FAMI Mutual Fund Review

One of the leading mutual fund companies in the Philippines today is First Metro Asset Management, Inc. or commonly known as FAMI. It is a subsidiary company of Metrobank Group that handles mutual fund investments for its customers. I’ll be giving you some review and facts about FAMI since I have mutual funds in them.

Please take note that I’m not paid to do this review or in any way connected with them. This blog post is purely for information purposes only and past performance of the fund does not guarantee future return or profit. You should always do your own due diligence when it comes to investing in mutual funds because mutual funds are not insured by PDIC.

My Personal Experience in Investing in FAMI

I started investing in FAMI way back in January 2010. I remembered that time I bought two kinds of FAMI MF: SALEF and SALBF worth P5,000 for each type of fund and I didn’t regret when I made that decision. When I opened my MF account, I was really excited so I didn’t care the hassles of going to their office in PSBank Tower, Makati just to apply an account.

The only good thing is that the application is fast and easy because you only need to fill out application forms and some investor questionnaire similar with opening a bank account. After completing the forms and submitting the requirements, you can start investing for as low as P5,000 initial deposit of mutual fund that suits for you.

If you already have an account at FAMI and you want to buy more MF, you can see this post that I published before to give you information on how to add more funds to your account: How to Buy FAMI Mutual Funds via Metrobank Direct Internet Banking

Types of FAMI Mutual Funds

Mutual fund is a collective fund from individual and corporate investors. The fund is usually invested in stocks, bonds, special deposit accounts, treasury notes, commodities, fixed-income investments and many more. FAMI has four types of mutual funds under the brand name “Save and Learn”. The list below shows the four kinds of FAMI mutual funds that you can invest in.

1. Save and Learn Equity Fund (SALEF)

SALEF is a type of equity fund that primarily invests 100% of the fund in Philippine stocks. Normally, FAMI publishes the stocks it holds regularly through its website: www.fami.com.ph indicating the percentage of the fund invested in particular stock. Picking of stocks is done usually by the fund manager and/or other people directly involve in the fund management.

All of the information about SALEF ca be found in its prospectus which details the goal of the fund, the investment risk, the people behind the management, charges and fees for opening an account, the total amount and share price of the fund and a lot more. Therefore, it is important to read and understand the prospectus before starting to invest in any mutual funds that you want. You don’t need to read the whole prospectus, you can choose just the important one I mentioned earlier.

The minimum investment for new account is only P5,000. With the current price of P3.7893 per share, you can get 1,293 shares for the P5,000 you invested. If you invested in SALEF, it is like you invested indirectly in Philippine stock market since 100% of the fund is used to buy stocks. Check below to see the important features of SALEF.

2. Save and Learn Balanced Fund (SALBF)

SALBF is a mutual fund invested in stocks, bonds and cash deposit in banks, that’s why it is called balanced. Since investing 100% in stocks poses a high risk, a balanced fund can make it lower because bonds are considered low-risk investment. The fund objective is to provide total return to investors consisting of as high a level of current income as is consistent with the preservation of capital and liquidity and long-term capital appreciation.

SABF is suitable for investors who like investment with high growth with moderate risk to high risk and to invest in a mix of debt instruments and equity securities. SALBF has the same features as SALEF except the allocation of funds and the rate of capital return.

3. Save and Learn Fixed- Income Fund (SALFIF)

SALFIF is a fund invested in fixed-income instruments like government securities, commercial paper, corporate notes, and deposit accounts. More than half of the fund is invested in bank deposits making it the least risky among mutual funds.

The goal of this fund is to provide as high a level of current income as is consistent with preservation of capital and liquidity. SALFIF is a moderate growth and low risk investment. I owned few shares of SALFIF that I bought last June 2011 and hopefully I can add more SALFIF in the future when I have enough money to buy.

4. Save and Learn Money Market Fund (SALMMF)

SALMMF is a kind of FAMI MF invested in short-term fixed income investments like government securities, high-grade commercial papers, promissory notes, other deposit substitutes, and other fixed income instruments or securities, both in Philippine peso and foreign currency denominations.

The goal of this fund is to provide total returns composed of current income and capital appreciation. The performance of the fund is affected by several risk factors like risk in interest rate, credit risk, inflation risk, and fund’s manager risk.

Features and Facts about FAMI Mutual Fund

The features and information below are applicable for SALEF, SALBF, and SALFIF. For SALMMF, the sales load is different: for investment less than 100,000 = 1.0% sales load; 100,000 to 300,000 = 0.5%; and 300,000 and above = 0.0%. All other features are the same for all FAMI MF.

• Base currency: Philippine peso
• Minimum initial investment: PhP 5,000.00
• Minimum additional investment: PhP 1,000.00
• Management fee: 1.75%
• Buying / Selling price: Based on the Fund’s prevailing net asset value per share

• Sales load and redemption fees apply:

1. 5,000 – less than 100,000 - 2.0%
2. 100,000 – less than 500,000 - 1.5%
3. 500,000 – less than 2,000,000 - 1.0%
4. 2,000,000 and above - 0.5%

• Investment Period Redemption fees:

1. <180 days 1.0%
2. >180 days 0.0%

Latest Fund Performance of FAMI Mutual Funds

The table below will show you the performance of FAMI mutual funds in the past one year, three years, five years and year-to-date. In choosing the best mutual fund, you should look for its return rate for the last three or five years rather than one-year data.

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