Terkini : Hukum ASB dan ASN

Oleh Zaharuddin Abd Rahman

Hari ini saya menerima satu email yang mengandungi satu attachemnet surat dari Suruhanjaya Sekuriti, Malaysia kepada Setiausaha, Majlis Penasihat Syariah salah sebuah Bank Islam di Malaysia berkenaan hukum Amanah Saham Bumiputra (ASB) dan Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN).

Apa yang jelas, telah saya sebutkan sebelum ini berkali-kali, walaupun ia telah disahkan harus oleh Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan Malaysia. Namun kaedah dan implementasi  ASB dan ASN bercanggah dengan panduan sebuah saham amanah yang diiktiraf PATUH SYARIAH oleh Majlis Penasihat Syariah, Suruhanjaya Sekuriti, Malaysia.

Tatkala itu, bolehlah dianggap terdapat perbezaan pendapat dalam menentukan hukum ASB dan ASN antara dua badan pengeluar hukum yang terbesar di Malaysia. Bagi mereka yang ingin lebih berhati-hati dan menjamin tidak terjebak di dalam yang haram, kerana harta akan menjadi darah daging diri dan ahli keluarga. Saya menyarankan agar melihat dengan lebih teliti keahlian ahli-ahli fatwa dari kedua-dua badan terbabit. 

Jika di tanya kepada pendapat peribadi saya, saya lebih cenderung kepada pendapat Majlis Syariah, Suruhanjaya Sekuriti Malaysia dalam hal ini setelah melihat kepada panduan yang diletakkan mereka bagi mengiktiraf sesebuah Amanah Saham yang patuh atau tidak patuh Syariah.

Anda mungkin berkata,

"SAYA TIDAK PEDULI, ASALKAN MAJLIS FATWA LULUSKAN, SAYA AKAN BERPEGANG DENGANNYA KERANA MEREKA YANG TANGGUNG DI AKHIRAT"

Ulasan saya, Allah swt memberikan kita aqal untuk memerhati dan meneliti pandangan kedua-dua badan besar ini setakat kemampuan yang ada, berfikirlah. JIia benar-benar setelah membaca hujjah kedua-dua pihak, lalu anda yakin dengan salah satu antaranya. Anda telah menunaikan tanggungjawab sebagai seorang Muslim yang baik. Namun jika, sambil malas dan ingin mengambil mudah, lalu terus berpegang dengan keputusan Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan, tanpa mengendahkan hujah Majlis SYariah Suruhanjaya Sekuriti. Tatkala itu, individu tersebut tidak berada dalam situasi yang sepatutnya. 

Perlu difahami bahawa Majlis Syariah Suruhanjaya Sekuriti Malaysia dianggotai oleh individu yang sememangnya specialist  dan berpengalaman di dalam bidang muamalat dan kewangan Islam. Untuk melihat senarai ahlinya, sila buka di sini .

Berikut adalah salinan suratnya, saya telah memadam nama bank Islam yang ditujukan surat ini, kerana apa yang penting adalah isi kandungan surat.

 

Hasil daripada surat ini, Suruhanjaya Sekuriti kelihatan TIDAK MEMBENARKAN bank-bank Islam di Malaysia memberikan pembiayaan tunai kepada pelanggan yang ingin menyertai ASB dan ASN.

Berikut adalah tulisan-tulisan saya yang lalu berkenaan ASB dan ASN. Dan Kita masih mengharap pihak ASB dan ASN mengambil inisiatif lebih tulen untuk melayakkan mereka digelar patuh syariah oleh Majlis Syariah SC, Malaysia.

1) Perbincangan Hukum ASB

2) Tak Puas Hati Berkenaan Hukum ASB

3) Majlis Fatwa kata ASB Harus : Ulasan UZAR

Sejurus mereka mengubah kaedah pelaburan mereka dan diluluskan oleh Majlis Syariah Suruhanjaya Sekuriti. Di ketka itu, semua artikel-artikel saya berkaitan ASB tidak lagi terpakai tentunya.

Sekian,

Zaharuddin Abd Rahman

article dipetik dr : www.zaharuddin.net

Public Mutual swept 7 "The Edge-Lipper" awards, including Best Overall Group Award

     Public Bank’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Public Mutual emerged for the sixth consecutive year as the biggest winner at The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Fund Awards 2009 by winning 7 of the 24 awards, including the prestigious “Best Overall Group” award.

