ING Direct Canada Orange Key

I was a bit curious about the mutual funds that ING Direct used to offer after writing my previous post about their Streetwise funds. So I decided to ask them what happened to them.

Well, it turns out that if you currently are an owner of any of these funds you're in luck. You can still continue to invest in them as you had before, but of course you still have to call them to make any changes as well most likely a sales pitch about the Streetwise fund and why you should switch.

So if you are new to investing with ING Mutual funds, then I'm sorry to say that you cannot invest in their old portfolio. But I suspect it just as likely that you were unaware that there was a different list to choose from anyway. Add to my previously stated fact that I think the Streetwise funds are better for beginner investers anyway so I don't think there's any harm done. As well let's be honest if you are a more advanced investor you're looking for a company that lets you do online trades with better support then what ING has to offer anyway.

Overall, I think it was a great decision on the ING's part to eliminate the old scheme and replace it with the three tier system they have now.

For those of you interested this is the sales pitch I received from ING Direct:

We no longer offer third party funds to our new clients. Only those clients that currently have third party funds with us can invest from our list of those funds. The Streetwise Fund is our simple one fund solution. It is the only fund available to our new clients since January 2008.
Please consider the Streetwise Fund. The Streetwise Fund is a diversified and balanced index fund. Research indicates to us that 80% of fund managers that try to outperform the market have not been able to consistently do so in the long-run. Therefore, why not go with the market? Instead of trying to outperform the markets, the Streetwise Fund goes with the market by replicating indices. The Streetwise Fund replicates indices for Canadian Bonds, Canadian Equities, U.S. Equities, and International Equities.

The average Management Expense Ratio for balanced funds in the market is 2.6% approximately. The Streetwise Fund is passively managed and therefore has a low Management Expense Ratio of only 1%. There are therefore more dollars left in your fund to work for you. There are no loads, and no commissions to buy or sell.

As with all mutual funds, there is no guarantee of the principal or the returns. There is an element of risk. Investing in a diversified fund for the long-term gives a client the potential of outperforming interest bearing accounts.

Some time ago ING Direct Canada started offering Mutual funds as a part of their investment offerings. What was nice about this is they had a reasonable mutual fund portfolio to choose from. What was no nice was that you had to call ING Mutual Funds every time you wanted to make any changes to your holdings. Additionally every time you would call they would ask you to update you "risk" portfolio which in my opinion has absolutely no value and only takes up time making changes. I would have appreciated the ability to change and rebalance automatically or online but that was not available.

Fortunately since then ING has started offering a new series of "Streetwise" mutual funds. These funds are simply investments in different index to different degrees depending on which of the three you pick.

Streetwise Income Fund

• 70% Bond Index
• 10% Canadian Stock Index
• 10% US Stock Index
• 10% International Stock Index

Streetwise Balanced Fund

• 40% Bond Index
• 20% Canadian Stock Index
• 20% US Stock Index
• 20% International Stock Index

Streetwise Growth Fund

• 25% Bond Index
• 25% Canadian Stock Index
• 25% US Stock Index
• 25% International Stock Index

Further explaination of the funds


Personally I think this is a very good option for someone just starting out with investing (ie less then $50,000 in investments) because:

1. No buying or selling fees
2. Low minimum initial investment
3. Invests only in indexes keeping the managment fees low (currently 0.8%)
4. Great diversity in one fund
   

There are quite a few index funds out there but to my knowledge none that are provide the diversity found in these. And of course statistically indexes outperform most manage funds in the long run especially considering the increased management funds involved.

For those of you interested in reading the actual prospectus you can get it here:
Prospectus