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 AIA and 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 Singaporeans can switch to sub-funds that better align to your current investment philosophy, you can read the article.
In the second part, I reviewed the sub-funds unit trust available for Prudential Representatives. If you own an investment linked policy (ILP) under Prudential 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.
I think this will be my last exercise into profiling what an existing policyholder of Investment-linked Policy can do if they wish to better align the investments selection to their updated investment philosophy.
Again, 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.
You can read the second paragraphs in both my articles above about fund switches. Technically most 101 ILPs offer free switches and the switches are bid-to-bid, which means you do not incur one time spread costs. But it is better to read your policy documents just to be more certain.
The Sub-fund Unit Trusts that are Available Under Great Eastern for Singaporeans to Switching.
Before switching, you might want to find out what are the other sub-funds that are generally available to switch to. These might also be funds that your adviser did not mentioned to you.
I done part of the work by listing down a whole chunk of the funds that are available under Great Eastern that you can consider.
They are taken from this Great Eastern Fund Screener page.
Generally, the sub funds available for Great Eastern ILP can be found in three groups:
- Greatlink Funds. These are the sub funds for the retail ILP policyholders. If you have a legacy fund, it might fall under here as well. Your ILP should be named with something like GreatLink or SupremeLink or something Great.
- Max Funds. Specific to a set of Max ILP product series such as MaxInvest, MaxGrowth, MaxSaver, MaxSeries. These are funds that typically bundled with protection and riders.
- Prestige Portfolio Funds. Funds available for the high net worth (HNW) product lines
From what I understand, if you have a Max Policy, you cannot buy GreatLink-only Funds. The funds on Prestige Portfolio are mainly generic unit trust from say.. Fidelity, Allianz, Pimco etc. This is not to say you cannot get the same funds on GreatLink and Max. In GreatLink and Max, Great Eastern creates a “mirror” fund, which essentially tracks an external fund such as Allianz Income and Growth.
In this first two tables I have listed out the funds under GreatLink:
There is about 39 GreatLink sub-fund unit trust here. This table is as of 29 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 Great Eastern Sub-funds
Like Prudential, Great Eastern have more funds that are actually wrapped around an actively-managed unit trust managed by an external manager.
Great Eastern will always have some relationship with OCBC and also LionGlobal Investors. In 1986, OCBC Asset Management firm was founded. Great Eastern established Straits Lion Asset Management in 1996. In 2005, OCBC asset management and Straits Lion merge to create what is known as Lion Global Investors today.
Thus, a lot of the sub-funds are funds managed by LionGlobal. But there are also mirror funds to other asset managers. I do notice that there were less funds under GreatLink created recently.
Great Eastern have a lot of sub-funds that have longer than 20 years of history.
If you are an investor curious about fund performance, like whether active funds can beat passive funds over the long run, you might gain some insights by reviewing the tables above. The annualized returns since inception would be 20 year returns.
The returns are what is earned by the policyholders, before the policy charges, insurance charges.
Funds that Beat their Benchmark Since Inception
If we compare the three major insurers, Great Eastern have the most funds that beat their benchmark index since inception:
- Greatlink Lion Japan Growth. This is an 18 year old fund that beat Topix since inception.
- Greatlink Lion Vietnam. This is an 17 year old fund that beat the benchmark since inception.
- Greatlink Short Duration Bond Fund. This is a 23 year old fund that beat the 3-Month SORA + 35 bps since inception.
- Greatlink Global Emerging Markets Equity Fund. A 12 year old fund that beat the MSCI Emerging Markets since inception.
- Greatlink ASEAN Growth Fund. A 34 year old fund that beat the MSCI All Country ASEAN Index since inception.
- Greatlink Cash Fund. A 34 year old fund that beat the 3-month SORA since inception.
It is more disappointing that the good performers turned out to be very region specific or short-term fixed income based. These might not be something you wish to pivot to in a global portfolio.
