ASNB offers special price for three months for Hibah Amanah, Pengistiharan Amanah

KUCHING: Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad (ASNB) offers a special price of RM100 (including GST) to its investors for the registration of Hibah Amanah and Pengisytiharan Amanah trust management services from Sept 1 to Nov 30.

ASNB chief executive officer and executive director Mohammad Hussin said with this special offer, ASNB investors would only need to pay a registration fee of RM100 (including GST) versus the usual cost of RM180 (excluding GST) for one Hibah Amanah or Pengisytiharan Amanah contract.

“This three- month special offer price is aimed at encouraging more ASNB investors to use the Hibah Amanah and Pengisytiharan Amanah services to manage their heir assets in ASNB unit trusts,” he said.

Proper trusts management, he emphasised, would avoid problems after investors passed away such as investment being frozen and could not be claimed because the heirs failed to reach consensus or other related issues.

“Cash investment in ASNB unit trusts is often needed by heirs to cover their livelihoods while other properties left by the deceased can be distributed,” he said.

“Hence, ASNB wants investors to take proactive steps to manage their properties while still living so that investments with ASNB which are left behind can be easily claimed and beneficial to the heirs,” he advised.

The introduction of Hibah Amanah and Pengisytiharan Amanah services allow ASNB investors to name their recipients for their investment through the Hibah and Amanah concept.

Under the laws of Malaysia, unit trusts are categorised as private property and consequently, they are subjected to probate and administrative law, in which only administrator or executor with consent and appointed by the court can claim the property of the deceased investor.

Thus, if the investor did not subscribed to Hibah Amanah or Pengisytiharan Amanah, the process of claim by the heirs would be subjected to probate and administrative law.

The resolution of the probate remains in force even if an investor leaves a will.

The process of obtaining this power of attorney or probate may sometimes be complicated and time- consuming especially if there is no understanding between the beneficiaries.

According to Mohammad, if an investor subscribed to Hibah Amanah or Pengisytiharan Amanah, the prescribed recipient does not have to obtain a power of attorney or probate.

“They only need to go to any ASNB branch to make a claim and the process is expected to be completed within about 30 days if there is no problem,” he explained.

For a Hibah Amanah or Pengisytiharan Amanah contract, an investor may name up to 10 recipients for all their investments in ASNB unit trusts.

Hibah Amanah, which adopts the concept of grants and trusts, is specifically for Islamic investors while the Pengisytiharan Amanah which adopts the concept of trust, is for non-Islamic investors.

What is special about Hibah Amanah is that investors can choose anyone eligible to be the beneficiary including foster children.

To register for Hibah Amanah or Pengisytiharan Amanah, investors can obtain the registration forms at all 30 ASNB branch offices nationwide or download at ASNB website (www.asnb.com. my).

ASNB is a wholly- owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Berhad ( PNB) responsible for managing and marketing 10 unit trusts, of which six are fixed price units of Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB), ASB2, Amanah Saham Didik (ASD), Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW), Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) and Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS1M).

The four more unit trust products managed by ASNB are unit trust funds namely Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN), ASN2, ASN3 and Amanah Saham Gemilang (ASG).