Rank

Insurance Company

Average Expense Ratio

1

NTUC Income

1.1 %

2

GreatEastern Life

1.4 %

2

Prudential

1.5 %

3

UOB Life

1.7 %

3

HSBC

1.8 %

3

ManuLife

1.8 %

3

AIA

1.9 %

3

AXA

1.9 %

3

OAC

2.1 %

3

Aviva

2.2 %

3

Asia Life

2.2 %

For Comparison

Average Expense Ratio

ILPs

1.8 %

Unit Trusts

2.1 %

Exchange-Traded Fund

0.3 %

CPF Ordinary and Special Accounts  

0.0 %

Shares

0.0 %

Important Information

1) Each of the 11 insurers offers as few as 4 or as many as 22 funds. The "average expense ratio" shown above is the average of expense ratios for all the stock funds offered by that insurer.

2) To standardize risk, the expense ratios are for equity (stock) funds only. Bond funds are excluded.

3) The column "Average Expense Ratio" actually shows the median (and not the average) value of expenses divided by market value for all stock funds sold by each insurer. It uses median instead of mean returns to give less weight to very high or low expense ratios – (but the median vs. mean difference is not more than 0.1 per cent for any insurer).

4) In the "for comparison" section, the Exchange Traded Fund with the expense ratio of 0.3 % is the STI ETF.  At present, it is the only equity (stock) ETF approved for CPF investments.