I want to review the sub-funds that are available to the people/investors who have already invested in Investment-linked policies (ILPs) that are sold to them by their Prudential financial representatives.
In the first part, I reviewed the sub-funds unit trust available for AIA Representatives. If you own an investment linked policy (ILP) under AIA and wish to to see how you can switch to sub-funds that better align to your current investment philosophy, you can read the article.
Before I start, I wish to be clear that:
I am not recommending anyone buy particular sub-funds. This article is meant to help those with an ILP and for various reasons, are not getting proper, adequate advise with enough sophistication and integrity from who ever sells them the policy. The main objective is for those who have decide to keep the ILPs, whether they can better align the investment funds in the ILPs to their current investment philosophy.
On Fund Switches
We can do a switch sell from sub-fund(s) we think do not align to our investment philosophy into sub-fund(s) that are closer to our current.
Do check your policy documents because this may be different for the older, traditional ILPs.
Typically, if we do a switch, the process is a pair of switch sell and switch buy. The sell will be at bid and the buy is at offer. Since there is a spread typically about 5% between bid and offer prices, such switches will incur charges.
In your policy document of your ILP, it will state the process of switching. From what I understand, switching of sub-funds is on a bid-to-bid. So you do not incur any switching charges. But again, do check the documents.
Even if there are charges, you have to weigh the pros and cons about switching. And the pros is your reason for switching, now that you are clearer.
The Sub-fund Unit Trusts that are Available Under Prudential for Switching.
I think the first step is to review what are the funds available. Sub-fund and unit trusts may be used interchangeably here since we are talking about the funds that are available to drive the returns and risk of your ILP.
I took a look at what is available under Prudential here.
I have listed down majority of the funds (except those denominated in USD) in the table below:
I listed about 38 sub-fund unit trust here. This table is as of 22 Jun 2025.
You can’t really see the funds, or the performance of the funds unless you click to view a larger table.
I listed the
- fund inception date,
- its rough equity to fixed income allocation,
- management fee and
- the 5-year and 10-year performance and the corresponding benchmark performances.
Here are some things to note:
- I am not focusing on the poor or good investment performance. I am more reviewing how long the funds have been running, if they manage to keep up with the benchmark (because we know most active funds or portfolio underperform the index typically so that is not a surprise).
- I deem that 5 and 10 years to be long enough for us to reflect upon the investment performances.
- The returns are bid-to-bid returns, and would have factored in the expenses and the management fees.
- They do not include the ILP policy charges and recurring ILP fees, which are typically charged by deducting units that you own.
- All performances are in SGD.
My Observations about the Historical Performance of the Prudential Sub-funds
Prudential have more funds that are actually wrapping around an actively-managed unit trust managed by an external manager compare to AIA. You can see those that are marked as “Yes” under the External Manager column.
AIA have more funds that started in 2000 while Prudential funds start somewhere after 2005.
This means whether they avoid pivotal periods like the 2000 to 2003 big bear markets.
Majority of the funds are actively-managed funds and it is no surprise that not a lot of sub-funds beat their index. They don’t keep up with index.
There is only one fund that beat the index over a 5-year, 10-year and since inception:
- PruLink Singapore Dynamic Bond Fund which managed to bit the Markit iBoxx ALBI Singapore index.
If I lower the bar to whether the sub-fund has performance that keeps up with the index, there are really not a lot as well:
- Prulink Global Equity Growth. Very short history (incepted in May 2024) so it managed to beat the index. The underlying fund has a 5-year performance of 12.1% p.a. vs the MSCI All Country World Index of 13.3% p.a.
- PruLink Global Managed Fund. A fund with 26 year history which did 3.6% p.a. vs the benchmark performance of 4.6% p.a.
- PruLink Singapore Asian Managed Fund. A 33-year old fund that did 5.1% p.a. since inception versus its benchmark of 5.2% p.a.
- Prulink Global Property Securities. Beat the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT index over 5-years, kept close in 10-years.
- PruLink China-India Fund. 21-22 year investment history which has a 7.5% p.a. vs 9.4 p.a. of the MSCI benchmark.
- PruLink Emerging Markets Fund. This feeds into the JPM Emerging Markets Equity fund, and have a 20 year investment history. The fund did 3.2% p.a. vs 4.1% p.a. for the benchmark index.
- PruLink Global Technology Fund. A fund with 25 year history (that started in 2000) doing 6% p.a. versus the benchmark performance of 7.4% p.a.