Funds that Kind of Kept Up with the Benchmarks
There are funds with longer term performance that at least put in some hard work to be below the index but not too far off:
- Greatlink Lion India. 18 year old fund which did 4.57% p.a. vs 5.91% p.a for the benchmark.
- Greatlink Singapore Equities Fund. 23 year old fund which did 5.5% p.a. vs 6.6% p.a for the benchmark.
- The Greatlink Lifestyle Series. There are 5 different portfolios here and the Progressive, Steady and Secure kept up with their benchmark pretty well.
- Greatlink Far East Ex Japan Equities Fund. 23 year old fund which did 5.0% p.a. vs 5.6% p.a for the benchmark.
- Greatlink Global Bond. 23 year old fund which did 2.3% p.a. vs 2.5% p.a for the benchmark.
- Greatlink Global Real Estate Securities Fund. 20 year old fund which did 2.7% p.a. vs 2.9% p.a for the benchmark.
- Greatlink Global Supreme Fund. 26 year old fund which did 3.3% p.a. vs 3.8% p.a for the benchmark.
- Greatlink Asia Pacific Equity Fund. 34 year old fund which did 4.0% p.a. vs 4.3% p.a for the benchmark.
The Unit Trust Sub Funds Available Under Prestige
There are like 100 unit trust that is available if you own a Prestige ILP. These are not mirror funds but basically you can invest in the unit trust as if you buy them on iFAST FSMOne. Just that they are under this ILP Structure.
Unfortunately, I am not going to go through all the funds.
I am however going to help list the Top 20 funds based on Performance Since Inception and for the Past 10 Years.
Best performance since inception:
| Fund Name | Inception Year | Annualized Return | Since Inception |
| Janus Henderson Horizon Global Tech Leaders A2 Acc SGD | 1996 | 17.8% p.a. |
| LionGlobal Japan Growth Hedged SGD | 1999 | 11.5% p.a. |
| Templeton Asian Smaller Companies A Acc SGD | 2008 | 11.3% p.a. |
| LionGlobal India Acc SGD | 1999 | 11.1% p.a. |
| Allianz US Equity AT NAV SGD | 2006 | 9.7% p.a. |
| BlackRock GF Sustainable Energy Fund A2 SGD-H | 2001 | 9.1% p.a. |
| LionGlobal Korea Acc SGD | 1998 | 8.7% p.a. |
| abrdn India Opportunities SGD | 2004 | 8.6% p.a. |
| LionGlobal China Growth Acc SGD | 1994 | 8.5% p.a. |
| Franklin US Opportunities A Acc SGD | 2000 | 8.4% p.a. |
| abrdn Singapore Equity SGD | 1997 | 8.2% p.a. |
| JPM Japan Equity A Dis NAV SGD | 1988 | 8.2% p.a. |
| Schroder Asian Growth SGD | 1991 | 8.1% p.a. |
| Schroder Singapore Trust A SGD | 1993 | 8.0% p.a. |
| Fidelity World A Ac SGD | 1996 | 8.0% p.a. |
| JPM US value A Acc NAV SGD | 2000 | 7.6% p.a. |
| abrdn Pacific Equity SGD | 1997 | 7.3% p.a. |
| abrdn Thailand Equity SGD | 1997 | 7.3% p.a. |
| BlackRock GF World Healthscience A2 Hedged SGD | 2001 | 7.0% p.a. |
| LionGlobal Singapore Trust Acc SGD | 1989 | 6.9% p.a. |
Best performance for past 10 years:
| Fund Name | Inception Year | Annualized Return | Since Inception |
| Franklin US Opportunities A Acc SGD | 2000 | 10.5% p.a. |
| LionGlobal Taiwan Acc SGD | 2000 | 9.7% p.a. |
| Allianz US equity AT NAV SGD | 2006 | 9.5% p.a. |
| Schroder Global Gold A Hedged Acc NAV SGD | 2016 | 9.1% p.a. |
| LionGlobal Japan Growth Hedged SGD | 1999 | 9.1% p.a. |
| BlackRock GF World Gold A2 Hedged SGD | 1994 | 7.7% p.a. |
| Fidelity India Focus A SGD | 2004 | 7.6% p.a. |
| Schroder Global Climate Change Equity A Acc NAV SGD | 2007 | 7.5% p.a. |
| LionGlobal Vietnam Acc SGD | 2007 | 7.4% p.a. |
| AB Sustainable Global Thematic Fund A SGD | 1991 | 7.4% p.a. |
| LionGlobal India Acc SGD | 1999 | 7.1% p.a. |
| JPM US Value A Acc NAV SGD | 2000 | 6.9% p.a. |