 

    Public Mutual’s Chairman Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Teh Hong Piow expressed pride that once again Public Mutual emerged as the biggest winner at The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Fund Awards 2009. “These awards reflect Public Mutual's commitment to do its utmost to give value to our investors,” he said. He dedicated these awards to Public Mutual’s board of directors, management, staff, agency force and the investors for their unwavering support and trust over the years.

 

   Tan Sri Teh and the management team were on stage to receive the awards from YAB Dato' Sri Mohd Najib bin Hj Tun Abdul Razak, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance 1 during the award presentation ceremony held at the Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur .  

Unit trust still a good bet for the long term

by Fong Min Hun 12:15PM (05-01-2009)

KUALA LUMPUR: The past 12 months has seen the erosion of wealth in virtually every type of non-fixed income investment, and unit trust funds have not been spared.

Despite offering a modicum of security compared to traditional equities owing to its large pool of investors and its diverse portfolio of investments, trust funds have nonetheless declined alongside market indices, albeit at a slower rate.

According to data from the Securities Commission, the total net asset value (NAV) in Malaysia dropped by more than 20% to RM135.87 billion in November from RM170.1 billion in January.

There is, however, an anomaly within the figure, namely the decline in the NAV of Islamic-based funds. Unlike conventional funds? NAV, which plunged 22% to RM119.77 billion in November from RM153.7 billion in January, Islamic funds declined only 2% to RM16.11 billion from RM16.4 billion.

A fund manager noted that this could be due to the fact that Islamic funds were not traded intensively and tended to lag behind the movement of conventional funds.

Case in point is the fact that the total NAV of Islamic funds only peaked in June with an NAV of RM17.98 billion, up 10% from January before starting its downwards slide. By that time, conventional funds? NAV had already started to shed value since its peak in January.

On the whole, September?s figure also marked the first time that the total NAV failed to show positive year-on-year growth in at least four years. Subsequently, total NAV for September shrank 4% compared to the same month in 2007.

According to Eric Wong, Hong Kong head of research for global fund analyst Thomson Reuters Lipper, the last 12 months has seen unprecedented movements in the fund industry for both Malaysia and the region.

The year-to-date (January to November) average loss of all funds registered for sale in Malaysia is the largest (-23.10%) since its average loss for the entire year in 1997(-43.30%),? Wong said in an email reply to The Edge Financial Daily.

He added that a similar trend had been occurring in other major regional markets such as Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and China.

The silver lining for Malaysian investors, however, is that the Malaysian fund industry has incurred significantly smaller losses then that of most other Asian countries. This finding is not surprising as the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange has outperformed other countries in the region.

Wong believed there were other considerations as well.

This may probably be attributed to the capital control imposed by the Malaysian government, rendering foreign investors less interested to invest in Malaysian equities and bonds, Wong said. Their relative low participation reduces the volatility of Malaysian equities and bonds.

This, coupled with the majority of funds that are registered for sale in Malaysia, are invested in Malaysian equities and bonds, limits the average loss of Malaysian funds in comparison to those in other Asian countries.

Responding to reports that a majority of equity funds in Malaysia had increased their portfolio allocation to cash or other liquid securities in Malaysia as a precaution against a continued slump in the market, Wong said some funds made the switch to cash in the third quarter.

However, there was no evidence that a majority of equity funds were doing so, he added.

Time to buy and what to buy?
With equities trading at historic lows, common wisdom suggests that now would be a good time to cherry pick for good stocks at cheap prices. By extension, this would mean that equity funds also would trade cheaply.

Nonetheless, Wong believed it was premature to conclude that equities were undervalued, saying it was likely that equities would continue their slide in 2009.

The values of equities are basically determined by two components: interest rate and earnings growth. Low interest rates and expectation that central banks around the globe will continue to lower interest rates will continue to support equities, he said.

However, with reports showing the global economic environment is projected to deteriorate further in 2009, the downwards trend of corporate earnings growth is less likely to reverse in the coming quarters.

Such a scenario means equities will still face significant downside risk on their valuation in 2009 and, hence, investors should not at this stage park their capital in equity funds.

