Hi Folks, today's post is for sharing of my own experience for those who are already buying ETFs and Unit Trusts from online platforms. I have been investing into an income portfolio offered by the Development Bank of Singapore ("DBS Bank"). I like the user-friendly and ever evolving DBS App. It allows one to move seamlessly from banking to wealth management within a single App. Nevertheless, I have decided to end my investment on the DBS Bank App platform for the following reasons:
1. It takes 7-9 Working Days to Fully Liquidate Relative to Other Platforms 2-3 working days.
This is an extremely painful part. If you need funds urgently and try to do partial liquidation, the DBS App takes a super long time to process and return the cash back to your savings account. I initiated a liquidation order on 8th August 2026 (Saturday) and only received the fund on 20th August 2026. Excluding the weekend and public holiday, this process took an astounding 8 working days to complete which is really out of the world.
My other platform, Endowus, easily complete liquidation process in 2 to 3 working days.
2. Distribution from DBS Digi Income Portfolio Payout only Once Every Quarter.
The payout of distribution from the managed portfolio of unit trusts is only done once per quarter relative to its competitor once every month.
3. Cost of Funds Management Fees Not Transparent Enough and On High Side
The cost of management fees on platform is 0.75% for DBS Bank while Endowus Higher Income portfolio is only 0.25%-0.6% (depending on amount of fund investment). Additionally, there is no information on trailer rebate from DBS Bank hence I assume DBS will eat up trailer fees rebate from the underlying Unit Trusts. This is vastly different from Endowus which will give back trailer fees directly to you.
Parting Thoughts
The funny thing for me is that this is the 2nd time I tried DBS Bank Digital Portfolio as I thought that maybe their Income product has improved. I think the App interface has definitely improved over time but the above downsides are always at the back of my mind. Summarising and based on current experiences, I will just retain Endowus as my one and only unit-trust purchase platform.
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