A chat with Bingyang
We sat down with Seng Bingyang, founder of Life First Advisory (LFA), to have a chat about how LFA came about and his experience in the field of wealth management.
What were you doing before LFA?
Before joining LFA, I was working as a full-time insurance rep with one of the biggest insurers. While I enjoyed serving my clients there, I realised that the quality of advice and service that I can provide will never be at the ideal standard that I envisioned because it is often limited by the insurer’s products and solutions. And rarely does one insurer have all the necessary tools to solve our clients’ needs.
In today’s challenging and competitive world, it is akin to going to a gunfight with a knife.
I wanted to go beyond being a one-stop insurance provider bound to the solutions that my previous firm offered. This led me to join Infinitum as a non-tied financial advisor.
Why was LFA founded?
When I first joined Infinitum, my intention was simple - to continue serving my clients to the best of my ability. Being unchained to a specific provider meant that I now have access to endless solutions to solve more sophisticated problems. This is often achieved by combining offerings across providers to create something entirely new.
However, as my world opened up, I started to see that my solutions were not perfect, and that there were unaddressed gaps. This was when I realised that I, alone, can never craft the best customised solutions for my clients. As they progress in life and unlock their own series of milestones, the solutions that they need will evolve to be increasingly complex. That was when I knew what I needed to be-
I wanted to be my clients’ personal CFO.
And a good CFO cannot function alone without synergy. The truth is that I am not an expert at everything. When a client wants to own a football club, set up a charitable foundation for his children, or buy insurance for his staff, I would not be in the best position to advise him. While I am confident in managing investments, I lacked specialised knowledge in other fields.
The only way for me to be the master of all trades is to seek the help of other specialists.
Driven by that mentality, I started looking for like-minded people with a heart to serve - people who care beyond the numbers and are genuinely interested in their clients’ lives. One of them is my long-time buddy, Chun Hou, a specialist in corporate insurance. It was obvious that we had to join hands, the only regret was not doing so earlier.
Bingyang and Chunhou.
In 2020, under Infinitum’s arm, LFA was born. I further shortlisted and built a team of expert financial advisors with the same beliefs as ourselves. In the process, I focussed on finding experienced advisors who were excellent in their own niches - people who knew their field inside out and can perform at what they are best at.
Together, our team of master specialists will be able to address most, if not all, of our clients’ needs.
I also kept a look out for financial advisors who have the same unique mindset as us - which is that money is secondary. Yes, you heard that right. Here at LFA, our clients’ interests come first. We don’t just say that, but we mean it. Only when their interests are well taken care of will we be doing our job right, and only when we do our job right will the money follow.
I am confident and proud to say that we will never, ever, recommend anything just because it is better for our company’s profit margin. As such, we only select advisors who are most driven by passion and who have a heart to serve their clients. As cheesy as this all sounds, it has proven to be tremendously successful. I dare say that we have a formidable team!
The reason that brought the birth of LFA remains to be its purpose until today. LFA exists to solve an age-old problem in the wealth management sphere - which is the lack of truly customised financial plans for clients.
As our name suggests, at LFA, your life comes first.
Our job is to make financial planning easy for you. We will break down the complicated world of finance to you, and work with you as partners to achieve whatever that is important to you at various life milestones through actionable insights. Being non-tied allows our valued clients to have the peace of mind that only the most suitable and best-in-class products are recommended.
The LFA team having a chat during break time.
What sets LFA apart from other wealth advisories?
All financial advisory firms do some form of investment consulting, but these ‘consultations’ tend to be glossed over and completed after a few quick questions. These firms then jump straight into product presentation. While this expedites the whole process, we believe that it is insufficient, and is often a disservice to clients.
My team and I value the essence of investment consulting, which is to provide a peace of mind that you're on track to achieving your goals. I’ve seen many other firms focus solely on relationship management, or just on the bottom line with things such as fees and performance returns. They completely forget about the human aspects of being a wealth advisor. These poor services are probably why some disgruntled clients chose to go with roboadvisories.
LFA delicately balances all 3 components: (1) investment consulting, (2) advanced planning and (3) relationship management to bring the greatest value to our clients.
