The money you invest is also known as your “Capital”. There is always a level of risk with any form of investing and we are legally obligated to inform our customers you might not get back everything you invested.

Your money is invested into a mix of funds such as passive Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Mutual funds. All are reviewed and certified by third parties as sharia compliant and ethical.

A fund is a selection of individual assets brought together under one umbrella. They can contain stocks, sukuks (Islamic bonds), property and commodities. Buying these assets through a fund is a very cost-effective way to invest your money and diversify your portfolio.

The COCOA investment team is made up of industry professionals who have approved a range of funds that qualify to be included in our ethical and halal investment plans. Selected funds must pass strict analytical processes to ensure they meet our high ethical standards and are of very high quality to even be considered in our investment universe.

The mix of funds that are selected for your investment plan will depend depend of your risk profile. For example, if you have opted for a low-risk investment plan we will only invest in funds that are deemed to fit this profile. If you have decided on a higher risk investment plan we will select a mix of funds classified to be a higher risk (and potentially reward).

Since the financial markets are constantly changing, our job is to closely monitor your Investment Plans and ensure you remain invested in the right funds for your selected risk profile. We will, therefore, make periodic adjustments to the mix of funds in your plans to ensure you remain on track to meet your financial goals.

COCOA uses diversification within your investment plans to reduce risk and to take advantage of the growth of many companies, not just one or two. So instead of putting all your eggs in one basket and hoping one company will perform really well, we spread your money across many companies so as to benefit from their collective strength. We do this by buying funds such as ETFs and Mutual Funds that themselves provide exposure to many companies. All the funds we use have been screened to ensure they qualify as ethical and halal and are third-party certified.

Some funds track an index such as the MSCI Worlds Socially Responsible Index (SRI) and are known as passives. The index includes some of the largest companies in the world, across 23 markets including companies such as IBM, Disney, and Pepsi.

Passive investing is considered by most investment professionals as a more effective long-term strategy to build wealth. A recent study by Standard & Poor stated that 90% of active fund managers fail to beat the market each year when looked over the long term.

Your plan will be made up of a mix of assets like shares of large companies, sukuks (Islamic bonds), property, cash, and commodities. The exact mix will depend on the preferences you have selected such as your risk appetite. The selection of assets will change periodically to reflect the best position for your plans in the current investment environment.

Yes, you always own the underlying funds in your COCOA Investment Plans. You can see exactly which funds you own by logging into your COCOA dashboard from any device and going to the plan detail screen. When we make adjustments to your plans, resulting in a buy or a sell order, we always send you a transaction receipt so you are always up to date as to where your money is invested.

No, this is our job as your Investment Manager. You only need to select the level of risk you are happy with and tell us how much you would like to invest. We will then build your personal Investment Plan to meet your saving goals.

Our experienced investment team has approved a universe of certified ethical and halal funds from which to build your investment plan and will continuously monitor and adjust to ensure you remain on track.

Cash is considered a type of investment. It is used in portfolio management to help protect investors from losses if investment market volatility is expected where some assets may lose value. We adjust the amount of cash in your Investment Plan depending on the anticipated market movements and according to which level of risk you have selected.

When you set up an investment plan with COCOA we will give you an indication of what the plan could be worth at the end of the timeframe you have stated. We calculate this value based on past performance and use mathematical algorithms to try to predict future performance.

It is important to understand COCOA is only able to provide our best-predicted value of the plan and that this should only be used as a guide and not a guarantee. As with all investing, there is a level of risk and there is no guarantee of returns and you may get back less than you invested.

As with all investing your capital is at risk and you may get back less than you put in. Stock markets tend to have good and bad periods and it is important that when you are investing for the long-term, you should not panic at the first sight of a rough patch and to remain invested to allow values to recover. In general, markets will see growth over the long-term.

Yes, you can create as many investment plans as you wish. Some of our customers prefer to keep everything in one plan, while others like to split up their money into separate pots. With COCOA you can opt to have separate saving pots with different investment styles and you can choose a separate investment goal for each. There is no charge to set up or close an investment plan and you will only pay one management fee to COCOA based on the total value of all your investments we manage for you. We charge from 0.99% per year to 0.29% per year. The more we manage for you, the lower your management fee bracket is.

COCOA has partnered with a major custody bank who hold your assets safely and securely, separate from others investors and COCOA’s money. This means even if COCOA were to go into administration our creditors would not have any claim on your money or your investments. They remain safe and secure and registered.

No, since this just wouldn’t be practical. As your discretionary manager, we build, monitor and adjust your plan depending on the current investment markets. This means we could be adjusting your plan regularly. Remember you can always view and see how your plans are performing via your dashboard 24 hours a day.

Currently we do not offer the facility to automatically pay out an income from your plan, however, we may do this in the future. You can always withdraw your money anytime you wish from your dashboard. Remember the more you withdraw the longer it will take to reach your goals.

Typically it only takes a few working days from when we receive your money for you to be invested. At times it may take a few extra days for your investments to show on your dashboard due to our investment process.

Our investment team uses the best of technology to automate certain parts of the process such as monitoring the global markets and mathematically stress testing portfolios using sophisticated algorithms. This helps us to crunch and analyze a lot more information that would be possible if we only relied upon human fund managers. It also means that we can keep the costs down and pass these savings onto you in the form of much lower management fees. Our investment experts then use the information gathered along with their own knowledge and experience to monitor and make investment decisions to the mix of investments in your investment plans.

So in summary COCOA uses a mix of clever algorithms and human knowledge and skills to keep your plan on track and where needed sheltered.

Your returns are shown at the very top of your dashboard screen as a percentage and monetary value in your invested currency. We do this to make it easy and clear for you to quickly review how your investments are performing.

We calculate your returns using ‘Time-Weighted Rate of Return’ (TWRR) which is an industry standard method and we feel is also the clearest way to show you your actual return (how much your money has actually grown) as it ignores any money you have deposited or withdrawn over the period. In other words, it shows you how much you have gained or lost on your investments without the effect of money you have taken out or new money you have deposited.