Reviewer: Sam

interested to know whether the entry fees charged on managed funds are tax deductable?

Mike Heath:Thank you for your inquiry. Tax is a specialist area and RaboPlus does not provide tax advice. RaboPlus is aware some advisers consider that entry fees may be deductible, depending on the particular investor’s personal circumstances. For a definitive answer to your question you would need to obtain specialist tax advice.

Reviewer: Dave

Although the managed funds are easy to set up with Rabobank, they are also very luring. So far I have invested in 6 different funds through different companies, and all have constantly decreased. Other investments (not through Rabobank) have performed a lot better.

Reviewer: Vicki

Hi Mike,have you managed to explain the intricacies of exit prices for the the cash fund?

Mike Heath: Hi Vicki, I can’t recall you having asked this question before, but if you did my apologies for having missed it. There are no exit prices for the Cash Advantage Fund i.e. the buy price and sell price are the same and reflect the same unit price. Does that answer your question?

Reviewer: John

Tried to invest in a unit trust with ASB today and was told I'd have to come to several meetings with one of their advisers first, and he was fully booked up for the next two weeks!So Raboplus does have some significant advantages over the competition in this area.

Reviewer: Adam

Great product, easy to access and great to have everything online and in one place. Few comments/questions -Would it be possible to get all fund fee info in one place/table for ease of comparison (as opposed to having buy/sell prices on one page, management fees on another, and any success fee inside the specific funds .pdf) -Are you looking at expanding your funds offered. Would be especially interested in offering in index funds if it is possible to provide these on your platform.

Reviewer: Bruce Woolmore

good that we have easy access to managed funds bad that there is no transparency when exiting - we just get told what the supposed exit price was when the transaction went thru, which is always quite different from the exit price when we request the transaction. Rabo should be making the fund managers state the actual exit price and allow us to accept or decline to exit once that is done.

Mike Heath: Bruce you raise a good point. Whilst it’s market convention in the managed funds industry, it is quite a complex and detailed process. We shall produce an FAQ which explains in detail the process the fund managers go through to determine exit prices for the units redeemed. Thanks for raising it.

Reviewer: Paddy Thorpe

I see Rabo has no entry/exit fees for Managed Funds for 2009. Can you give me an indication what these would be when this promotion ends

Owen Hallmark, Marketing Manager: Hi Paddy, Our normal entry fee is 0.75%. Our RaboPlus exit fee has always been 0%. It is likely to stay that way during 2010.

Reviewer: Paul

I am not very impressed with your Managed Funds Product at all. Why would people invest in funds that have a annual fee > 1% when there are funds on the sharemarket that have an annaul fee < 1%?

Mike Heath: Paul it’s about offering an alternative whereby you can buy/sell funds yourself without the need for a broker/advisor/middle-man. RaboPlus does not charge exit fees and for the remainder of 2009 we are not charging any entry fees either – there may be more cost benefits to you … you need to make sure you take into account all the “costs” involved when considering alternate places to buy/sell managed funds. The approach we take is to select funds that are typically wholesale in nature, and not normally available to retail investors for a very small investment of $250. If there are funds that meet your investment needs, that’s great. If not, that’s equally as fine.

Reviewer: Jim

Given that I'm rating Rabo's term deposits poorly at the moment, I have to give credit where it's due, and note that Rabo's managed fund service is excellent in providing easy, cheap and informed access to managed funds.