- PruLink Pan European Fund. A fund with 25 year history that beat the benchmark over the 5-year, 10-year timeframe and did 3.4% p.a. versus the benchmark index performance of 4.0% p.a.
- PruLink Singapore ASEAN Managed Fund. A 13-year old fund which did 2.4% p.a. vs 3.2% p.a.at their benchmark index.
- PruLink Singapore Growth Fund. A 15-year old fund that did 5% p.a. vs 5.7% p.a in their benchmark.
Are There Any Global Funds if I Want a One-Fund Equity Solution?
If we are not talking about the weird funds with a lot of bells and whistles, you are left with:
- PruLink Islamic Global Equity Index fund. Feeds into HSBC Islamic Global Equity Index Fund.
- PruLink Global Equity Growth. Feeds into the Eastspring Global Dynamic Growth Fund.
- PruLink Global Equity Fund. Feeds into the Fidelity Global Dividend Fund.
These are the funds if you wish to realign your ILP to weave into your global focus.
PruLink Global Equity has the longest history. It is a more dividend fund which means it has a more value-oriented tilt. If you have a more value oriented philosophy, this might be a fund that matches your philosophy better. From what I gather it invest in high-quality companies with robust cash flows.
You can look up more information of the Fidelity Global Dividend Fund.
It is weird that I put the Islamic Global Equity Index fund here. It has a very short history but this is probably the only Index fund-like product under Prudential you can invest in. This is also a Shariah Compliant fund.
The HSBC fund tracks the Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index:
You can read the following:
Typically, we try not to invest in something that has dual layer of fees because it just hurts returns. The underlying fund has an annual expense ratio of 0.98% p.a. Damn high for an index product if you ask me.
But you don’t have much choice.
This is another big negatives of investing through the ILP-structure.
You will still end up with a more global allocation, but the fund is more tilted towards the United States.
PruLink Global Equity Growth feeds into the Eastspring Global Dynamic Growth Fund:
This is… a 40-stock fund. It is an active fund. You will see names like Nvidia, Intuitive Surgical, ICE, Raymond James Financial, T-Mobile, On Holding AG, Amazon, Boston Scientific, Spotify, Shopify make up the fund.
That should tell some of you enough. Although the ILP sub-fund is young, you can take a look at the 6-year performance of the Global Dynamic Growth Fund.
Both the Equity and Equity Growth are more concentrated but the Islamic Market Titans is not very diversified as well. But these are the funds that you have to work with. Dynamic Growth if you have a more growth-tilted philosophy, and Equity if you have a more value-focused philosophy. Both of them will depend on their managers to see if they keep up with the index or not.
I think that:
- Our observation is most active managers failed to beat or keep up with the index.
- We want to try and buy the index so that we
- Get the exposure to the underlying risk areas, and hopefully capture the long term returns.
- Be diversified enough
Then there is a place for the PruLink Islamic Global Equity Index Fund.
Positioning Your ILP as Part of Your Global Allocation.
Another strategy is to put your ILP as one of the product that gives you exposure to a certain region.
If you did your review, you might get a view of your portfolio in region:
Your returns is based on whether you are able to capture the risk exposure of different region. And if you want to capture the potential returns globally, you will need to have adequate exposure.
If your investments are made up of various products currently, by switching to another fund, it may help you weave the ILP well so that your whole investment strategy looks cohorent.
We reviewed the funds in the previous section and you can see what are some of the funds that are more sound that you could take your chance and weave them in better:
- PruLink China-India Fund
- PruLink Emerging Markets Fund
- PruLink Pan European Fund
- PruLink Singapore Growth Fund
Conclusion.
I hope people get the spirit behind this article and hope people don’t give me comments like “ILPs are a scam!” or “They are so costly!” or “They should just surrender the policy even if they get zero money back!”
This is more for those people who have committed and want to try to make the best out of their current situation now that they are more financially aware. Sometimes it is easy for us to say because it is not our own money.
Next up should be the funds from Great Eastern.
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Kyith is the Owner and Sole Writer behind Investment Moats. Readers tune in to Investment Moats to learn and build stronger, firmer wealth foundations, how to have a Passive investment strategy, know more about investing in REITs and the nuts and bolts of Active Investing.
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Kyith worked as an IT operations engineer from 2004 to 2019. Currently, he works as a Senior Solutions Specialist in Insurance Start-up Havend. All opinions on Investment Moats are his own and does not represent the views of Providend.
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