Investment Preferences

You have the option to set up a Regular Contribution Plan for your investment account.

This can be done online here under Regular Contribution Plan.

^{Above: Screenshot of Regular Contribution Plan setting}

What is it?

The Regular Contribution Plan is a monthly direct debit payment from your nominated bank account. The minimum amount is $100 and the maximum is $6,000. 

How do I activate it?

During the initial application process or online here under Regular Contribution Plan once your PMA has been opened.

How does it work?

Funds are drawn via direct debit on the 15th of each month or the following business day. If you have insufficient funds, our administration team will contact you to facilitate the transfer at another date, or you can just skip the payment for the month. 

How are the funds applied?

The funds are applied to the existing investment model split inside your PMA. So, for example, if you have three model portfolios, Growth 50%, Ethical Growth 30%, and Interest Income 20%, your regular contribution will follow the same split.

Unfortunately, you cannot customise or choose where you would like your regular contribution to be allocated.

If you wish to make contributions to a specific model portfolio, please see How can I add funds to a specific portfolio?

Step by Step

If you are already invested with us and would like to get a contribution plan started please take the following steps:

• Click My Account and select My Investments
• Select Investment Preferences
• Adjust your Regular Contribution Plan i.e. toggle on/off and specify amount
• Click Save Settings Select your Verification Method - Email or Mobile - to complete the change

Please note that there will be a delay between the funds being drawn and your contribution and transactions being reconciled in your Portfolio Manager. We recommend that you consider up to five business days. See Why is there a delay with regular contributions?

So:

1. you've set up your regular contribution, 
2. the funds have been direct debited from your bank account, 
3. but you can't see them in your Professionally Managed Account (PMA).

Why is that?

There will be a delay between the funds being drawn and your contribution/transactions being shown in your Portfolio Manager. This delay can take up to five business days.

This delay is due to the direct debit process with the bank. Here is the reason.

When InvestSMART run direct debits, the bank immediately credits our account with the funds requested. This crediting happens before the bank contacts other institutions to draw the funds from our client's accounts. 

The bank contacts those institutions and attempts to pull the funds. If there are insufficient funds, the bank will try again in the next two business days. If they can't pull the funds, the direct debit is rejected, and the bank claws back the cash they sent through to us. 

Because of this, we wait for that rejection process before transferring the amounts to client accounts. 

Then, there is a 24-hour delay in our reporting on the website. 

This is why there's a delay with funds appearing to be drawn from your bank account to when they are visible in your InvestSMART PMA.

You have the option to set up a Regular Withdrawal Plan for your investment account.

This can be done online here under Regular Withdrawal Plan.

^{Above: Screenshot of Regular Withdrawal Plan setting}

What is it?

The Regular Withdrawal Plan allows you to a set dollar amount to draw down from your portfolio each month. 

How do I activate it?

During the initial application process or online here under Regular Withdrawal Plan once your PMA has been opened.

How does it work?

Funds will be deposited into your nominated bank account on the 15th of every month or the closest business day after that. A regular withdrawal may require some holdings to be sold to free up cash.  

Step by Step

If you are already invested with us and would like to get a regular withdrawal plan started, please take the following steps:

• Click My Account and select My Investments
• Select Investment Preferences
• Adjust your Regular Withdrawal Plan, i.e. toggle on/off and specify an amount
• Click Save Settings Select your Verification Method - Email or Mobile - to complete the change

If you wish to amend your income preference at any time please take the complete the following steps:

• Click My Account and then My Investments
• Select Investment Preferences
• Toggle the Income Sweep
• Select Save Settings
• Click Verify Request
• Choose Email Verification or SMS Verification
• Complete Verification Process

It's a setting that, when turned on, transfers out all of the cash from dividends and interest to your bank account. When turned off, the cash from the dividends and interest goes into the cash component of the portfolio and then we use it to buy more stocks. This is like our version of a reinvestment plan.

If you have the income sweep turned off, then any distributions and dividends will remain within your investment account. It will therefore be available to purchase additional holdings across the portfolio whenever it is deemed that a rebalance of your account is necessary.

If you have the income sweep turned on, then any distributions received during a calendar month will be accrued and paid out in the following calendar month as per the above.

You can check or change your income sweep settings under Portfolio Actions > Investment Preferences or here. 

You can change your bank account details online here.

Or login and go to My Account > My Investments > Portfolio Actions > Investment Preferences.

You can also check your current bank account details.

Please note: We have an enhanced level of security when changing bank details.

To change these bank details:

1. Enter the last four (4) digits of your current bank account number.

2. Add the name of who holds this bank account in New Account Name

3. Enter the BSB

4. Enter the new account number

5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Preferences

6. You will be asked to verify using a code sent to either your mobile phone or email address.

Security Process for Changing Bank Details

After you have completed the steps above, please follow this additional security process to ensure the safety of your account:

1. Send a copy of your bank statement showing the account holders name(s) and the BSB/ account number.

2. Email the statement to invest@investsmart.com.au, making sure that the name of the bank account holders matches the PMA holders.

3. We'll give you a call on your registered phone number to confirm that you're the one requesting the change.

By completing these additional steps, we can further ensure the security of your account when changing bank details.

Regular withdrawal plans require the client to specify a dollar figure ($) to be paid monthly from their Professionally Managed Account (PMA) to the nominated bank account listed. Dependent on the size of the dollar figure specified InvestSMART may need to sell down investments to fulfil your request. Please be advised that if this is the case that brokerage will be incurred for the necessary transactions.

Whereas, choosing your income setting to be "paid out" will see any distributions or dividends received from the underlying investments within the calendar month retained, accumulated and paid out in a single lump sum to your nominated bank account in the middle of the following calendar month.

If you've got an existing account with us and wish to check or amend your current settings for either options referenced above please go the My Account section.