Tap on the ‘Invest’ tab
Select ‘digiPortfolio’
You can invest easily through the digibank app. Simply follow these steps to get started.
You will need a DBS / POSB account with sufficient S$ or US$ to complete your transaction.
digiPortfolios may be purchased in two currencies, S$ and US$.
For S$-denominated portfolios, you may use any Individual DBS Account as your funding account. For US$-denominated portfolios, a Multi-Currency Account is required when opening or closing a portfolio. Here is a summary of the required accounts for each digiPortfolio:
Calculation of Management Fees:
S$-denominated Portfolios | US$-denominated Portfolios | |
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Type of digiPortfolios |
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Eligible account type | Individual | Individual |
The fall below fee for the MCA will be waived for accounts that were opened specifically to fund your digiPortfolio.
Simply convert your S$ to US$ and you’re good to go! Here’s how:
Through digibank online
Through digibank app
No. Currently, digiPortfolio is not included in the list of investment products for which CPF or SRS funds can be used. We will provide an update if digiPortfolio becomes included.
Only ETF-based, Income, and SaveUp digiPortfolios will count towards the investment category.
Details of the underlying ETFs/funds in each portfolio are available in the Portfolio Details page in digibank online and digibank app. You will be able to view the fund prospectuses and fact sheets. In addition, there are short commentaries from the DBS Investment Team on why each ETF/fund in the portfolio are selected.
Simply log in to digibank online or digibank mobile to view details of your digiPortfolio and holdings.
Through digibank online
Through digibank app
The typical turnaround time is up to 5 business days for ETF-based portfolios and up to 10 business days for all other portfolios. These estimated timelines comprise of regular market settlement timelines for funds and ETFs. For withdrawals, once the settlement is completed, the proceeds will be automatically credited back to your selected crediting account.
After logging into digibank, select the digiPortfolio you wish to close and submit your closure request. If you have multiple digiPortfolios, you will need to repeat this process for each one. The holdings in the selected portfolio will be sold with the proceeds returned to your selected crediting account.
Please ensure that your DBS / POSB account remains open until the proceeds have been credited successfully as the selling process will take between 3-10 business days. These estimated timelines comprise of regular market settlement timelines for funds and ETFs.
This happens because there are outstanding or pending orders for your portfolio, either due to a purchase, top-up or withdrawal which was done recently, or a rebalancing of your portfolio is in progress.
Once processing of the outstanding orders has been completed, you will be able to submit new orders. This could take up to 5 business days for Asia and Global Portfolios, and 7-10 business days for the Income, SaveUp and Retirement Portfolios.
You can set up recurring top-ups for digiPortfolio via the digibank app. Here’s how:
For new digiPortfolio customers
For existing digiPortfolio customers
You may terminate your recurring top-up instruction any time via the digibank app by following these steps. However, take note that it takes 1 day for the termination to take effect and any top-ups scheduled for the same day will continue to occur.
Annual management fees are based on portfolio value, and charged at 0.25% per annum for Saveup Portfolio, and 0.75% per annum for all other portfolios. There are no other sales charges, platform fees, switching fees, withdrawal fees or closure fees. This management fee goes towards the research, investment strategy, market monitoring and rebalancing of the digiPortfolio and is charged once a year, or at the time of portfolio closure.
Fees are calculated based on the value of your portfolio at the end of each day. These daily fees are accumulated over time, then deducted from the cash portion of your portfolio after the end of the calendar year or upon closure of the account. You will see it in your transaction history as “DPS Management Fee”. Note that this fee will be subject to GST at the prevailing rate.
Calculation of Management Fees:
Portfolio Type | SaveUp Portfolio (0.25% p.a.) |
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Currency Denominated | SGD only |
Management Fee | $0.25 a year for a portfolio value of $100 |
All other digiPortfolios:
Portfolio Type | Asia Portfolio / Global Portfolio / Global Portfolio Plus Portfolio / Income Portfolio / Retirement Portfolio (0.75% p.a.) |
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Currency Denominated | SGD/USD where applicable |
Management Fee | $7.50 a year for a portfolio value of $1,000 |
Management fees are debited once a year. No action is required from you as the fee will be deducted from your digiPortfolio cash balance. If your cash balance is insufficient, we will increase it to the required amount by reducing the proportion of Unit Trust / ETF that you hold at prevailing prices.
If you close your portfolio, the applicable fees will be debited prior to closure.
digiPortfolio’s objective is to achieve a return befitting the respective mandate over an investment cycle of 3 – 5 years while managing the price fluctuation (risk) because of the market.
To achieve this, our strategy is to invest in a portfolio of exchange traded funds across asset classes including fixed income (bonds) and equity. Bonds provide steady income streams and equities provide capital growth. For any specific mandate, we will adjust the weights in either bonds or equities depending on our view on the market. We form this view together with our Chief Investment Officer (CIO) team – a dedicated team of analysts that form macro strategy. For example, in the Comfy Cruisin’ Portfolio that is initially 45% invested in bonds funds, 50% in equities funds and 5% in cash, we would increase the weight in equities and decrease the weight in bonds if we believed that equities would outperform bonds over a certain period of time. Our adjustments are calibrated and not excessive.
The DBS Investment Team undertakes prudent risk management to guard against excessive risk in the portfolios. Our portfolio specialists consider acceptable price fluctuations to achieve certain returns.
Risk management also mitigates downside risks if our projections do not work out as we may have intended. For example, if we took an outsized investment in equities and it corrected heavily, it would cause undue stress to the portfolio. Having risk management standards and practices in place provides safeguards in the decision-making process.
On a quarterly basis, your digiPortfolio is reviewed to ensure that the allocation of assets in each portfolio accounts for the latest investment views and market conditions. If needed, the portfolios will be reconstituted and rebalanced through the buying and/or selling specific assets. When this happens, you will be notified via email as well as on the ‘Insights & Updates’ section of your portfolio ‘Performance’ page.
We believe that one should take a long-term view when investing to enjoy the benefit of compounded returns. Staying focused on long term targets will help investors overcome the anxieties caused by short term market volatility. A good guide is an investment cycle of 5 years.
Compounding generates additional gains by staying invested. In the illustration below, based on an initial investment amount of $10,000, a 6% annual return reaps $3,000 over 5 years if the investor withdraws the gains every year. If the investor did not withdraw the gains and stayed fully invested, the profit after 5 years would be $3,382 instead or $382 more.
Year | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Cumulative |
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Simple | $10,600 | $11,200 | $11,800 | $12,400 | $13,000 | $3,000 |
Compound | $10,600 | $11,236 | $11,910 | $12,625 | $13,382 | $3,382 |
Short term investing requires good skill and timing to achieve success. However, this is difficult to execute during periods of volatility. The chart below is the MSCI World Index from 2013 to 2017. Suppose an investor started investing in 2013, he would have made some profit before meeting the rough patch in 2015. He may then decide to sell his investments to avoid further volatility. He may even wait a while before returning to the market. This may have meant missing out on the rally that proceeded in 2017. If he had stayed fully invested during the whole period, he could have benefited from the full 58% gain.