- Sarwa is an online automated investment platform that uses both a technology and human element to offer affordable and accessible investing. What does this mean to you, our clients? When you sign up with us, you can invest in expert designed portfolios that give you access to international markets, you can speak to an advisor about any concerns you have, all while having a great user experience.
- To make an investment, you answer few questions, approve a recommended portfolio, upload a couple of documents and fund your account. That’s it! you’re an investor.
What is Sarwa based on?
- Sarwa is built on 4 pillars.
- Low-cost
- Full transparency
- On-demand access to human advice
- Ease of use
What is a robo-advisor hybrid?
- A standard robo-advisor is an automated investment platform that constructs and maintains client portfolios through technology. Sarwa is considered a robo-advisor hybrid, meaning we offer both an automated investment platform along with access to expert human advice from financial advisors. Rather than having to choose between a completely automated system or a complete human experience, a hybrid model gives Sarwa clients the best of both worlds!
How much does it cost?
- Sarwa charges a fee of 0.85% of your account per year. No commission, no surprises. This fee is partially charged at the end of every month on the average account value for the month. So let’s say you started investing $10,000, you will pay us around $7 per month for our service! the price of a cup of coffee.
- This pricing strategy is designed this way to ensure that Sarwa and its clients are always on the same side of the table, forming more of a partnership: if your account is doing better, Sarwa does better, and if your account is doing worse, Sarwa does worse- that’s how it should be.
What is the minimum amount I can start with?
- The minimum amount of money needed to gain access to a portfolio on the Sarwa platform is $5, that’s it.
What are the monthly minimum contributions?
- There are NO monthly or quarterly contributions requirements
What happens if I want to close my account or withdraw Funds?
- Sarwa clients enjoy complete liquidity without penalties. This means clients can remove their funds whenever they would like. *processing time is about 3/4 days*
Who holds the money & executes the trades?
- Sarwa partners with a third party custodian/broker: Interactive Brokers. the account you open and fund is under your name. Sarwa does not hold any cash or execute any of the trades themselves.
What happens if I leave the country?
- Even if you leave Dubai, your account will not be affected. After all, it is under your name in our custodian bank.
What happens if Sarwa disappears?
- With the use of Interactive Brokers, client accounts are protected. Cash values in the accounts are insured up to $500,000 & all investments are held in the clients’ names so they will always be owned by the clients.
What is a portfolio?
- A portfolio is the investments you will own. think about it as being a folder that has all your investments in one place. the choice of investments in your portfolio reflects how much risk/return is recommended for you.
What are the Sarwa portfolios?
- Sarwa currently offers three portfolios based on clients’ unique risk tolerance – basically how much risk you would like to take on. These include conservative, balanced & growth portfolios. All portfolios are composed of Blackrock and Vanguard ETFs. These ETFs which are constructed by two of the most well-respected investment managers give clients access to the global market and efficiently achieve diversification.
What is Diversification?
- We’ve all heard the expression “do not put all your eggs in one basket”. This saying is a perfect example of the principles of diversification. Diversification is the idea of spreading your money across different investments (stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.), preferably those with no/limited correlation. The idea here is that the overall stock market is volatile and filled with unexpected outcomes. Diversifying, or separating your eggs into different baskets ensures that in volatile economic times, your investments are not all acting in the same way. If you drop one of your baskets, you’ll still have other eggs to make an omelet- similarly, due to having a variety of investments, one of your underperforming securities won’t significantly impact your portfolio.
What are ETFs?
- An ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) is a ‘basket’ of securities (for example bonds, stocks, and real estate) bundled into a fund. this allows investors to easily diversify their portfolios. ETFs are traded like stocks on stock exchanges and often times track an index such as the Dow Jones or S&P 500. Rather than buying many individual stocks, bonds, real estate, etc., one can use an ETF to create the same level of diversity, at a fraction of the price.
How does rebalancing work?
Automatic rebalancing is a free service for all Sarwa clients.
Over time, as the value of individual ETFs in a diversified portfolio deviate from their target allocation, our automated technology ensures that your portfolio weights are rebalanced in response to price changes.
The difference between the target weights for your portfolio and the actual weights in your current portfolio is what we call drift. The issue with a high drift is that it reduces the efficiency with your portfolio and exposes you to more/less risk than your target portfolio allocation we set out in the plan.
Currently, we rebalance semi-annually or when the drift (absolute variance) of your portfolio reaches 20%.
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