I get a lot of spam email but I really hate it when I receive unsolicited offers to invest from insurance companies. Today I received an email from Old Mutual offering to save me money with their Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA). Apparently, you can start saving with as little as R170 per month, pay no tax on the investment and withdraw the funds at any stage although it is advisable to stay invested for at least 3-5 years.
So let’s take a closer look at this offering from OM.
One of the most important things to consider is the fees and costs of a product – there is no point being able to save when a significant portion of your investment will be gobbled up by fees. So what are the costs on the OM TFSA?
“An administration charge of 0.75% per year of your fund value will be charged. This will be deducted at the end of every month. If you do not have a regular investment set up on any of your Old Mutual Invest Plans, or if your regular investment is cancelled, the administration charge will be a minimum of R20.00 per month. The administration charge can be reduced with our Investment Maximisers.
Asset management fees are deducted by the fund managers of the underlying investment funds which you choose. The amount of the asset management fees will depend on the funds you choose.
If your regular investment is less than R350, an investment charge of 5% will apply to each regular investment.”
This is taken from their website (my highlighting)! If you save “from as little as R170 pm” you are going to lose 5% of each contribution you make. So over a year you would have invested R2040 but would lose R102 of this in fees. In addition to this you are also going to pay an annual admin fee of 0.75% and then the fund fee on top of that.
Reading the fine print more closely also reveals that if you invest less than R350 pm then you can only invest in the OM Moderate Balanced Fund. Although relatively new, the fund has a poor track record and also has an annual fee of over 2%. You certainly will make a small fortune if you use this product.
While the OM TFSA might make some sense if you plan to invest the maximum each year, it certainly does not make sense to me if you are investing less than R350 pm. If this is the case then stay away from the OM TFSA.
There are many better options out there with similar low investment amounts but before you invest in any of them, make sure that you understand all the fees that will apply.
