We each have our individual needs and goals, and there are many solutions available to meet these diverse needs. You may want growth or income from your investments and may have requirements on tax efficiency, flexibility, the level of risk, or a mixture of these. With so many options available independant advice will help you select an investment option that is best suited to your personal circumstances. With Intelligent Investments, our expert team can lead you through the maze to find the solution tailored to your own needs without the pitfalls of redemption penalties and long terms contracts.  Bespoke Investment Services Intelligent Investments will guide you through the options, including any tax considerations, and recommend a suitable solution to fit your needs.   Whether you are looking to build up an emergency fund in an offshore bank account or save regularly into unit based investments, our team have many years of experience in providing independent advice on the different options available to you. When considering investing you should ask yourself these questions: What do I want to save for, a rainy day or something specific? How much can I sensibly afford to invest? When will I need access to the investments? How do I minimise tax on my growing investments? Will my circumstanes change in the future? When considering investing the main consideration should be flexibility as your financial circumstances are likely to change over time, we do not recommend the use of regular contractual plans over the long term.   Most importantly, we appreciate that your money has been hard earned, and as a result Intelligent Investments have been designed to offer effective performance coupled with competitive, clear and transparent charges. There are two important concepts in investment - risk and diversification. All investments carry different degrees of risk; even some of the safest have the risk of their ‘real value’ being eroded by inflation. Invariably there is a trade-off between risk and the potential return - higher potential reward means accepting higher volatility. The important point is to match the level of risk to your risk profile.   Diversification reduces risk by spreading it. This meets one of the fundamental principles of investing: don’t keep too many investment eggs in too few baskets. Products such as Investment Platforms, Bonds and Unit Trusts diversify your investment across a number of underlying holdings in a way that few private investors can match. Moreover, constructing a personal portfolio of investments can achieve further diversification with the portfolio being tailored to your needs.

The Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority, LOFSA, was established in 1996 as Malaysia's single regulatory body for the offshore industry. LOFSA handle applications for licenses from investment companies and financial institutions wishing to make use of the benefits associated with Labuan. There are 63 offshore banks, nearly 60 insurance and insurance related companies, over 20 funds and 20 trust companies as well as numerous legal and accounting firms registered in Labuan by LOFSA. LOFSA are the compliance and complaint regulator hence the importance of only dealing with companies who are licensed. For a full list of who is and is not licensed, please refer to the LOFSA website www.lofsa.gov.my Intelligent Investments (Labuan) Ltd is licensed by the Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority. Company registration no. LL05843 and Offshore Insurance Broker License no. BS 200757. Intelligent Investments is a member of the Labuan International Insurance Association, membership no. 200704-133. Intelligent Investments will only operate offices in areas where we are fully licensed & regulated. In addition, at Intelligent Investments we pride ourselves on providing you with a range of solution and services from established institutions working on a global basis, of whom we have performed the highest level of due diligence.

A Bond is a debt investment in which an investor loans money to an entity (corporate or governmental) that borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a fixed interest rate. Bonds are used by companies, and governments to finance a variety of projects and activities. Bonds are commonly referred to as fixed-income securities and are one of the three main asset classes, along with stocks and cash equivalents..   The issuer of a bond that states the interest rate (coupon) that will be paid and when the loaned funds (bond principal) are to be returned (maturity date). Interest on bonds is usually paid every six months (semi-annually). The main categories of bonds are corporate bonds, municipal bonds, and government bonds. Two features of a bond - credit quality and duration - are the principal determinants of a bond's interest rate. Bond maturities range from a 90-day US Treasury bill to a 30-year government bond. Corporate and municipals are typically in the 3-10-year range. As a rule, bond markets rise (while yields fall) when stock markets fall. Thus bonds are generally viewed as safer investments than stocks, but this perception is only partially correct. Bonds do suffer from less day-to-day volatility than stocks, and bonds' interest payments are higher than dividend payments that the same company would generally choose to pay to its stockholders. Bonds are liquid — it is fairly easy to sell one's bond investments, though not nearly as easy as it is to sell stocks — and the certainty of a fixed interest payment twice per year is attractive. Bondholders also enjoy a measure of legal protection: under the law of most countries, if a company goes bankrupt, its bondholders will often receive some money back (the recovery amount), whereas the company's stock often ends up valueless.

