Endowus Review: The Ultimate Review 2024

Endowus Review

Endowus is a Singapore digital wealth management and robo-advisory platform that allows investors to invest their cash, CPF, and SRS. Endowus partners with some of the most reputable asset managers to offer a range of investment products from its Core, Income, Satellite, and Cash Smart portfolio. The platform aims to provide the best-in-class funds at low cost by giving 100% cashback on all trailer fees and charging a fixed yet competitive annual management fee. This Endowus review will discuss their advantages and disadvantages, portfolio offerings, and suitability for investors.

Endowus Pros Review

Competitive & Transparent Fees

One of the main plus points of investing with Endowus is their fees. Endowus gives 100% cashback on all trailer fees, does not charge sales fees, and charges a fixed annual management fee based on your portfolio amount. We believe that an annual management fee is a fairer model for investors because it aligns the platform’s incentives with providing the best possible value to investors.

This is the summary of Endowus fee structures:

Core, Satellite, and Income
Cash <$200,000 0.60%
>=$200,000 to <$1,000,000 0.50%
>=$1,000,000 to <$5,000,000 0.35%
>=$5,000,000 0.25%
CPF, SRS Any amount 0.40%
Cash Smart
Cash, SRS Any amount 0.15%

For the full fee breakdown, you may refer to the table below:

Endowus full fees 2024
Source: Endowus

Please note that there is a GST charge on the annual fee. For example, if you invest $10,000 with Endowus, the annual fee will be $60 + 9% GST = $65.40.

Custodian & MAS-Regulated

The other most important consideration for investors is whether Endow is safe. So, is Endowus safe?

Endowus holds the Capital Markets Services License, is an Exempt Financial Adviser, and is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

When you first sign up, Endowus will create a custodian account under your name with UOB KayHian, one of Asia’s largest brokerage firms. Why is this important?

  • Firstly, there is a separation between Endowus assets and client assets. There is no commingling of funds.
  • Secondly, should something happen with Endowus, your assets are safe with UOB KayHian as the custodian, and you won’t be forced to liquidate your assets. You will still have full access and claim your assets with UOB KayHian.

Automated Portfolio

Endowus is a robo-advisory platform, meaning Endowus will automatically do most of the hard work of managing and rebalancing your portfolio according to your objectives. Investors may adopt the buy-and-forget strategy. This approach is especially suitable for investors who prefer to avoid being hands-on with their investments.

This automated portfolio approach is more cost-effective than the traditional model with a personal financial adviser, which may cost north of 1% in annual fees. The fee difference will add up over a long period.

Comprehensive Offerings

Endowus offers various investment products to match investors’ objectives and risk profiles. The flagship product offers investors broad market exposure and a globally diversified portfolio. Investors who prefer a more specific theme may access satellite products such as tech-focused, China equities, real estate, etc. Investors who seek a more conservative offering may consider Endowus Income, which incorporates fixed income into your portfolio. Endowus also offers a cash solution to grow investors’ cash with higher yields but with no lockups and penalties. Given the higher yield, this cash management account’s flexibility and liquidity are pretty attractive.

Endowus also partners with well-established and experienced asset managers, such as Blackrock, Dimensional, Invesco, Franklin Templeton, Fullerton, NikkoAM, Pimco, Schroders, and many more. This allows Endowus to bring experience and expertise to investors’ portfolios while tailoring them to investors’ objectives and risk profiles.

Endowus asset managers
Source: Endowus

Invest with CPF

The other main attraction for Endowus is its ability to invest with your CPF-OA account. This access to CPF-OA is what separates Endowus from other robo-advisor platforms. You may consider investing your CPF-OA into the broad market index for long-term portfolio growth. Please note that CPF-OA, by default, is already earning a guaranteed return of 2.5% per annum. However, if you don’t think the guaranteed return can beat the inflation, or you are seeking a higher return from your CPF-OA, this can be one of the options if you have a long-term investing horizon and a higher risk appetite.

Invest with SRS

If you have contributed to your SRS account, you probably know that you must invest your SRS money because it only gives a minuscule default interest rate of 0.05%. Endowus offers an option to invest your SRS money by exposing you to various Endowus and single fund portfolios.

We particularly like the accessibility that Endowus offers for our SRS to gain exposure to the S&P500 index. For example, investors can easily access funds that closely track the S&P500 performance at a relatively low cost via BlackRock iShares US Index Fund or Amundi Prime USA Fund. You can read further on this topic from Endowus.

User-Friendly

We love Endowus as a platform due to its ease of use. The signup process is relatively straightforward, and the process is transparent. Investing is also very easy, and the platform provides decent information regarding the funds you are investing in.

As a robo-advisor platform, you can automate much of the administrative work of investing, such as portfolio rebalancing. Additionally, you can set up a recurring investment scheme to invest with Endowus by setting up GIRO with your bank account. This is useful if you want a more passive investing approach, for example, by just doing dollar cost averaging every month.