Wong added that the same was likely true for commodity funds, which were traditionally even more volatile than equity funds.

For investors who are concerned about preserving the value of their investments, Wong advised continued investment in bond-linked and money market funds, although yields had fallen to very low levels recently.

Should investors stay away from unit trusts?

No, said Robert Foo, financial planner and managing director of MyFP Services Sdn Bhd.

So long as investing for the long-term is concerned, investors shouldn't concern themselves too much with the current state of the market, as markets will grow in the long term.

Unit trust funds, he added, were not opportunistic investments that would yield massive returns in the short-term. As a managed basket of investments, funds offer the benefit of professional management in exchange for more normalised returns on investments.

When we talk to clients, we tell them that they have to look at it from a period of time of five years and above, Foo said. Our objective is to help our clients achieve their investment targets and this means rebalancing their portfolios depending on the condition of the market.

Meanwhile, markets will rise and fall in the long-term, he said. What investors have to do is to rebalance their portfolios during both the peaks and the troughs. In that respect, it is essential for investors to establish investment goals that correspond with their tolerance for risk.

Foo said a disciplined approach would allow for greater returns in the long-term. His clients, he said, averaged between 7%-8% in returns although they had differing investment targets.

?When the market was way up, we also rebalanced our clients? portfolios. We said, Look, 60% return is absurd for a fund, so we need to rebalance,? and we rebalanced our clients down,? he said.

As for asset classes of funds, Foo said the type of fund was not as important as the revenue model of the underlying investment and consistency in performance, although he said MyFP?s policy was to stay away from theme-based funds such as those localised in a specific region or commodity.

Foo also advised that investors refrain from going on a purchasing spree based on the cheapness of a stock or fund, as pricing was not a good indicator of the value of the share.

At the end of the day, it's not the price that determines the value of the stock ? that kind of analysis is too simplistic. You have to look at the intrinsic value of the underlying equity to determine that, Foo said.

Article Information --- 

This article was emailed from http://www.theedgedaily.com:80/cms. 

Article's URL: 

http://www.theedgedaily.com:80/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_a4fb42ce-cb73c03a-53897400-1f08d03e

Don't Panic in the Midst of a Market Crash!

When the market crashes, what do you do? What can you do? iFAST Research Team offers their insights in these trying times.

Author : iFAST Research Team

New investors often panic during the midst of a market crash. Suddenly you see your holdings fall drastically and you see that the hard earned money you have put into that sure-win investment evaporating. In those circumstances, there is a very strong urge to do something, anything, just so that you do not feel so helpless.

Thus, one of the biggest mistakes investors often make when the market crashes in to be emotionally driven to take wrong actions on their investments. Of course, there are different situations for every market crash. Some could be the start of a longer and overdue decline (remember the bursting of the Nasdaq bubble?), while others are just temporary and stocks would soon bounce back in time. But the key thing to remember is not to let panic take over.
Investors might do 4 possible things when they are faced with news that the market has just crashed. They might:

• sell off their investments,
  
• switch to other investments,
  
• hold on and just watch, or
  
• buy in further!
  

There is no absolutely correct decision, but we would discuss each of these responses to see when it is a good or bad time to perform them.

The first option, which many new investors are guilty of during a market crash, is to sell off everything. "I have lost 30% of my investments in a month! If this keeps up, I would lose all of it in two more month's time!" Scary as this thought is, it is as likely to happen as it is to snow in Malaysia! If you have thought long and hard before you bought your fund, and you have a reasonably diversified portfolio, you would know this cannot possibly happen. Even during some of the worst market crashes, markets never ever lost all their money. For that to happen, every single stock held by the fund manager must simultaneously go bankrupt!

Very often, by the time you read in the newspapers or hear that the market has plunged overnight, the crash has already happened. Only major crashes make the newspapers and headlines. So, by the time you make the decision to sell off everything, the markets are already down on account of whatever bad news resulted in the crash. When you look at the charts of market indices in hindsight, you often ask "if I could have bought into this market at the very bottom, I would have made so much money in 2 years!" However, if you have lived through those times invested in those markets, you would have realized that it is precisely then, when markets hit bottom, that most investors are selling off all their holdings. So, while selling off everything is the most common choice, it is also usually the worst option!

