Are Unit Trusts Worth Their Cost?

High fees don’t always translate to higher returns

“When trillions of dollars are managed by Wall Streeters charging high fees, it will usually be the managers who reap outsized profits, not the clients.”

So said Warren Buffet in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in 2017. Warren Buffet, whose stock picks made him billions, followed up by advocating for low-cost passively managed index funds, delivering quite the black eye to active investment managers who have often underperformed their benchmarks.

Time and again, investment fees have proven to be one of the key determinants of long-term investment returns, as Warren Buffet rightly pointed out. High fees (such as those associated with unit trusts) don’t always translate to higher returns, but paying less in fees is a sure-fire way to boost your returns over the long term.  

Here is your ultimate cheat sheet to figure out what you are really paying for when you invest in a unit trust. 

While all investments have costs, an investment with higher cost does not mean better performance.

The bottom line is: You cannot control the direction of the market, but you can control how much you pay in fees. Syfe helps you invest in a globally diversified, low-cost portfolio of Exchange-traded Funds (ETF) and fees start from as low as 0.4% per annum.

Start keeping more of your returns today. Find the right low-cost portfolio for you here.


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