We start off with an in-depth discovery meeting where we find out who you are, what is important to you, what moves you, and what keeps you up at night. We ask about your personal values, what matters to you, and what motivates you. All these seemingly simple questions are important to us. It helps us understand you on a deeper level. Some clients even joked that we know more about them than their spouse!
A get-together with friends, many of whom are also clients.
Only after understanding you do we work on providing actionable insights to help you achieve all that is important to you.
We will proceed to discuss about wealth management, which comprises a mix of investment consulting and advanced planning. Investment consulting includes a portfolio performance analysis. This means a thorough risk evaluation, asset allocation, assessment of impact of costs and taxes, and an investment policy statement.
Advanced planning may sound confusing, but it’s actually very simple. It consists of four main components, namely wealth enhancement (tax mitigation and cash-flow planning), wealth transfer (transferring wealth effectively), wealth protection (risk mitigation, legal structures and transferring risk to insurance companies) and charitable giving (maximising charitable impacts).
Don’t worry if it all sounds complicated for now, we’ll break it down and run through them with you.
Together, we’ll identify the constraints in resources and find ways to achieve your goals. We are not afraid to tell you if some goals are unrealistic, so that we can either ramp up resources or postpone the goal to a more feasible timeline. We do not force feed any standard frameworks on you.
Instead, LFA’s team of experts provide customised and goal-driven investment and insurance solutions to help you make smart decisions about your money.
After you are happy with the plan, we will confirm the commitment and have regular progress meetings/follow-ups to ensure that everything is on track. This also makes sure that gaps are properly identified as you progress along your life goals, and that you are updated on how your investment plan is performing, and reminded of how your insurance works.
LFA believes in putting your life first and building long-term relationships with clients.
We are looking for clients who want a win-win relationship, clients who appreciate and see the value in what we do. In fact, the initial discovery meeting with the potential client helps us to see if the client is a good fit for the partnership to continue.
Everything is customised for you, with you.
We believe in ‘people before sales’, and that every single client deserves a better wealth management experience. We strive to be our clients’ trusted partner throughout their life milestones. We want to be a friend when you need someone to turn to. Most importantly, we are here for you so that you can fully enjoy today knowing that your future is well taken care of.
What are some memorable customer encounters?
It’s the little things that add up. My favourite feeling in the world is seeing the look on my client’s face after we are done planning their finances during the portfolio review - that look when they have a peace of mind knowing that all is taken care of and they can be hands off and focus on other things.
When my clients thank me for taking a huge burden off their shoulders, or when they let out a huge sigh of relief after knowing that their spouse or kid’s finances will be taken care of, it really warms my heart. All these really solidified my love for my job, and I’m thankful to be able to help others as a financial advisor.
I typically work with professionals and business owners, but I recall this incident some years ago, when one of my friends told me how worried he was for not having enough resources set aside to take care of his family. We eventually found out that what he thought to be too little, which was about $200/month, could actually help him to create sufficient wealth that will ensure that his family can be well taken care of, even after he is no longer around. I recall how he told me that he never imagined that $200/month can grow into such a big number.
I remember that he grabbed my hands with both his hands to express his gratitude for giving him a sense of assurance. It was very moving for me.
This taught me not to take financial literacy for granted. While most of my clients have a good understanding about money, they ultimately have no time to actively manage their finances. They want to focus on being a better husband/father or wife/mother for their family, and they want to concentrate on their career. This is the reason why they engaged me as their personal CFO. Understanding their risk profile is important, but clarifying what they think they understand by ‘high risk’ is also imperative.
At the end of the day, I help my clients to have more money and more time to focus on what they love.
This brings them a step closer to financial freedom and their own happiness.
What do you do for fun?
I usually have a wine or two with my clients, because we have grown to be good friends over time. I enjoy playing and watching football. In fact, I’ve been playing football since I was 3 or 4 years old. I like to watch films (anything except for horror), hit the gym, and to the surprise of my friends, listen to heavy metal by Iron Maiden, Metallica, Dream Theater, and many more.
I love reading books on financial management or biographies of successful business figures too.
What are some quotes that motivate you when the going gets tough?
I’ve two quotes by Jim Rohn which I believe in.
“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom.”
“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.”
Learn more about Bingyang
Learn more about what clients say about Bingyang’s journey as a financial advisor by watching his interview here.