The only time when it might be a good choice to sell off your investments was if you had cleverly invested in a huge bull market and was riding the market all the way to the top! So, once you have crested it, and there is a market crash, it may signal the end of the huge bull run you have just experienced. In which case, getting out would actually be a smart move. However, this is not an easy thing to do as very often, in such circumstances, you would have been sitting on hefty profits and are wondering whether this is just a temporary dip before the market continues upwards again!

The second choice can also be dangerous and that is to switch to other investments. This is because you are effectively selling out from the current market you are invested in and moving to other investments, whether they are bond funds or other safer markets. In such situations, the urge would be strong to move to less risky pastures like bond funds, capital guaranteed funds and money market funds. But as we have stressed earlier, this is similar to selling out everything and holding cash because the underlying push is still to stop losing money based on something that has already happened! So, again, emotions might be causing a bad decision.

The third choice, which we suggest all investors do, at least at first, is to take a deep breath and hold on. Do so for 1 or 2 days. Like we said just now, with a well diversified portfolio, you can wait that one or two days until you sort out what is happening and calm yourself. While there is the strong urge to take action now, there is also a high possibility that you would be acting emotionally if you acted now! So, the best thing is to take one step back, clam yourself down, and think through everything rationally before you do anything at all! In a few days, everything might look overdone! (Market crashes very often are overdone as investors panic and drive markets lower than they should be!).

Note also that being calm and rational does not mean you sit back and start counting all the reason why you should sell off all your holdings! You should be asking questions like

"Why did I buy into this investment, are the reasons and factors still there?"

"Is this a temporary reaction from investors because of one event which would soon blow over?"

"If I did not have any investments, and had just cash instead, would I be looking to buy this investment because it is now cheap or would I be looking in some other place?"

These are the questions you should be asking yourself. What you should not be asking yourself is whether you need the money or how long you can afford to hold out before you must cash in your losses! These questions will only drive you to sell your holdings blindly. Whether or not you can afford the losses and how long you are prepared to hold the investments are questions you should be asking yourself before you buy any investment, not after you have already bought it!

Even if you do come to a decision to sell your holdings after calm and rational thought because good of and valid reasons, waiting can have its benefits. The markets usually calm themselves after a few days and there is a strong possibility or a slight rebound no matter how terrible the crash. As we saw in the month of October, and in November as well, many markets swung wildly, some within a single trading day as investors grappled with bad news from the ongoing US financial crisis. Just as markets could crash 5 to 8% within a day, they would go back up 8 to 10% the following day again.

The last choice, which is buy even more, is a brave one. Oddly enough, it often tends to be the best in hindsight. It is also the most difficult to do because your mind is screaming for you to sell! Of course, this also varies from situation to situation and some crashes have heralded a longer term decline. But generally, in most circumstances, markets are resilient and bounce back again from their crashes. Let's take a look at table 1.

Table 1

	In that year	1 year later	3 years later	5 years later
YTD 2008	-41.7%	?	?	?
1931	-47.1%	-14.8%	17.0%	111.6%
1937	-38.6%	24.5%	0.3%	-7.4%
1974	-29.7%	31.5%	38.7%	57.4%
1930	-28.5%	-47.1%	-35.0%	-12.5%
2002	-23.4%	26.4%	41.9%	66.9%
1941	-17.9%	12.4%	52.8%	76.1%
1973	-17.4%	-29.7%	10.2%	-1.5%
1940	-15.1%	-17.9%	10.3%	64.1%
1932	-14.8%	44.1%	94.1%	52.5%
1957	-14.3%	38.1%	45.3%	57.8%
1966	-13.1%	20.1%	14.6%	27.1%
2001	-13.0%	-23.4%	5.6%	23.5%
1929	-11.9%	-28.5%	-67.7%	-55.7%
1946	-11.9%	0.0%	9.7%	55.4%
1962	-11.8%	18.9%	46.5%	52.9%
1977	-11.5%	1.1%	42.8%	47.9%
1969	-11.4%	0.1%	28.2%	-25.5%
2000	-10.1%	-13.0%	-15.8%	-5.5%
1981	-9.7%	14.8%	36.5%	97.6%
1953	-6.6%	45.0%	88.1%	122.5%
1990	-6.6%	26.3%	41.3%	86.5%
1939	-5.2%	-15.1%	-21.6%	6.6%
1934	-4.7%	41.4%	11.1%	31.2%
1960	-3.0%	23.1%	29.1%	59.1%
1994	-1.5%	34.1%	111.3%	219.9%
1948	-0.7%	10.5%	56.4%	63.2%

Source: Bloomberg, MSCI, all performance figures are in USD.

