What is Unit Trust / Forward Pricing?

Which Mari Invest products are Unit Trusts?

Currently, all available Mari Invest products are structured as Unit Trusts. This means when you invest in any of these, your money is pooled with others and managed by professionals.

• Mari Invest SavePlus

• Mari Invest Income

• Mari Invest Gold

• Mari Invest Singapore Equity

What exactly is a Unit Trust?

Think of a Unit Trust (often called a mutual fund) as a giant "investment pool". Instead of buying every individual asset yourself, you and many other investors contribute money into a fund managed by a professional fund manager. This expert uses the collective pool to buy assets like stocks, bonds, or other assets / commodities, essentially hiring them to curate and monitor a portfolio for you.

Why choose a Unit Trust over individual stocks?

• Expert Oversight: You don’t need to watch the markets 24/7; a professional does the heavy lifting.

• Instant Diversification: Investing in a Unit Trust can give you exposure to a pool of assets at once, helping cushion the blow if one specific investment underperforms. (Not applicable for Mari Invest Gold)

Understanding Forward-Pricing

Typically, one of the biggest differences for a Unit Trust investor is Forward-Pricing. Unlike stock and ETF trading where the price you get may fluctuate throughout the trading day, Unit Trusts are priced once per dealing day. This is known as the Net Asset Value (NAV).

Note: Only the fund offered through Mari Invest SavePlus is priced on a historical basis

How the process works (Example)

• The Order: You place your buy or sell order (e.g. at 14:00 Hrs today).

• The Wait: You won’t know the exact Unit Price yet. Once the cut-off time passes, the Fund Manager calculates the total value of all assets in the fund and determines that day’s Unit Price.

• The Execution: Your order is processed using the final Unit Price applicable to that specific dealing day.

For more information on Mari Invest order processing times, please read here.

Unit Trust vs. ETF: What’s the Difference?

While both are "baskets" of investments, they behave differently in the marketplace:

Table 1: Comparing Unit Trusts and ETFs