About IFAST

IFAST holds a Capital Markets Services license issued by MAS under the Securities and Futures Act to deal in securities and provide custodial services for securities. IFAST is also exempted by MAS to provide trust business services under the Trust Companies Act 2005 relating to employee pension schemes. In this regard, IFAST can facilitate the setting up of a trust and be the trustee for company retirement benefit plans constituted as a trust.

IFAST is the largest investment administration platform in Singapore with assets-under-management exceeding S$1.8 billion as of October 2006.

IFAST Retirement Benefits Solutions

For companies intending to provide some form of retirement benefits to their employees as an employee benefit, IFAST offers the following 3 alternative solutions:

1. Executive Bonus Plan

   The Executive Bonus Plan is the most flexible company retirement benefits plan, structured as a bonus to your employees. Under this plan, the company sets aside a sum of money monthly which is paid into a corporate account set up with IFAST. The monies will be invested into unit trusts, and the units allocated notionally to selected employees in a proportion specified by the company.

   The company can set certain benchmarks into the plan to promote its corporate objectives e.g. staff retention and performance. For example, the employee will only be entitled to the money after 3 years in the company with consistently good performance. When the benchmark is achieved for a particular employee, the company will instruct IFAST to redeem the units in that employee's notional account, and the redemption monies will be paid out as a bonus to that employee.

   This plan is relatively tax-effective. The company can expense off the bonus payout for tax purposes, and the employee only pays tax on the bonus when he receives it.

   The Executive Bonus Plan is suitable for companies keen on a flexible employee benefits plan to retain and reward senior executives and other valued good performers, without the limitations of a Section 5 and SRS plan.

2. Section 5 Plan
   

   The company retirement benefits plan can be structured as a Section 5 (Income Tax Act) plan. Section 5 is a tax-effective regulatory regime for companies to provide retirement benefits to their employees. Company contributions under the Section 5 plan are tax-deductible. Employees can also enjoy tax concessions on their retirement benefits in the form of an option to spread the withdrawal of benefits over 5 years or to purchase an annuity using the benefits upon their retirement.

   To qualify for a Section 5 plan, the company needs to satisfy the following IRAS conditions:

   1. All contributions into the Section 5 plan must come from the employers. No co-contribution by employees is allowed.
   
   
   2. The contributions shall be paid into a trust set up by the company for its Section 5 plan.
   
   
   3. The benefits must be offered to all employees (executive and bargainable), at the same formula.
   
   
   4. The benefits must be certified by an actuary as not exceeding the cap imposed by IRAS.

   The Section 5 plan is suitable for MNC, large local companies and statutory boards keen on a tax-effective retirement benefits plan to be implemented for all employees across their organizations. It is also effective as a tool to bridge any gap in benefits between local and foreign employees.

   IFAST can facilitate the following additional services required to start up a Section 5 plan:

   1. Seeking IRAS approval of your company plan

      IFAST can facilitate the process of seeking IRAS approval of your company's Section 5 plan.

   
   
   2. Creating a trust to constitute your company plan

      This involves drafting a trust deed setting out the full details of the intended retirement benefits scheme, ensuring that the draft trust deed is compliant with the IRAS requirements, submitting the draft trust deed to IRAS for its in-principle approval, and procuring the signing of the trust deed by the relevant parties after obtaining IRAS in-principle approval.

   
   
   3. Actuary Certificate

      To arrange for an actuary to provide certification that the contribution rate under the company plan will not provide benefits exceeding the formula imposed by IRAS.

IFAST Retirement Benefits Administration Services

1. Design a retirement benefits plan website customized for your company employees to view their holdings, transaction and periodic statements, research fact sheets and prospectuses, transact in approved unit trusts and other mutually agreed features.
   
   
2. Process authorized instructions to subscribe, switch, transfer, cancel and/or redeem specified unit trust holdings under the company plan.
   
   
3. Distribute the assets to employees as instructed by the company.
   
   
4. Keep accurate and proper records of each company employee account containing the employee name, employee number, NRIC number and/or other modes of identification of the employees, the number of units subscribed and redeemed and the updated number of outstanding units for each of employee.
   
   
5. To provide the relevant statements including the confirmation of transactions, monthly and quarterly statements containing relevant information on all transactions performed by the employee for each trade, in each month and each quarter.
   
   
6. To make available market updates, fund performance reports and other relevant information mutually agreed from time to time.
   
   

Our Competitive Advantages

• Largest investment administrator in Singapore
  
  

  IFAST's track record and experience as the largest unit trust administration platform in Singapore makes IFAST the ideal administrator of your company retirement benefits plan. As of October 2006, IFAST manages about S$1.8 billion assets-under-management.

  IFAST is also one of only two CPF Investment Administrators in Singapore, which authorizes IFAST to draw funds directly from the CPF Board or CPF agent banks for our clients transactions.

  Our account managers and backroom staff are experienced and competent in administering your company plan.

• Large base of institutional clients
  
  

  IFAST's institutional clients include Bank of China, Hong Leong Finance, Prudential Assurance, Asia Life, BNP Paribas, DMG & Partners, Barclays etc. As their designated service provider, IFAST is subject to their rigorous review and has continually satisfied the stringent standards imposed by MAS and our institutional clients under the MAS Outsourcing Guidelines.

• In-house IT development team
  
  

  With a large in-house IT development team, IFAST is dedicated to provide comprehensive online and IT services such as financial planning and trade-execution software. Our approach is to customize our system to meet your company's needs, instead of a one-size-fit-all solution.

• Wide range of products
  
  

  IFAST distributes a wide range of products on our platform consisting of unit trusts, insurance, bonds to cater to the different needs of your company and employees.

• Credible unit trust research team
  
  

  IFAST has a large unit trust research team in Singapore which also provides the content for IFAST online transaction portal, fundsupermart.com. Our research team is known in Singapore for its unit trust research capabilities.

• Large client services team
  
  

  We have a large client services team dedicated to answer any queries of your employees by phone or email during office hours.

• Extensive Network of Independent Financial Advisers
  
  

  IFAST, as the largest platform for independent financial advisers (IFA) in Singapore, can help you shortlist a desired number of qualified, experienced and competent IFA for your choice to advice on your company plan investments. In this regard, IFAST has in place a set of stringent criteria, based on relevant qualifications, years of experience and assets-under-management of the IFA, to help you select a suitable IFA.