Table 1 shows all of the single negative years for the S&P 500 index (an index that is often used as a broad indicator of the US stock market) since the year 1929. And we include the Great depression in this analysis as well. In total, there were 26 years which were negative years, some, like in 1931 during the great depression, was were the index was down 47.1%. Since some of these were too mild to be considered a crash, we set a benchmark of down 20%. So, we look only at the years in which the market crashed by at least 20% or more within one single year. (Note that the US market has crashed 41.7% so far this year as at 25th Nov 08). When we look at only the 20% crashes, we note that there are only 5 of them.

For 3 out of 5 of these great crashes, the 1 year period following these crashes would be a positive one. In other words, there was a 60% chance after such a "crash" year that the following year would be a good one. If we extended this period to 3 years after the "crash" year, the percentage went up to 80%. The percentage fell back to 60% for a 5 year period. And we note that this long period covers all sorts of crisis from the great depression, to world war 2, to the 1st and 2nd oil shocks in the seventies. Indeed, during the great depression, in a year when the S&P 500 index crashed 47% in 1931, the index was up 111% five years later.

Thus, as we have shown. Statistically and historically, the decision to buy in more after a particularly terrible year may often, in hindsight be the best, but it is certainly one of the most difficult option to take.

In conclusion, there is a strong urge for investors to panic and do something during a market crash. However, this is almost entirely emotionally driven. So, we advise that investors would often be better served holding on to their investments instead. In the aftermath of the crash, after things have settled down, the situation would then no longer look so dire. Things have crashed so much over the last two months that in many markets, all fundamentals are being ignored now. Stocks trading at a 2 times price to earnings ratio and 0.5 times price to book ratio are still rated a sell. Many Asian markets are trading at below ten times PE ratio and still the panic is present.

As we mentioned before, ask some of those hard questions and don't panic during a market crash! If the factors on why you bought the investment still stands, then all the more reason to hold on to those investments. This discipline and rational thinking will tide you over difficult volatile periods and serve most, in the long run, to make better returns for such investors.

 

Source : http://www.fundsupermart.com.my/main/research/viewHTML.tpl?articleNo=143

Most Outstanding Islamic Fund Manager Award for 2nd consecutive year

Public Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, Public Mutual won the Most Outstanding Islamic Fund Manager award for second consecutive year at the 5th KLIFF (Kuala Lumpur Islamic Finance Forum) Islamic Finance Awards 2008 ceremony. The award was presented by Y.B Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Minister of Finance II to Public Mutual's Chairman Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Teh Hong Piow during the award presentation ceremony which was held on 18 November 2008 at the Istana Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

The 5th KLIFF Islamic Finance Awards 2008 is organised by The Centre for Research and Training (CERT) together with the host, Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC), and in collaboration with Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes (DJIM), the International Institute of Islamic Finance (IIIF) and Messrs Hisham, Sobri & Kadir (HSK).

Tan Sri Teh expressed pride that once again Public Mutual is bestowed this prestigous award. "This award represents the 121st award won by Public Mutual since 1999. Winning this award not only reinforces our position in the Islamic unit trust industry but also affirms our commitment to excellence," he added. Tan Sri Teh dedicated the award to Public Mutual's board of directors, the management, staff, agency force and the investors for their unwavering support and trust over the years.

Public Mutual is a leading player in the private Islamic unit trust fund sector in Malaysia. As at end September 2008, it manages 24 Islamic funds with total Islamic assets under management of RM8.5 billion. This represents 50.7% market share of the private Islamic unit trust industry. The company is also the most awarded Islamic unit trust fund manager in Malaysia, winning a total of 32 Islamic Fund Awards. This includes the "Best Islamic Fund Manager in Asia 2006 & 2007" awarded by Failaka Advisors, Dubai, a recognised leader in the field of Islamic fund research.

