Do I have to pay for service charge

Nothing is free in this world. When you invest your money in a unit trust fund, you are buying a number of professional services. These services are the expertise of a professional fund manager, administration services, trustee who looks after the safe running of the trust on your behalf. Needless to say, these services do not come free. You pay for it in the form of sales charge, management fee and trustee fee.

1. Initial Service Charge
The first cost that an investor incurs in relation to investing in unit trusts is the initial service charge (sometimes called the service, sales, entry, or ‘up front’ charge). This is the cost to an investor investing in unit trusts and it is levied primarily to cover the marketing and distributing units and monitoring his investments by the unit trust consultant for the duration the unit trusts is held.

2. Exit Fee
Sometimes referred as repurchase charge. This fee represents a deduction by the UTMC from the proceeds of disposal of an investor.


3. Annual Management Fee
Management expenses include expense for portfolio management, the manager’s fees, trustee and custody costs, audit fees, administrative charges like printing of annual reports, distribution cheques, postage and other services properly incurred in the administration of the fund. These costs are paid out of the fund’s assets.

5.5% service charge is only applicable for cash investment. For EPF holders, you're lucky because the service charge you have to pay is lower than cash investment. It's only 3 percent!!