Webinar: Endowus exclusive — BlackRock's iShares index funds

Watch the webinar replay

About the session

Endowus is excited to introduce BlackRock’s iShares index funds for retail investors in Singapore. The four BlackRock unit trusts track the S&P 500, MSCI World Index, Bloomberg Aggregate 1-5 Year Index, and JP Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Global Diversified — enabling you to invest your cash and SRS savings in the global stock and bond markets easily and efficiently.

The four new funds on the Endowus platform — the iShares Developed World Index Fund, iShares US Index Fund, iShares Emerging Markets Government Bond Index Fund, and the iShares Global Aggregate 1-5 Year Bond Index Fund — are among the most affordable index funds available in Singapore.

Join Deborah Ho, Regional Head, Singapore and Southeast Asia, BlackRock; Geir Espeskog, Managing Director, Head of Wealth for Southeast Asia, BlackRock; Samuel Rhee, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Endowus; and Hugh Chung, Chief Investment Advisory Officer, Endowus, as they discuss:

1. The Endowus and BlackRock offering
2. Why investors should pay closer attention to fees 
3. How the four iShares index funds track major benchmarks from both a fees and tax perspective

Questions from the live audience have been answered — view them here.

Read more: Endowus introduces BlackRock's lowest-cost iShares passive index funds for retail investors in Singapore

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction to Endowus and Fund Smart

05:47 – Why does cost matter in investing?

08:20 – Introducing the guest speakers

09:53 – About the BlackRock iShares index funds available on Endowus

10:35 – Introduction to BlackRock

18:09 – What is index/passive investing? Vs active investing

21:49 – Index investing with iShares by BlackRock

35:33 – Building index portfolios on Endowus with BlackRock

37:43 – Considering fees, FX costs, and liquidity with some Singapore-listed ETFs

41:00 – iShares US Index Fund: synthetic replication and E-mini futures

42:01 – Synthetic vs physical replication, and dividend-withholding tax

46:07 – Understanding the tracking error of an index fund

49:08 – Would the fund-level fee be lowered as a fund gets bigger?

50:20 – Minimal to no FX costs with SGD-denominated funds

51:03 – FX conversion tool on the Endowus app

52:04 – Will the iShares funds be available for CPF investing?

56:22 – How to invest in BlackRock index funds on Fund Smart

1:01:57 – Endowus Flagship Portfolios now include BlackRock iShares funds

About the speakers

Deborah Ho, Regional Head, Singapore and Southeast Asia, BlackRock

Deborah is the regional head of the South East Asian business for BlackRock and country head of BlackRock Singapore. Based in Singapore, Deborah is responsible for a wide-ranging portfolio in markets across South East Asia. This includes delivering the breadth and depth of BlackRock's capabilities to clients in the region.

Deborah is a member of BlackRock’s Asia-Pacific Executive Committee. She is also active in contributing to the development of the financial industry in Singapore. She represents BlackRock on the Financial Centre Advisory Panel of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which consists of the most senior representatives of the top financial institutions in Singapore. She was also a member of the Steering Committee of the Green Finance Industry Taskforce, an industry grouping convened by the MAS to accelerate the development of green finance in Singapore.

Deborah has 30 years of experience in Investment Banking and Asset Management and is on the investment committee of the LKY fund for Bilingualism. She is a Board member of the Singapore Land Transport Authority and is a trustee on the board of the Singapore Management University.

Deborah was most recently awarded the Lifetime achievement award by Markets Media Group in the 2021 Women in finance Asia Awards for her contribution to female talent development in the Finance Industry.

Geir Espeskog, Managing Director, Head of Wealth for South-East Asia, BlackRock

Geir Espeskog, Managing Director, is the Head of Wealth for South-East Asia, responsible for the business strategy, client relationships and distribution of BlackRock funds to private banks, retail banks, and platforms across the region. Previously, he led the build-out of the sustainable investing strategy and team in APAC.

He joined BlackRock in London in 2010, where he was instrumental in building the Nordic business, helping to establish BlackRock's Copenhagen office, and bringing our iShares franchise to the Nordics. The Nordic clients that he first helped develop have been pioneers in sustainable investing, including by seeding new sustainability ETFs. He was awarded the Financial News 40 Under 40 Rising Stars in Asset Management for his efforts in establishing the Nordic ETF business. In 2015, he transferred to Hong Kong to head up the APAC ETF distribution business.

Before joining BlackRock, Geir worked at Barclays Capital where he was responsible for building a Scandinavian and Dutch derivatives business. Prior to that, he held similar positions at Merrill Lynch for four years and at Goldman Sachs the previous four years.

Geir received his M.Sc. in finance and computer science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2000. He completed part of his degree at Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

Samuel Rhee, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, Endowus 

Samuel Rhee is Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Endowus, Asia’s leading digital wealth platform. He is the former CEO and CIO of Morgan Stanley Investment Management in Asia, with three decades of institutional investing experience in Singapore, Hong Kong, and London.

Today, Sam heads the Endowus Group Investment Office and ensures every client has greater access to holistic portfolios that are thoughtfully designed to meet their specific wealth goals. He is  responsible for the company’s asset allocation and investment selection across all offerings, with a vision to provide individual investors with the same knowledge, resources, and products traditionally only made available to institutional investors, at a low, fair fee. 

Against this backdrop, Sam passionately advocates for greater financial literacy, time-tested and evidence-based advice, lower costs, the industry elimination of hidden fees, and a corporate culture that puts the client’s needs first. Endowus solves the biggest problems of wealth and investing, and retirement adequacy, leading the firm to become the first and largest digital advisor for CPF investing in Singapore.

Hugh Chung, Chief Investment Advisory Officer, Endowus

Hugh Chung is the Chief Investment Advisory Officer at Endowus, Asia’s leading digital wealth platform. 

Hugh leads the integration of investment functions and strategies across the Endowus Group, comprising the Endowus digital platform, Endowus Private Wealth, and Carret Private. He oversees the centralised Investment Office, which provides group strategic direction on the expert curation and management of all investment solutions across public and private markets, for individual and institutional investors in Singapore and Hong Kong. 

Hugh has more than 20 years of experience in the asset management and financial advisory space in Asia. In his previous role as the Chief Investment Officer for a single family office, he was responsible for strategic asset allocation, portfolio construction and fund selection across all regions and asset classes. Hugh was also previously Managing Director at Kadensa Capital and Azentus Capital as the founding member and senior investor of two of the most successful hedge fund launches in Asia. Before this, Hugh had oversight of Korea equity distribution at J.P. Morgan, and began his career at Goldman Sachs and Samsung Securities.

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