Public Mutual is Malaysia's largest private unit trust company with 67 funds under management. It has over 2,000,000 accountholders serviced by over 40,000-strong unit trust consultants. As at end September 2008, the total net asset value of the funds managed by the company was RM24.1 billion.

EPF: Volatile Market Creates Buying Opportunity

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 (Bernama) -- Current market conditions have opened up buying opportunities for long-term investors, said the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) deputy chief executive officer, investments, Johari Abdul Muid.

He said that a bearish market was a boon to long-term investors like the EPF, as it provided an opportunity to pick up good, valued stocks at reduced prices.

He said that Bursa Malaysia is expected to remain volatile in line with global and regional markets as investors continue to take a cautious stance while monitoring developments in the domestic and global economy as well as the financial system.

He said like every other fund, the EPF was also affected due to the downturn in the stock markets but was on track until Sept 30 to basically meet budget expectations, as it had realised a big portion of the target earlier.

"The global financial crisis has led to stock markets across the globe falling dramatically. Bursa Malaysia has also not been spared," he told Bernama in a recent interview.

He said that this factor would naturally have an adverse impact on the funds income and it would be difficult for the 2008 dividend to match that of 2007.

"Furthermore, the recent quarterly announcements by listed companies have reported lower profits which usually translates into lower dividend payouts, or not at all. This will further impact the EPFs investment income for 2008 and 2009," he added.

Johari said that although the fourth quarter did not look that rosy, as the full impact of the global meltdown would be felt, it was still an opportunity to buy.

He explained that the EPF subscribed to prudent management and investment policies to ensure reasonable and sustainable returns.

"The EPF is first and foremost the custodian of retirement savings of close to 12 million members and will therefore be always guided by prudence when making investment decisions.

"It is through this investment approach that we can ensure our members are paid reasonable dividends year-on-year, without risking their savings," he said.

He also said the EPF's commitment is that,the dividend would not fall below 2.5 percent.

"Generating more income has to do with the risk that you are willing to take. As a pension fund, we must ensure that the money is safe. We have to be as efficient as possible in every asset class that we invest," he said.

In terms of asset allocation, he said that 80 percent was parked in fixed income instruments such as Malaysian Government Securities (MGS), and loans and bonds with only 20 percent in domestic equity.

The EPF, he highlighted, is allowed to invest up to nine percent of its total fund size in foreign equity markets which amounts to RM28 billion.

However, it has only invested RM19 billion to date and in the current difficult time, has managed to lock in RM500 million in profits.

"Our risk perspective when investing overseas is not to put all the eggs in one basket," he said.

He said besides in-house fund managers, EPF has also appointed external fund managers to manage its funds.

Source: BERNAMA , 20th November 2008.

Dilemma for EPF Contributors

KUALA LUMPUR: More money to use now means less for one's retirement. This is the dilemma Employees Provident Fund contributors face should they decide to opt to have their monthly contribution reduced from the mandatory 11% to the "voluntary" 8%.

The government's decision to adopt this measure to help Malaysians tide the rise in prices of goods and services and the economic downturn is heartily welcomed by those in the lower income group and struggling to pay bills.

But there are many who prefer to stick to the 11% deduction and tighten their belts momentarily.

This group is also irked by the "burden" of having to fill up an EPF form – those who do not will be deemed to be agreeable to contributing 8% for two years effective Jan 1.

Under the new scheme, a 35-year-old employee with a RM3,000 monthly salary would be able to take home an extra RM90 in his monthly pay packet, which amounts to RM2,160 over two years.

However, assuming that a 5% dividend is paid out annually with the compound element over a period of 20 years until he turns 55, he will be RM5,500 "poorer" when he retires.

If his monthly income for the next two years is RM5,000, he would lose out on a total savings of RM9,200 in his EPF upon retirement.

If his monthly income for the next two years is RM5,000, he would lose out on a total savings of RM9,200 in his EPF upon retirement.

As it is, the EPF has raised concerns about Malaysians not having enough savings to see them through 20 years past retirement, much less lead a comfortable life.

In a study by the EPF last year, the average contributor has only RM106,000 in his savings while one would need a projected sum of about RM747,000 (taking into consideration inflation rates) if one were to live for 25 years after retirement.

Source : The Star, 16^th Nov 2008.