For relationship managers, now could be an interesting time to embark on an entrepreneurial path, Jan Dirkmann, CEO of Lumen Capital Investors, said in an interview with finews.asia. The Singapore-based independent asset manager wants to capitalize on supportive dynamics in the financial sector.
Lumen Capital Investors (LCI) has an exemplary track record behind it. It was founded in 2010 by Wilfried Kofmehl (pictured below), Julius Baer’s former Singapore CEO. At the time, he made a step that he would still recommend that all client advisors and relationship managers should consider, particularly ones that are both successful, motivated and internally driven. Although Lumen was originally conceived as a family office, it now offers clients trust, insurance, real estate, fiduciary and corporate finance services besides its classical suite of portfolio management services.
«The entrepreneurial freedom in an organization like LCI is a unique experience, particularly for people who have worked in the rigid scaffolding of large financial institutions,» Kofmehl indicates in an interview with finews.asia. He wants to give them a suitable platform with his team of 20 at LCI, particularly now that authorities have fully lifted all Covid-19 restrictions over the past few months.
Opportunity of the Century
The momentum in Southeast Asia is enormous and it has become an open secret that many wealthy private clients and families in the region, and farther afield, are moving their assets, and even their residence, to Singapore. «We have the opportunity of the century here if you have the right kind of infrastructure», indicates Jan Dirkmann, CEO of LCI. He started his career in 1996 at UBS and moved to Julius Baer in Singapore before starting at LCI in 2013. The name «Lumen» comes from Latin and means light.
Over the past decade, Dirkmann has contributed to LCI’s growth immensely, both on a personal and organizational basis. The number of staff it employs has gone from 7 to 21 and it even managed to hire highly rated advisors during the pandemic, as finews.asia previously reported.
Licensed by the MAS
A key argument in LCI’s favor is its use of technology, which is a key part of its overall value proposition. The firm has made significant investments in IT and process optimization over the past few years, and it is something that supports client advisors in more intelligent fashion while ensuring regulatory compliance at the same time, as Dirkmann emphasizes. LCI was first licensed by the MAS in 2012.
«I actually came to LCI because I believed in the potential of open architecture and technology to help offer clients individualized solutions», notes Thomas von Rueti during the same interview. He is currently LCI’s chief operating officer and chief risk officer. He joined LCI in 2021 after a 30-year career at a number of notable financial institutions such as UBS and Credit Suisse, while also working at key insurers, including Zurich, Swiss Life and Singapore Life.
«We hired Thomas von Rueti with a view to improving our platform and giving our senior advisors an efficient ecosystem from which to manage their clients in the best way possible», says Kofmehl, who is currently LCI’s executive chairman.
Intensively Searching For Additional Advisors
The firm manages about $1.5 billion dollars in client assets and has a highly diversified clientele made up of residents, expats and other internationally active individuals from both Southeast Asia and Europe. «Our clients determine how involved they want to be in the investment process. We manage the assets together with partners and the relevant banking institutions in the best interests of the clients,» CEO Dirkmann points out.
«We still see significant upwards potential», maintains von Rueti while underlining that the firm is always intensively searching for additional advisors. «We want to hire about three a year», he says. There is general agreement, even from outsiders, that the manager has more than enough space for the firm’s growth plans in the recently renovated building at Raffles Place in Singapore.
Partners in Hong Kong and Zurich
LCI is not only ideally positioned, as its leadership team under Kofmehl maintains, but it also has two valuable partners with the Lumen Capital (Switzerland) in Zurich and Carret Private Investments, a Hong Kong-based boutique. Both help keep it connected internationally to key financial hubs, with Carret Private having worked closely with LCI for four years now, as finews.asia also previously reported.
There have been plenty of business opportunities since client advisors regained the ability to travel throughout Southeast Asia, something that had fallen by the wayside in the three previous years. «Entrepreneurial advisors have enormous possibilities with our infrastructure », says Kofmehl, «in any case, they always have our full support.»
