This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 20, 2019 - August 26, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members can now invest in 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.

In a statement yesterday, the pension fund said for members below 55 years old, investment can be funded directly by the eligible portion of members’ savings under Account 1, with a sales charge ranging from zero to 0.5% of the transaction amount.

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

Members aged 55 and above, meanwhile, can use 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.

EPF chief executive officer Tunku Alizakri Alias said a key element of the online investment facility is that sales charges are now practically free as the EPF has enforced a maximum cap of 0.5% compared with the current 3% for offline and traditional transactions through agents.

“To ensure [members] are as informed as possible, i-Invest contains tools to obtain and compare relevant information, and enables the right selection of unit trust funds that best suits our members’ savings goals.”

He added that the EPF is believed to be the first pension fund in the world to link directly members’ retirement funds to online investment services.

“i-Invest provides greater flexibility, functionality and convenience for members to invest, transact and monitor their unit trust investment any time and anywhere.

“It also enables members to compare different unit trust funds offered by FMIs, monitor their investment funds through their i-Akaun, and look up information on the cost of investment, historical performance as well as required statutory information,” said Alizakri.

He also said the EPF has strict guidelines for FMIs to comply with in order to safeguard the integrity of the scheme and the interest of participating members, as well as to ensure that FMIs carry out their duties diligently and responsibly.

For the period of 2019/2020, a total of 389 funds in various categories, namely equity, mixed assets, bonds, the money market and property trusts, have been approved under the EPF Members Investment Scheme.