| JPM Japan Equity A Dis NAV SGD | 1988 | 6.7% p.a. |
| LionGlobal Singapore Trust Acc SGD | 1989 | 6.6% p.a. |
| Allianz Income and Growth AM (H2-SGD) | 2011 | 6.0% p.a. |
| JPM Asia Pacific Equity A Acc NAV SGD | 2009 | 5.9% p.a. |
| abrdn India Opportunities SGD | 2004 | 5.8% p.a. |
| Fidelity European Dynamic Growth A SGD | 2001 | 5.7% p.a. |
| BlackRock GF World Mining A2 Hedged SGD | 1997 | 5.5% p.a. |
| abrdn Singapore Equity SGD | 1997 | 5.3% p.a. |
I am not recommend you to invest in the top performing fund. Rather, there are funds, in this ILP structure, that is available to you, that has done returns that many would acknowledge help people compound their wealth well.
Are There Great Eastern Global Sub Funds if Singaporeans want a One-Fund Equity Solution?
I think your choices under Greatlink is rather limited. You are left with:
- Greatlink Sustainable Global Thematic Fund which is an Allianz Bernstein fund
- Greatlink Global Equity Fund which is a Goldman Sachs fund
- Greatlink Global Equity Alpha Fund which is Schroder Global Equity Alpha
- Greatlink Global Perspectives fund which is Capital Group New Perspective Fund
All 4 is at least 23 years old. Their returns since inception isn’t that great but I suspect that they didn’t do well for the first 10 years. If you observe, their last 10 years return is not too bad.
If I were to do it for myself I might just stick with Greatlink Global Equity fund or the Alpha one and hope that they learn to be closet indexers.
If you own an ILP that invest in the Max funds, I don’t think there is a global fund that fits the Global Allocation profile.
If you have an ILP based on the Prestige Series, there are a lot of funds. But actually you are also left with:
- Fidelity World A Acc SGD
- Schroder ISF Global Equity Alpha USD
- BlackRock GF Global Dynamic Equity A2 USD
- JPM US Value A Acc NAV SGD
- Allianz US Equity AT NAV SGD
- Franklin US Opportunities A Acc SGD
A rather limited list. I have to expand to USD denominated funds in order to have a wider global equity choice. Since US makes up 60-70% of Global Allocation, some of you might be comfortable in having that ILP be in US equity as part of your global allocation if the ILP isn’t such a large allocation.
All the Global funds underperform the MSCI World index so this is trying to make do with whatever we have.
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:
- Greatlink Lion Japan Growth.
- Greatlink Lion Vietnam.
- Greatlink Global Emerging Markets Equity Fund.
- Greatlink ASEAN Growth Fund.
- Greatlink Lion India.
- Greatlink Singapore Equities Fund.
- Greatlink Far East Ex Japan Equities Fund.
- Greatlink Asia Pacific Equity Fund.
We have about 3 funds that gives you emerging markets/asia pacific exposure. There is 1 Singapore fund.
More and more, I see that positioning your ILP as part of your global allocation to be more sensible because most of the Great Eastern and Prudential funds do better regionally than globally.
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.
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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.
You can view Kyith’s current portfolio here, which uses his Free Google Stock Portfolio Tracker.
His investment broker of choice is Interactive Brokers, which allows him to invest in securities from different exchanges all over the world, at very low commission rates, without custodian fees, near spot currency rates.
You can read more about Kyith here.
