Hong Kong presents a fundamentally different wealth profile from other Asian financial centres. Wealth is concentrated, property exposure is high, and liquidity is often constrained even among households with significant net worth. These structural features shape not only how wealth is accumulated, but how it can be managed and deployed. Steffanie Yuen, Managing Director and Head of Hong Kong at Endowus, described Hong Kong clients as frequently “asset rich but cash constrained”. Property ownership dominates balance sheets, while investable financial assets form a smaller proportion of household wealth compared with markets such as Singapore. This structural imbalance affects risk appetite and investment behaviour. Clients often prioritise cash flow management and liquidity planning alongside long-term wealth accumulation. Education funding, healthcare expenses and retirement planning are common concerns that compete directly with investment objectives. Yuen emphasised that these realities require a different advisory approach. Rather than leading with products or returns, wealth planning should begin with an understanding of each individual’s risk and liquidity profile, household balance sheet composition. Investment decisions follow, rather than precede, this assessment. Endowus’ Hong Kong strategy is therefore built on the premise that a model successful in one market cannot simply be transplanted into another. The firm’s focus has been on adapting its operating and advisory framework to local socio-economic conditions rather than scaling rapidly on the back of brand recognition. Rejecting commission economics in favour of fiduciary alignment A central pillar of Endowus’ model is the rejection of commission-based distribution, which Yuen argued remains a structural weakness in much of Asia’s wealth industry. Commission incentives, she noted, distort product selection and undermine trust, particularly in markets where financial literacy varies widely. Endowus operates on a fee-only basis and rebates all trailer commissions back to clients. This structure is designed to eliminate conflicts of interest and make the economics of advice transparent at the point of engagement. Yuen framed this approach not as a philosophical choice, but as a necessary response to incentive misalignment. In markets where advisers are compensated by product manufacturers, she observed, suitability and long-term outcomes can be subordinated to sales targets. The firm’s reference points are not regional peers but regulatory and industry shifts elsewhere, including the United Kingdom’s Retail Distribution Review and the evolution of registered investment advisers in the United States. In Yuen’s view, Asia’s lag is structural rather than conceptual. By embedding fee transparency and commission rebates into the platform, Endowus uses technology to enforce fiduciary discipline consistently, reducing reliance on individual adviser judgement or memory. Curated access and disciplined product construction Endowus positions itself as an access platform rather than a product supermarket. Yuen stressed that the firm does not attempt to offer the widest possible menu, but instead curates a focused shelf of funds that meet specific governance, cost and performance criteria. The firm operates a dedicated investment office of around 14 professionals responsible for fund selection, portfolio construction and ongoing review. This team evaluates managers not only on returns, but on consistency, risk management and alignment with client objectives. Endowus’ platform provides access to institutional share classes where available, reducing costs for clients who would otherwise be excluded from such pricing. Core-satellite portfolio frameworks are adapted to Asian investor behaviour, balancing stability with selective growth exposure. In alternatives, Endowus has partnered with some of the largest global blue-chip private markets and hedge fund managers, allowing clients to access strategies typically reserved for institutional or ultra-high net-worth investors. Yuen underscored that access alone is insufficient. Each alternative strategy is accompanied by suitability controls, education requirements and liquidity disclosures to ensure clients understand gating, drawdown profiles and risk characteristics before committing capital. Engagement with family offices and institutional principals Yuen also referred to family offices as an important constituency within Hong Kong’s wealth landscape. Rather than positioning Endowus as an external asset manager or adviser, she described how the platform is used by family offices as part of their investment and execution infrastructure. In these cases, family offices retain responsibility for managing what they do best, which is managing client relationships, while Endowus provides a transparent platform for offering asset allocation advice, accessing funds, managing execution and consolidating reporting. Yuen highlighted that this is a new model preferred by some Hong Kong family offices. They value independence and control, but require institutional-grade tools that can integrate with their own decision-making frameworks. The relevance of family offices in Endowus’ Hong Kong strategy therefore lies not in service expansion, but in platform adaptability. The ability to support different principals — from