 

Endowus Cons Review

Relatively Slow Processing & Withdrawal

Okay, we want to be fair here: It is not that slow but relatively slower than other robo-advisory platforms. This is especially important for Endowus Cash Smart solution because most investors park their cash there due to its flexibility and liquidity. Please note that withdrawal may take 2-4 days! Yes, it’s not that slow, but it’s also not that liquid.

As a reminder, please do not put all your emergency savings with Endowus Cash Smart because the purpose of emergency savings is that you can access it 24/7. It is ideal for the cash you may want to use in the next several months, therefore still allowing you to plan ahead for the withdrawal.

Information Is Sometimes Not Up-to-date

Endowus provides the information for every investment solution they offer. This data includes the underlying funds it invests in, the geographical exposure, etc. This is great so that investors can do further research before making an investment decision.

However, occasionally, the data presented within the Endowus platform may not be up-to-date. Therefore, we usually find it necessary to research ourselves directly from the fund’s website to be more confident with our investment.

Minimum Initial Investment

Endowus has a minimum initial investment of SGD1,000. It’s not much, but other platforms usually have no minimum, so we need to point this out here to be objective. Regardless, we still think the minimum is still reasonable for most investors.

Market Performance

Although Endowus offers a low-cost way to access some of the best-in-class funds globally, we want to be objective and compare the overall performance of those funds with just investing in a simple, low-cost ETF. Many funds tend to underperform a low-cost ETF. Therefore, investors may want to be very selective with their investment choices by benchmarking their desired portfolio with alternatives such as low-cost ETFs.

 

Endowus Portfolios Review

Endowus offers different portfolios to suit various investment objectives. The following are Endowus’ primary wealth solutions:

Endowus Core

Core portfolios typically provide investors broad market exposure and long-term, global diversification. The flagship portfolio is generally the first choice for most investors because of its exposure to broad equities or fixed-income markets.

You will be able to adjust your portfolio allocation between equities and fixed-income. Historically, the higher allocation to equities has returned higher annualized returns but with higher volatility. Investors may opt for the allocation that suits their investing horizon and risk profile.

Here is the ten-year Endowus Core Flagship portfolio performance data between July 2013 and June 2013.

Equity / Fixed income allocation Annualized return Annualized volatility
100% / 0% 9.49% 12.16%
80% / 20% 8.14% 10.39%
60% / 40% 6.86% 8.64%
40% / 60% 5.45% 7.03%
20% / 80% 4.10% 5.70%
0% / 100% 2.70% 4.82%

Endowus Income

The objective of this portfolio is to provide investors with regular income while growing or preserving their capital. The portfolio invests in a mix of high-yield bonds, investment-grade bonds, global dividend stock, global stocks, treasuries, and cash. Investors may choose among the three solutions:

  • Stable Income: Invests 100% in fixed income, suitable for retirees, with the primary objective of steady monthly payouts and capital preservation.
  • Higher Income: Invests in 80% fixed income and 20% equities. The aim is to maximize monthly payout while still growing your capital. Suitable for investors with higher living expenses such as mortgage, children expenses, etc.
  • Future Income: Invests in 60% fixed income and 40% equities. The objective is to earn some payouts and grow the capital for the long term. Suitable for investors with a long-term investing horizon.

Endowus Satellite

This portfolio aims to gain exposure to specific markets or themes, such as global real estate, technology, Chinese equities, Chinese fixed income, and many more. Once you have exposure to broad market performance, adding specific markets may expose you to the one where you have a strong conviction, which could further boost your portfolio’s performance.

Endowus Cash Smart

The objective is simple: to grow your cash with higher yields while giving you the flexibility to access your money. The target return can be higher than other fixed-income investments such as fixed deposits, treasury bills, etc., but with a slightly higher risk profile because your principal and payouts are not guaranteed. That said, the volatility is designed to be relatively low.

The portfolio primarily invests in cash, money market, and short-duration bonds. This portfolio is ideal for parking short-term cash that needs to be reasonably liquid. You can redeem your money within several days.

 

Who Is Endowus Suitable For?

We love Endowus’ offering, especially the ability to invest our CPF-OA money to supercharge our return over the long term. We believe Endowus, a robo-advisory platform, is suitable for investors who prefer to be more passive with their investing approach while ensuring they have decent portfolio diversification.

For investors who want to be more active with their investing approach and do not mind doing their own research, Endowus may not be the best choice for you. You can probably use simple, low-cost ETFs to construct a diversified portfolio according to your objectives.

Are you interested in Endowus? Wealthfor.us readers may access a promotional $20 off access fee by signing up here.

 

Disclaimer: The review is based on subjective opinion from the author’s personal experience. The information provided here is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice or recommendation of any sort.