Money Magnets

SUBSCRIBING ADDITIONAL UITF UNITS or MUTUAL FUND SHARES

1. In order to subscribe additional Mutual Fund shares choose the "Investments" tab, select "Mutual Funds (MF)", select "Subscribe", click on "Subscribe Now."  Please refer to the picture below to help you locate the tab.  If you're looking to buy additional UITF units, just select "Unit Investment Trust Funds (UITF)" instead of "Mutual Funds (MF)."

You can also subscribe or redeem your placements by going directly to the "Investment Account" section of your portfolio and clicking on the "More Options" column to reveal the menu.  From here, select "Subscribe" to buy or select "Redeem" to sell your placements.

2. Selecting to subscribe now will bring you to the next window where you will be asked to select an Investment account as shown in the picture below.  In this step, choose the investment account where you would want to buy or sell shares.


Note: If you followed the second option in the first step, and went directly to your Investment Account section, you will be able to skip this step.

3.  Next window is your Portfolio Composition.  Given the investment account that you've chosen, the site will show you which Mutual Funds or UITFs you own.  Just click the "Continue" button at the bottom of the page to proceed.  In this page, you can also click on  "Risk Profile" to review or change your risk profile.


4. The next window will be the Mutual Fund or UITF selection page.  Here you get to select which mutual fund or UITF you want to buy.


On the top left portion of the page is your risk profile.  It is indicated by the label "Investor Type."  How is this significant? As a standard procedure, only Mutual Funds or UITFs with an equal or  lesser risk rating than your risk profile will be available for selection to the investor.  So if you don't see the Mutual Fund that you like, it's probably because the risk rating of that fund is higher than your risk profile.  To solve this problem, you'll have to review and change your "Risk Profile" in the previous step.

There is a reason why the system was built this way.  It's to prevent investors with low risk appetites from investing in high risk funds.  Please be cautious when doing this and  make sure you know what you're getting into.  Highest Investor type one can get is "Aggressive."

Select the name of the fund you want to subscribe to by clicking on the round button beside the name of the fund.  Click on the check box affirming that you have read the risk disclosures of the fund that you selected.  And then click the "Order" button to proceed.

Please refer to the image below to see the risk ratings of the different BPI UITFs and Mutual Funds.



5.   The next window is the Payment Order form.  In this form, you indicate your desired subscription amount.  Note that the amount must not be less than the Minimum Additional Subscription required by the fund.  For BPI UITFs, the minimum additional subscription is normally at Php 1,000 for Peso-based funds and USD 200 for Dollar-based funds.  For ALFM Mutual Funds, the minimum additional subscription is normally at Php 10,000 for Peso-based funds and USD 200 for Dollar-based funds.  To be sure, check the BPI Asset Management page.  Click the "Continue" button to proceed.


Note that your settlement account must be properly funded at this time in order for the transaction to be accepted.    

6. Next is the Confirmation page.  Check the details of your placement and make sure that it's correct.  Click on the check box to agree to the stipulations written in the site.  Input your BPI Express Online password on the space provided and click "Proceed" to finalize your transaction.


At this point, your settlement account will be earmarked with your subscription amount.  BPI will already deduct your subscription amount from your account.  Since the price of the fund will not be available until the end of that banking day, you will not know the total no. of shares or units you bought and the total subscription amount until the next day.  Any excess in your subscription amount will be credited back to your account the next banking day.  BPI will not go over the subscription amount  that you indicated.

7. Finally, the site will give you the transaction's Confirmation number as shown below.  BPI Express Online will also email your designated email account of the details.  This is to confirm that your Mutual fund or UITF subscription been accepted and is already queued for processing.




With this facility from BPI, investing in Mutual Funds and Unit Investment Trust Funds is now more convenient and accessible especially for those of us based outside the Philippines.  It is also a great facility for traders and investors who would want to time their entry and exit in such funds.  Let's hope that other banks and Investment companies will soon follow suit and take investing another level here in the Philippines.  (We heard that First Metro Asset Management is already working on their online facility as well *fingers-crossed*).