets said,

    Thank you for your comment. The best solution would be to contact BPI directly regarding your concern. Email expressonline@bpi.com.ph
    
    When you applied for the investment application, didn't you use your investment account for that?
    
    Try Going to your My Portfolio page where your bank accounts are shown. Your investment account should be shown on a table below it as well. Sometimes when the investment system is down it doesn't show but on regular days it should be there.
    
    Hope this helps. Thanks.

    on November 14, 2012 at 1:38 PM  

    
    

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