In terms of investment strategies, equity, also known as stock, is a type of security that signifies ownership in a corporation and represents a claim on part of the corporation's assets and earnings. Stocks are the foundation of nearly every portfolio. Historically, they have outperformed most other investments over the long run. There are two main types of stock: common and preferred. Common stock usually entitles the owner to vote at shareholders' meetings and to receive dividends. Preferred stock, or 'shares' generally does not mean that the shareholder has direct control over the business's day-to-day operations, being a shareholder does entitle the possessor to an equal distribution in any profits, if any are declared in the form of dividends. While shares are often used to refer to the stock of a corporation, shares can also represent ownership of other classes of financial assets, such as mutual funds. Return on Equity, ROE, is a measure of a corporation's profitability that reveals how much profit a company generates with the money shareholders have invested.  Calculated as: ROE =          Net Income                                               Shareholder's Equity The ROE is useful for comparing the profitability of a company to that of other firms in the same industry. For expats offered share options by their company, this can help you build up a tidy nest egg in a matter of years and at a discounted price than the market value. For most people their employer is their sole source of income, so it is advisable to consider diversity in your investment portfolio.

Commodities include industrial metals such as copper, aluminium and tin and energy sources, of which the most important is oil. Agricultural commodities, sometimes known as 'softs', range from grains such as corn and wheat to livestock and crops, including cotton, coffee and soybean oil. The sale and purchase of commodities is usually carried out through futures contracts on exchanges that standardize the quantity and minimum quality of the commodity being traded. Individual commodity futures are an investment for more sophisticated investors. For most investors the most suitable way to invest in commodities is through a mutual fund. Commodities have usually been regarded as a high-risk investment because of sharp upward and downward swings in prices. However, commodities tend to bear a low to negative correlation to traditional asset classes like stocks and bonds. By adding commodities to a portfolio of assets that are less volatile, you actually decrease the overall portfolio risk due to the negative correlation and in most cases increase your overall expected return. Demand has increased for many agricultural commodities such as corn, sugar, palm oil, rape seed oil, coconut oil, soybean oil because the need for biofuels has increased. Demand will get stronger from the emerging countries such as India and China with growing populations placing strain on existing grain reserves. Furthermore, the emergence of a middle class in these countries is creating more demand for commodities associated with a higher standard of living, such as meat and dairy products. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicts beef consumption in developing countries will increase by a third by 2015. During inflationary times, many investors look to asset classes like real-return bonds and commodities to protect the purchasing power of their capital. By adding these diverse asset classes to their portfolios, investors seek to provide multiple degrees of downside protection and upside potential. What is important is that you draw the line on the maximum correlation of returns you will accept between your asset classes, and choose your asset classes wisely. Given the unique negative correlation that raw commodities have to stocks and bonds, they can be a well-advised addition to almost every long-term investment portfolio.

Alternative Investments refer to any non-traditional asset with potential economic value that would not be found in a standard investment portfolio.   Examples of alternative assets would include art and antiques, precious metals, fine wines, rare stamps and coins, and other collectibles such as sports cards. Due to the unconventional nature of some of these investment assets, valuation may be a problem. Alternative Investments can also include venture capital-related projects and infrastructure. In either case, alternative assets tend to be less liquid than traditional investments. Thus, investors who favor alternative assets will have to consider a very long investment horizon. Hedge funds are a notable alternative investment. A hedge fund is an aggressively managed portfolio of investments that uses advanced investment strategies such as leverage, long, short and derivative positions in both domestic and international markets with the goal of generating high returns (either in an absolute sense or over a specified market benchmark). Generally, hedge funds are unregulated because they cater to sophisticated investors.  It is important to note that hedging is actually the practice of attempting to reduce risk, but the goal of most hedge funds is to maximize return on investment. Hedge fund managers make speculative investments, these funds can carry more risk than the overall market.