Founding and managing a single-family office is costly today, considering the governance required with compliance, risk management, and technology. But there are alternatives, Thomas von Rueti explains in an interview with finews.asia.
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 residences, to Singapore.
But considering the increasing complexity and governance requirements it becomes more and more difficult for smaller single-family offices to operate professionally. Many of them might be just too small, as a significant asset base is required to justify the structure and provide a high degree of governance quality.
«Only a midsize organization can provide that,» explains Thomas von Rueti, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at Singapore-based Lumen Capital Investors (LCI), in an interview with finews.asia.
Access to a Scalable Operating Platform
He is a 30-year veteran in the financial services industry, having worked for UBS, Credit Suisse, Zurich Life, Swiss Life, and Singapore Life before joining LCI in March 2021.
LCI, founded in 2010, was originally conceived as a single-family office. Over the years, it has successfully embedded other single-family offices. «We are interested in adding more of them, providing them access to our scalable operating platform,» says von Rueti. «Our technology in combination with the seniority of the team provides the foundation for an effective governance.»
Embedding Smaller Family Offices is a Great Opportunity
Strict and enhanced governance has become a controversial topic recently, all over the world but in Singapore to a larger extent, especially in the last few months. Against this background, some players complain about the new regime. «But, there is a misconception that strong governance is client-unfriendly,» explains von Rueti. «The opposite is true. Strong governance protects clients and supports their achievement of long-term goals.»
This is why embedding smaller family offices represents a great opportunity for LCI. «We are always delighted to explore how we can integrate individual family offices, allowing them to benefit from our open architecture, a professional portfolio management and research team, strong governance, and experience of a senior team,», says von Rueti, «offering comfort to clients and partners is LCI's aim – and an added-value for smaller players.»
Entrepreneurial Advisors Have Enormous Possibilities
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 previous years. «Entrepreneurial advisors have enormous possibilities with our infrastructure», says von Rueti, «in any case, they always have our full support.»
LCI employs now over 20 persons and manages about $2 billion in assets. The clientele is highly diversified, made up of residents, expats, and other internationally active individuals from predominately Southeast Asia and the Middle East. «Our scalable operating model provides the flexibility required by single-family offices while offering a platform with strong governance,» underscores von Rueti.
Partners in Switzerland and Hong Kong
Besides the opportunity to embed family offices, LCI is looking for additional senior advisors, ready to become independent and support their clients in a more dedicated way and with the firm's wide offering. LCI partners with two valuable firms – Lumen Capital (Schweiz) in Zurich and Carret Private Investments, a Hong Kong-based boutique.
