The global rise of robo-advisors is transforming the investment landscape, not just in Singapore but also in major markets like the USA and Canada. These digital platforms utilise algorithms and AI to offer personalised, cost-effective investment advice, appealing to a wide range of investors. This trend reflects a shift towards accessible, tech-driven financial services, leading to increased competition and innovation in the sector, ultimately benefiting consumers with more options and lower costs.
Here in Singapore, investors have more than 10 different robo-advisors to choose from. Two prominent robo-advisory platforms known by many are AutoWealth and StashAway, which were amongst the first in the field. Other FinTech companies competing in the robo-advisory field include Endowus and FSM MAPS. You can read more about these companies by following the respective links.
Launched in 2019, Syfe has evolved from a robo-advisor into a digital wealth platform offering managed investment portfolios, brokerage services and cash management solutions. Today, investors can use Syfe to build diversified ETF portfolios, invest in Singapore REITs, trade stocks and ETFs, or park their cash in managed cash portfolios—all within a single platform.
Before considering an investment with Syfe, here are seven key points you should be aware of.
Read Also: Robo Advisors in Singapore: What You Need To Know Before Investing
#1 How Syfe Became One Of Singapore’s Leading Robo-Advisory Platforms
Syfe is a digital wealth manager launched in Singapore in July 2019 after raising $5.2 million in seed funding, led by UK-based venture capital fund Unbound. In September 2020, the company raised another US$18.6 million for its Series A round and another US$30 million in July 2021. In August 2024, they raised US$27 million, taking their total funding to about US$79 million to date. They also received the capital markets services (CMS) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The company was founded by Dhruv Arora, who was previously a Portfolio Trader at UBS Hong Kong and later became a Director and led UBS’s ETF efforts in the region. The company has built a platform that appeals to passive investors, enabling its customers to grow their savings through an automated platform that is both easy to use and affordable.
#2 Investing Based On Your Risk Profile, Not Just Potential Returns
The cornerstone of Syfe’s methodology is to manage risk before returns.
The company focuses on risk management to provide investors with customised investment portfolios based on their individual risk profiles, rather than focusing on returns. This means the platform optimises returns while maintaining your selected risk level. The aim here is to maximise your risk-adjusted returns across all market conditions.
The platform offers users a range of portfolios to invest in based on their risk appetite. Users can also customise their portfolios to suit their preferences. They can also make adjustments at any point in time if they wish. This can be done easily on the platform, which will result in the portfolio possibly being rebalanced.
#3 An Investment Portfolio Built With Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)
When investing with Syfe, your portfolio is built using Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) that are globally diversified across asset classes, sectors and geographies. ETFs have become a popular investment vehicle over the past few years. ETFs give you diversification across many companies with a relatively small investment.
Rather than focusing on short-term performance, investors should evaluate whether the portfolio’s investment strategy, asset allocation and risk level align with their financial goals. As with any investment, past performance is not indicative of future results.
Read Also: Step-By-Step Guide To ETF Investing In Singapore
#4 Syfe Offers Multiple Investment Portfolios That You Can Choose To Invest In
Syfe has also launched multiple robo-investment portfolios that allow investors to choose the markets or sectors they prefer to invest in.
Syfe REIT+: One popular portfolio is Syfe REIT+, a REIT-focused robo-advisory product that invests in REITs. Syfe REIT+ balances the potential volatility of REIT investing with risk management. REIT+ provides exposure to a curated portfolio of Singapore-listed REITs, allowing investors to earn potential dividend income without having to select and manage individual REITs themselves. The portfolio is periodically rebalanced to maintain its investment strategy.
Syfe also offers a REIT portfolio that allows you to allocate 100% of your investments into REITs.
Whether you choose to invest in 100% REITs or REITs with Risk Management, either portfolio is a great way to gain instant diversification into the leading retail, commercial, and office REITs in Singapore and enjoy passive income from these REITs.
Syfe Equity 100: The Syfe Equity 100 is a fully managed portfolio that allocates 100% of your investment to global equities (i.e., stocks). You get access to a well-diversified global portfolio of over 1,500 stocks in the world’s leading companies via the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that it invests in. These include the Invesco QQQ Trust, which tracks the NASDAQ-100 index, and the iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF, which tracks the S&P 500 index. Equity100 puts all your money into equities. So, while it’s a very well-diversified equity portfolio, ultimately everything is in stocks.
Syfe Core: To address the needs of investors who want equities exposure while reducing the downside risks, there is Syfe Core, a suite of 3 portfolios – Core Defensive, Core Balanced and Core Growth – which maximises risk-adjusted returns. Syfe Core does this by using equity, bond, and gold ETFs to create its portfolios. The equity component of the portfolio helps investors achieve the high returns they seek using the Smart Beta methodology, while the bond and gold components provide downside protection.
Read Also: Syfe Core and Syfe Equity100: What Are the Differences Between These Two Robo-Advisory Portfolios?
Syfe Cash +: Syfe Cash+ enables us to earn a higher interest rate either by taking on slightly higher investment risk and offers us a similar level of liquidity as bank accounts, allowing us to withdraw our funds with no lock-up. This makes it a fuss-free alternative to high-yield savings accounts.
There are four portfolios to choose from in Syfe’s Cash+. There are the Cash+ Flexi (SGD), Cash+ Flexi (USD), Cash+ Guaranteed (SGD) and Cash+ Guaranteed (USD). You can see the different features between these cash management solutions below.
