Recommendations for retirement funds in Thailand

[jakow]

I have a business in Thailand and have been here for quite a while. In my 40s with a wife (Thai) and children. I'd like to start paying into some type of retirement fund every month, but I'm not so knowledgable about all the options. I definitely want something where if I'm gone it'll go to my wife & children (not sure if that's standard or not, but I'd assume it is). I've looked at Bangkok Bank and KBank and I see most of the retirement/investment funds have risk levels from low to high. I'm looking for something with low to medium-low risk, which obviously won't have a high return but my thinking is at least the risk of losing any returns is low.

 

I'm hoping to get some recommendations for funds that I can look into more. I don't live near any branches, so once I find some funds I'm interested in I'll plan a trip to Bangkok to meet with their financial advisors and hopefully get started with one. I'd like recommendations here first, since once I go to a branch I'm assuming they'll be pushing for whatever gets them the most commission.

 

Thanks!

[ChaiyaTH]

Perhaps you should start with getting financially educated if asking to 'pay into a retirement'. Obviously you need to invest, you can do that with any variation of things: general investment in shares, bonds. Dividends. Property. 

 

Paying into a classic retirement fund is for dumb people, you basically do the same as above, to get 50% of the results. Not that hard to get educated on this with YouTube nowadays and well worth it, there are also some nice books for sale at Asia Book stores / eshop.

 

Also silly to keep it in Thailand entirely, you can easily secure it more properly abroad. I believe bank guarantees here are way less and a guarantee is worth little in the first place here.

Edited August 14, 2023 by ChaiyaTH

[Foxx]

Saving for retirement and providing for your family when you're gone are admirable goals.  However, before providing sensible advice, one would need to know:

 

- Are you planning on retiring in Thailand?
- Do you pay Thai income tax?
- Are you able to open a brokerage account overseas? (Offshore funds have much lower charges and often better performance.)

 

What is wrong with your strategy is that you're hoping to work through banks to invest.  They typically will only allow you to buy the funds offered by their associated asset management companies, e.g. in the case of Bangkok Bank that would be Bualuang Asset Management.  If investing in Thailand is the way that you need to go, then better to open an account with a full service brokerage which will give you access to a much broader range of funds.

 

Unless you're very wealthy you're unlikely to get meaningful investment advice in Thailand.  Advisers at bank branches are most unlikely to provide good advice.

 

Finally, make sure you have a will in place which will ensure that your wealth goes where you want when you eventually die.