What People Say After Studying with Us

The Situation

A retired engineer had held a unit trust since the early 1990s through his employer's savings scheme. He had never read a factsheet, had no clear picture of the fees he had paid over three decades, and found the annual statement largely incomprehensible.

The Study

He completed Course One over six weeks — slightly longer than the suggested five. The annotated factsheet helped him match the terms in the course to the exact columns in his annual statement. The glossary, he noted, he printed out and kept on his desk.

The Outcome

He subsequently had a more specific conversation with his bank's relationship manager — one focused on understanding the management fee and trail, rather than on product alternatives. He described it as the most useful conversation he had had with the bank in twenty years.

The Situation

A secondary school teacher was considering investing a portion of her savings in a bond fund recommended by her bank. She had been given a Product Highlights Sheet and a prospectus but had set both aside without reading them.

The Study

She enrolled in Course Two and completed it over eight weeks. By the fifth week, she returned to the Product Highlights Sheet and worked through it using the course's checklist. She found several items she had not noticed — including the distinction between the fund's benchmark and its stated distribution policy.

The Outcome

She decided to take additional time before acting and consulted a licensed financial adviser with the specific questions she had developed through the course. She described the course as having given her the right questions to ask, which she valued more than any particular answer.

The Situation

A couple in their mid-fifties — one a nurse manager, the other an architect — held a mixture of unit trusts, direct shares, and CPF funds across five different platforms. They wanted to understand what they owned before meeting their financial adviser.

The Study

They enrolled together in Course Three and used the household holdings map template to document their combined positions for the first time. The fee-audit worksheet revealed that three of their five holdings carried similar exposures — something neither had noticed before.

The Outcome

They arrived at their adviser meeting with a completed holdings map and a short list of questions about consolidation and fee reduction. Their adviser noted that this level of preparation was uncommon and allowed the meeting to cover significantly more ground than the usual first session.