Today AIA announced the launch of its value proposition to customers – a promise and commitment of what customers can expect from AIA’s MPF services. To demonstrate its customer value proposition, AIA is also announcing the launch of a series of low-fee constituent funds and fee reductions for some of its existing constituent funds, effective 23 September 2011.
AIA’s value proposition to customers is this: “By providing MPF offerings with great value, choice and simplicity, we aim at helping our customers realise their retirement dreams”. It comprises three core components – Value, Choice and Simplicity which add up to the total offerings that customers
can benefit from choosing AIA’s MPF services.
Explaining the core component of “Value”, Ms. Bonnie Tse, Chief Executive Officer of American International Assurance Company (Trustee) Limited, said, “By providing value-for-money MPF offerings and striving for respectable investment performance, we endeavor to ensure that every
cent of our customers works toward their prosperous retirement future.”
To demonstrate this commitment to customers, AIA will be adding a series of low-fee constituent funds, including Asian Bond Fund, American Fund, Eurasia Fund and Hong Kong and China Fund, with management fees of up to 0.99% per annum of net asset value at constituent fund level to its existing MPF schemes. At the same time, the management fees of Global Bond Fund, MPF Conservative Fund, and World Equity Fund under the existing MPF schemes will also be reduced to 0.99% per annum of net asset value at constituent fund level. The new constituent funds and fee reductions will commence on 23 September 2011.
Ms. Tse further explained, “Another advantage of adding the new low-fee constituent funds to our existing MPF schemes is that both new customers and existing members can enjoy them. Moreover, the Fund Expense Ratio of Manager’s Choice Fund, World Equity Fund and Global Bond Fund in the categories of mixed assets fund, equity fund and bond fund respectively are the lowest in the market. These three fund categories comprise almost 80% of the aggregate net asset value of the approved constituent funds of MPF schemes in the market. Such distinctions are practical examples of our commitment to offering value-for-money MPF services.”
The second core component of “Choice” is evident in AIA’s long-standing efforts to pursue multimanager strategies and enrich investment choices. “We believe a real choice of funds is founded on freedom – the freedom to choose and to switch. Over the years, we have been pursuing multimanager strategies and striving hard to select first-class investment managers from around the globe. This open framework enables our customers to diversify their investments among constituent funds managed by different investment managers with varying styles, and to switch their investment choices within as little as one day, without having to switch schemes.”
Ms. Tse added, “After adding the said four new low-fee constituent funds, our MPF platform will contain a total of 25 constituent funds designed to suit a range of needs, whether customers prefer the ‘do-it-for-me’ or ‘do-it-myself’ approach to investing. Recently, we also developed a simple yet useful fund selection matrix to help our customers make the investment choices that might suit their individual investment approach and risk appetites.” The essence of the third component of “Simplicity” is to offer hassle-free and convenient services to customers, enabling them to manage their MPF and grow their retirement nest egg with ease. “Over the years, we have offered hassle-free investment reallocation service, various convenient account management platforms and other thoughtful services to our customers. Our LifeEasy service, a personalised automatic asset rebalancing service, was launched in 2008 – long before target date funds gained popularity. Our e-platform plus the soon-to-launch smartphone app will also
allow our customers to manage their MPF investments at their fingertips.”
Ms. Tse concluded, “Our customer value proposition stands as a promise to our customers. It
represents who we are, what we strive for and what our customers can expect from our MPF
products and services. It forms the center of our business strategy and we strongly believe it will set
us apart from other MPF service providers and lead us to greater heights in the future.”