Read Also: Syfe Cash+: How Is It Different From Other Cash Management Accounts?
Syfe Select Themes: For those who prefer investing in specific themes because they believe that certain investment themes will perform well over the next decade, but are unsure of how to get started with investing in them, you can consider investing via Syfe’s specially created Syfe Select Themes portfolios. Currently, there are 4 thematic portfolios that we can choose from. 1) ESG & Clean Energy, 2) Disruptive Technology, 3) Healthcare Innovation and 4) China Growth.
Syfe Select Custom: For those who are already familiar with the various investment themes and would like to customise their own portfolio, they can invest via the Syfe Select Custom option. Through Syfe Select Custom, investors can build their own portfolios from a curated list of over 100 best-in-class ETFs. Clients can choose to construct their own portfolio based on a selection of up to 8 ETFs.Alternatively, Syfe Select Custom also allows you to make adjustments from your Syfe Select Themes portfolio if you generally like the portfolio that has already been constructed for you but prefer to make some adjustments. For example, many investors may already be investing on their own and Syfe Select Custom allows them to account for these investments.
Syfe Income+: For investors who want to get easy access to high-quality, globally diversified bonds that can provide regular income, Syfe has created Syfe Income+. Constructed by Syfe in collaboration with PIMCO, a global leader in active fixed income, Syfe Income+ allows investors to invest in PIMCO’s best-in-class fixed-income strategies. There are two options for Income+. There are 1) Income + Preserve and 2) Income + Enhance. Income + Preserve is built for investors looking to generate a steady regular income while seeking to preserve capital and is considered a low-risk investment by Syfe. Income + Enhance is built for investors seeking to generate higher current income and long-term capital appreciation. It’s considered a moderately low-risk investment by Syfe.
#5 Syfe Trade Account – Allowing Investors To Invest Directly In Shares (Or Fractional Shares)
One of the most unique value propositions offered by Syfe compared to other robo-advisors in Singapore is that clients can also invest directly in stocks and ETFs on their own as well. Syfe Trade is a low-cost, MAS-regulated, brokerage service enabling Singapore investors to buy and sell U.S. stocks and ETFs. This makes sense for investors who may not only want a robo-advisory managed portfolio, but would also want to make some tactical, self-direct trades.
This means through Syfe, we can view our entire investment portfolio including individual stocks and ETFs that we invest in and also our robo-advisory portfolios and cash savings within a cash management account.
Syfe Trade allows investors to buy and sell Singapore and US-listed stocks and ETFs. The platform supports fractional investing for US securities and offers tiered pricing depending on the investor’s subscription plan.
Read Also: Guide To Opening a Syfe Trade Account – And Buying Fractional Shares
#6 What Are The Fees Involved?
You cannot control your portfolio’s performance, but you can control the fees you pay.
No matter what type of investment you make, all investments come with some form of cost or fee, such as transaction costs, management fees and administrative charges. However, what’s important is to keep these costs low as they inevitably eat into your investment returns.
Investors these days have a wealth of resources available online, allowing them to read up on the types of investments available as well as the fees incurred. With numerous fintech companies being able to provide their investors with low fees, to effectively compete in the robo-advisory space, offering competitively low fees is important.
For it’s managed portfolios, Syfe charges between 0.25% to 0.65% per year, depending on your invested amount across all portfolios. For its cash management account, Syfe charges a fee of between 0.05% to 0.15%. This all-inclusive management fee gives you unlimited, free withdrawals and unlimited rebalancing. It is calculated on a daily basis and billed at the end of each month. Should you withdraw your balance before the end of the month, you pay only for the days your money was managed.
Syfe does not charge transaction or brokerage fees. However, there are other fees and charges apart from Syfe’s 0.4% to 0.65% per year fees to take note of. This includes:
- Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fees of 0.0013% when selling (charged by SEC)
- ETF Management Fees reflected in the prices of your ETFs average to about 0.15% (charged by the ETF manager)
- Currency conversion charge at 0.10% on the amount converted (charged by Broker, SAXO)
Read Also: What Fee Stacking Means For Your Robo-Advisor Investment Cost In The Long Run
#7 Funding Your Syfe Account
You can fund your account in both Singapore Dollar (SGD) and U.S. Dollar (USD). You can also top up your account anytime and the funds will automatically be invested the next day. Funds in your Syfe account are held in a Trust Account in HSBC Bank while your investments are held in a Custodian Account through Saxo Capital Markets.
To open an account, you will first be tasked to complete your risk profile. Through this risk profiling, you will also get a better understanding of your investment objective, financial situation, investment expertise, how much you need to achieve your goal and most importantly, your downside risk.
There is no minimum amount for investors to start investing with Syfe. There is also no minimum holding or lock-in periods. This means that you can withdraw your funds at any time with no withdrawal fees charged. You can invest in Syfe’s portfolio using your cash or SRS savings. Do note that SRS funds can currently be used only to invest in Syfe Portfolios (Cash+ Flexi SGD, Income+ Preserved, Income+ Enhance, Core Equity100).
Read Also: 5 Key Factors To Consider When Investing Our SRS Savings
Just like investing with any other robo-advisor, look out for promotions that the robo-advisor is running.
If you prefer a managed approach to investing, Syfe offers portfolios for different objectives — from globally diversified Core portfolios and Equity100 for long-term growth, to REIT+ and Income+ for investors seeking income. You can also use its Cash+ solutions to put short-term funds to work while maintaining liquidity.
Find out more about the different Syfe portfolios and which may suit your financial goals.
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