Excluded (EIP) vs Specified (SIP) Investment Products

Concept

MAS classifies investment products by complexity in order to calibrate how much protection a retail investor needs. Excluded Investment Products (EIPs) are the simpler, familiar products a retail investor can reasonably be expected to understand on their own. Specified Investment Products (SIPs) are the complex, structured or derivative products whose risks are harder to grasp, so they trigger extra safeguards — chiefly the CKA (unlisted) or CAR (listed) knowledge check plus enhanced disclosure. The EIP/SIP line is therefore the switch that turns those additional obligations on or off.

Key rules & facts

• EIP (simpler): ordinary shares/stocks; plain government and corporate bonds (without complex/embedded features); fixed and traditional deposits; traditional life policies such as whole life, term and endowment (without complex features); and certain simple funds (verify: exact prescribed list).
• SIP (complex): structured deposits; structured notes; most unit trusts / CIS; investment-linked policies (ILPs); complex / synthetic ETFs; futures, options and other derivatives; and certain foreign-listed or synthetic instruments (verify: exact prescribed list).
• The line drives obligations: a SIP requires a CKA (if unlisted) or CAR (if listed) before sale; an EIP does not require CKA/CAR.
• Classification depends on features (derivative exposure, embedded options, structural complexity), not on the product's name — so two products in the same broad category can fall on different sides of the line.
• EIP status does not remove the general suitability and disclosure duties; it only removes the CKA/CAR gate.

Key data

Exam angle

Recall-heavy but applied — classify the product first, then infer whether CKA/CAR is needed and, if so, which one. Pay attention to boundary items where the name misleads: structured deposit vs plain fixed deposit, and simple vs synthetic/complex ETF.