You will be able to name the primary source for each kind of investment fact.
Farhan has his ten questions about the REIT. His first instinct is to paste them back into the assistant and ask for the answers. That would undo the work of lesson 4.1, Ask AI for questions, not a verdict. The questions were safe to get from an assistant because they don't contain facts. The answers do.
So where do the answers come from? For almost every investment sold to the public in Singapore, the facts are published somewhere official, usually free, and usually by the people who are legally responsible for them. This lesson tells you where to look for each kind of fact.
If you're researching a unit trust or an ETF, the fund manager publishes the documents that matter. The factsheet is short, usually one or two pages, and updated regularly. It shows the largest holdings, how the fund is split by sector or country, recent performance and the main fees. Look for the date printed on it, because it's a snapshot.
The prospectus is long and legal. It sets out the fund's objective, how it invests, all the fees and charges, how you buy and sell units, and the risks in full. When the factsheet and the prospectus seem to disagree on a fee, the prospectus is the one that binds.
The product highlights sheet sits between the two: a short document in plain language covering what the product is, the key risks and the fees. It's often the fastest place to answer half of your questions.
All three are normally on the fund manager's website, and platforms that sell the fund usually link to them. Unit trusts, robo-advisors and managed money compared, lesson 1.3, Find the facts in a fund's three key documents, walks through them in detail.
For a company or a REIT listed on SGX, two sources answer most questions. The annual report gives the year's results, the properties or business lines, the debt and when it falls due, the largest tenants or customers, and management's view of the risks. Many REITs also publish quarterly or half-yearly updates.
Announcements are the other half. Listed companies must announce material information to the market, and those announcements appear on the SGX website and on the company's own investor relations page. Results, acquisitions, changes in distributions, new loans and changes in management all show up here first. If an assistant tells you about something that happened recently, the announcement is where you'd confirm it.
Farhan found the REIT's investor relations page in two clicks from its own website. It had the latest annual report, the most recent results presentation and every announcement for the past several years.
For any question about the provider, go to MAS. The Financial Institutions Directory on the MAS website lists the firms MAS regulates and what each is licensed to do. If a company is selling you a product or managing money and isn't in the directory, that's a serious warning.
MAS also keeps an Investor Alert List of unregulated persons and websites that may have been wrongly perceived as licensed or authorised by MAS. A name on that list is a reason to stop. Scam-proof your money, lesson 4.2, Check a firm with MAS before you invest a dollar, covers both in more depth.
Singapore Government Securities and Singapore Savings Bonds are issued by the government, and MAS publishes the details: the rates on each issue, the application dates, how much you can apply for and how redemption works. Savings bonds in particular attract a lot of blog posts and forum threads, and many are about an earlier issue with different rates. An assistant trained on that text will happily quote last year's numbers. The MAS website has the current ones.
Go back to your ten questions and write a source next to each. Here are three of Farhan's: "How much does the REIT owe, and when do its loans need refinancing?" became the annual report, in the capital management section. "Has the distribution changed in the past year?" became SGX announcements and the latest results presentation. "Is the manager licensed?" became the MAS Financial Institutions Directory.
Some questions will need two sources. A few won't have an obvious one, and that's worth knowing early. Mark those now so they don't get answered by default from a chat.
Go through your own list the same way, one question at a time, until every question has a document or site beside it.
For each question on your list, write the document or site that should answer it.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).