Maximus33

In theory, portfolio bonds are for tax purposes, but in reality they are almost always used as very expensive trading platforms to hide large initial commissions paid to sellers. They have 5, 8 or 10 year initial charging periods with around 11% charges, paying 7% commission to sellers. I've never seen one set up as a trust, which also costs extra. If you want to surrender the plan within the initial charging period, you have to pay all the unpaid initial charges for the rest of the period as a penalty. One of the main problems with these are the sellers choosing the underlying investments which Thai SEC rules do not allow them to do without an investment management license. These sellers often don't have the experience, qualifications or knowledge to choose investments and are mainly selling them based on levels of hidden commission they receive, often 4%-5%. Underlying investments are sometimes unregulated and for professional investors only whereas nearly everyone they are selling to would be classed as a retail investor. There are much better and cost effective trading platforms available and firms available to manage investments in highly regulated areas, with no exit penalties. Insured regular savings plan as even more expensive, giving the seller the incentive to sell long terms which aren't of benefit to the client. This is because the longer the term they write, the higher commission they get for selling exactly the same plan. These have very low retention rates and limited investment options and are really hard to make money on.