You work hard and a portion of your pay goes into your CPF each month. You could leave them in there to grow at the nominal CPF interest rates or you could let your CPF monies work harder through investing.
How much CPF monies can you invest?
The purpose of CPF is to ensure you have savings to fall back on when you are old. Hence, you won’t be able to invest everything.
You can only invest in stocks using funds in your CPF Ordinary Account (CPF OA) after you have set aside $20,000 in it. Even after the $20k minimum, you won’t be able to invest everything but only 35% and 10% of your investible savings in stocks and gold respectively.
Before you invest in anything, login to your CPF account to check the actual investible savings. If there’s a shortfall for the investment, you will be forced to use cash during the settlement!
If you’re new to CPFIS and are not sure how to set it up, refer to our guide here.
Brokers that offer CPF Stock Investing
Unfortunately, not all brokers allow you to link your brokerage account to your CPFIS account.
Here is a list of brokers that offers CPF investing:
- CIMB Securities (CGS iTrade)
- DBS Vickers
- iFast Financial (FSMOne)
- KGI Securities (Singapore)
- Lim & Tan
- Maybank Securities
- OCBC Securities
- Phillip Securities (POEMS)
- UOB Kay Hian
Not all brokers are equal, some offer more products while others offer a more attractive trading fee. I compared all the CPFIS brokers in this table:
Best Brokers for CPF Stock Investing
| Broker | Trading Fee | Account Fee | What can you invest with your CPF monies? | My Picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FSMOne | Flat S$8.80 | Nil | Stocks, ETF, Unit Trusts | Best low-cost broker + Comprehensive CPF investment selection |
| POEMS Cash Plus Account | 0.06% – 0.08%
(Pre-funding required) |
S$15 per quarter. Waived if at least 1 trade is done in the quarter. | Stocks, ETF, Unit Trusts | Comprehensive CPF investment selection |
| DBS Vickers | Buy – 0.12% Min S$10.90 Sell – 0.18% (MCA Account) |
Nil | Stocks, ETF | |
| CGS iTrade | 0.18% Min S$18 |
Nil | Stocks, ETF | |
| Maybank Securities | 0.275% Min S$25 |
Nil | Stocks, ETF | |
| UOB Kay Hian | 0.275% Min S$25 |
S$2 (account with no holdings) to S$15 (account with holdings) per quarter. | Stocks, ETF, Unit Trusts | |
| OCBC Securities | 0.275% Min S$25 |
Nil | Stocks, ETF | |
| KGI Securities | 0.275% Min S$25 |
Nil | Stocks, ETF | |
| Lim & Tan | 0.28% Min S$25 |
Nil | Stocks, ETF |
If you’re still unsure who to go with, let me break them down further for you:
Best low-cost brokerage for CPF Investing: FSMOne
Investors have been enjoying lower trading fees over the years and that applies to investing in stocks using CPF funds.
However, it is not so easy to compare who has the lowest fees because it depends on the account type you have with the broker and the number of trades you make. The fees will vary.
For example, POEMS offers two account types – Cash Plus and Cash Management accounts with differing fees. Even within the Cash Plus account, the trading commission varies with the amount of funds you park in the account.
I took the account with the lowest fees and lowest capital requirement from each broker for comparison and found that FSMOne is the cheapest with a flat fee of S$8.80.
The flat fee will be attractive for investors with large capital. It would still cost the investor S$8.80 when he invests S$100,000 in a stock. This is a no-brainer compared to a fee of S$80 where commission rates are 0.08%.
Best brokerages for comprehensive CPF investments: FSMOne and POEMS
You can use your CPF OA to invest in unit trusts, on top of ETFs and stocks. However, unit trusts are not offered by every brokerage. FSMOne, POEMS and UOB Kay Hian are 3 brokerages that offer both stocks and unit trusts under one account. This will be convenient for investors who want to invest beyond stocks.
It makes sense to consider unit trusts because although you can only invest up to 35% of your CPF OA investible savings in stocks, you can invest the remainder or even 100% of your CPF OA investible savings in unit trusts! These brokerages provide you with the facilities to maximise your CPF OA investments and to make your money work harder.
Likewise, the fees vary for these accounts.
FSMOne and POEMS offer no additional charges when you invest in unit trusts under CPFIS. They make money by earning a trailer fee from the fund managers instead.
Brokerages that offer Unit Trust for CPF Investing
| Sales Charge | Switching Fee | Platform Fee | |
| FSMOne | Nil | Nil | Nil |
| POEMS | Nil | Nil | Nil |
| UOB Kay Hian | Yes | Yes | Nil |
How to choose the best broker for your CPF stock investing?
The choice of broker is dependent on which factor you value most.
If cost is a concern, FSMOne would be your best choice. But for investors who do not trade frequently but instead hold stocks for a long time, the cost isn’t the most important consideration.
If you want to buy stocks and unit trusts with your CPF funds, FSMOne and POEMS will be better choices as other brokerages may not offer unit trusts under the same account.
So what’s your choice?
P.S. CPFIS is not the same as your CPF Special Account, you can read more about the latter here.