# AIB Irish Life MAPS Fund Query



## MFK (2 Apr 2015)

Hi
I met with AIB advisor recently and he told me about the above product and also about Dynamic Share to Cash Model which is their way of trying to move shares to cash early if there is going to be a crash.

Based on my level of risk (middle of the road), returns for 2014 were 12.2%. The average performance since 2008 is about 7%.

Fund fee is 1.15%pa

Minimum amount to be invested = €20,000 and is for 5 years

I'd appreciate your opinions on this fund and also how it compares to other funds available or that I should consider.

many thanks


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## Steven Barrett (2 Apr 2015)

MFK said:


> returns for 2014 were 12.2%. The average performance since 2008 is about 7%



There is a reason why they say past performance is no indication of future performance. 

A few things... AIB are a tied agent of Irish Life, so you only got advice on Irish Life's products. 
MAPS is less than 2 years old, not long enough to have a good idea of how good the fund is. A fund should have at least 3 years statistics to make a meaningful assessment of how good it is. 
This "Dynamic Share to Cash Model" has never been tested in a real situation. They are saying that their algorithms allows them to time the market, something that no one has ever been able to do on a consistent basis before. It will be interesting to see how successful it is. 

Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie


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## Gerry Canning (2 Apr 2015)

SBarrett said:


> There is a reason why they say past performance is no indication of future performance.
> 
> A few things... AIB are a tied agent of Irish Life, so you only got advice on Irish Life's products.
> MAPS is less than 2 years old, not long enough to have a good idea of how good the fund is. A fund should have at least 3 years statistics to make a meaningful assessment of how good it is.
> ...


MFK ;

Advice from AIB,

I remember when Garret Fitzgerald bailed them out on Insurance Coroporation Fiasco.
(we didn,t even get a share in AIB).
AIB moved into Tiger years so Berties crowd bailed them out (ps.with our money)
(at least we own them , but I see ,government want to sell them as soon as they can.So that others make the profit.)
I think most of the (successful ?) boom -time boyos still reside within the bowels of AIB.

If you have read this far, you can gather I would not trust AIB,s advice!
ps. Their 2008 Algo things ! did well didn,t they .


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## MFK (3 Apr 2015)

Thanks for the replies.
Are there any funds that anybody would recommend similar to this that I should look at for comparison purposes?


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## Steven Barrett (4 Apr 2015)

MAPS isn't a fund, it's an investment strategy and they have 5 of them. You didn't disclose which one you invested in. 

It is impossible to know what is most suitable for you without knowing more details


What do you want the money for? 
Is there a time frame in mind? 
What return do you require?
What is your capacity for loss? 
Do you know what the potential downsides are and are you comfortable with them?


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie


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## Gordon Gekko (4 Apr 2015)

AIB claiming that they have an algorithm which can predict and deal with stock market crashes...wow...where do I sign?


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## MFK (5 Apr 2015)

SBarrett said:


> MAPS isn't a fund, it's an investment strategy and they have 5 of them. You didn't disclose which one you invested in.
> 
> It is impossible to know what is most suitable for you without knowing more details
> 
> ...


Thanks for reply Steven. I have replied to the questions up above.
I haven't invested in anything yet but was looking at the Irish Life MAPS4 fund. I think there are 7 of them but could be wrong. It was a fund that had nothing in cash and they claim that they move part of the fund from other categories into cash throughout the term based on "flags" being raised where they believe market is falling rather than waiting until the end of the term when it is too late.


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## AJAM (10 Mar 2017)

In my opinion, these funds are a very poor choice for investing in for 3 key reasons

1. Fees are high and not transparent : You've quoted a 1.15% p.a charge (I couldn't find this quoted anywhere else) but there are also performance charges (incentive-fees-maps)  and I'm not even sure that this covers all the fees.
You can buy a Vanguard fund with transparent low fees of ~ 0.22% per annum 

2. Taxes: Any gains you make on Irish Mutual Funds (and UCITS ETF's i.e. Irish domiciled ETFs) are subject to a punitive 41% Tax in Ireland. However, If you invest in a non UCITS ETF (i.e. any US domiciled ETF) then you only pay 33% capital gains tax on profits.

3. 85% of active managers fail to beat the market over the long term. As far as I can tell these are active managed funds. To be honest they are not very transparent so I'm not exactly sure what they are.

My advice to anyone who wants to invest in stocks/bonds is to use low cost ETF's (Exchange Traded Funds) that track an index. Use US domiciled ETFs to take advantage of the 33% capital gains tax. Low cost online broker Degiro.ie will let you buy US ETF's.

For example to cover MAPS Asset allocation you could use the following ETFs (with annual fees of 0.1 - 0.4%)
VT - Global Stocks
ACWV - Low volatility Stocks
VNQ and/OR VNQI - Property
BND - Bonds

MAPS also has an "Alternatives" asset allocation. Personally I think that average investors should steer clear of this asset class.
And as for the cash allocation, How about keeping cash in your own bank account and not paying someone 1.15% of it p.a. to "manage" it for you.


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