individuals to trusts to family offices — without redefining their roles is a recurring theme in the firm’s approach. This reinforces Endowus’ positioning in Hong Kong is highly adaptable, for family offices it can serve as an infrastructure partner rather than an advisory substitute, particularly in a market where wealth structures are heterogeneous and often deeply customised. Working alongside trust and advisory structures As wealth planning in Hong Kong extends beyond conventional private banking relationships, Yuen noted that Endowus has also expanded its scope to work with partners such as trust providers to help families with their wealth planning needs. These include religious and community-based organisations that play a role in trust and estate planning. Yuen cited an example where Endowus works alongside a not-for-profit trustee company owned by a church organisation that provides affordable estate planning and family trusts set up services. In this arrangement, the trustee oversees trust structures and succession considerations, while Endowus supports the investment component through its platform. Yuen emphasised that Endowus does not seek to replace trustees or advisory bodies in such cases. Instead, the platform is designed to operate within externally defined mandates, providing transparency, execution discipline and reporting consistency. This ability to work alongside non-commercial trust providers reflects Endowus’ broader approach in Hong Kong: adapting to existing institutional realities rather than attempting to reshape them. It also reinforces the firm’s view that relevance in complex wealth markets is built through interoperability rather than service-line expansion. Behavioural discipline and platform-embedded governance Endowus’ operating model is designed to shape client behaviour as much as to facilitate transactions. Yuen described the platform as a mechanism for enforcing discipline consistently, particularly during periods of market stress. During the 2022 market downturn, Endowus launched an internal initiative that mobilised the entire organisation to engage proactively with clients. Rather than reacting to redemptions, teams reached out to explain market dynamics, portfolio positioning and long-term implications. Yuen noted that since the firm’s founding, there have been no weeks of net outflows, even through volatile market periods. While she avoided attributing this solely to performance, she pointed to transparency, education and consistent communication as key stabilising factors. Suitability processes are embedded digitally, reducing the scope for manual overrides or off platform execution. This ensures that advice, documentation and execution remain aligned, regardless of whether clients are self-directed or adviser-assisted. By relying on systems rather than individual discretion, Endowus seeks to reduce behavioural risk and compliance gaps, particularly as it scales its client base. Technology, artificial intelligence and regulatory realism Technology at Endowus is framed as an enabler of governance rather than a substitute for judgement. Yuen described artificial intelligence as a tool for operational augmentation, supporting tasks such as proposal preparation, knowledge retrieval and process automation. The firm’s use of generative artificial intelligence remains constrained by regulatory requirements around suitability and advice. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are not positioned as decision-makers, but as assistants operating within maker-checker frameworks. Endowus has introduced internal tools, powered by its proprietary multi-LLM WealthWise AI platform to support human advisers and clients with data retrieval and explanation. It has also rolled out external tools, such as AI-powered chatbots which significantly reduced wait times and managers approximately 30% of all incoming client enquiries, freeing up human advisors for more complex situations. However, Yuen stressed that wealth advisory remains a highly personalised affair, if clients prefer to speak with a human advisor, they can always do so, with AI used as an advisor enablement tool to improve consistency and efficiency rather than substitution. The emphasis on technology discipline reflects a broader philosophy. Systems are designed to reduce errors, enforce controls and support scale and personalisation, not to increase transaction velocity. This approach aligns with Endowus’ broader objective of using technology to institutionalise fiduciary standards rather than disrupt regulation. Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and measured regional expansion Hong Kong remains Endowus’ primary focus outside Singapore, reflecting its role as an offshore wealth hub for Chinese and regional clients. Yuen acknowledged the long-term potential of the Greater Bay Area while emphasising the current constraints imposed by capital controls and regulatory fragmentation. While initiatives such as Wealth Connect have immense potential in the long-run, they are viewed as incremental rather than transformative at this stage. Endowus’ strategy is to remain prepared and continue to invest in building foundational infrastructure to be ready for greater integration once there are further enhancements and relaxation to the schemes. Yuen described expansion as a function of readiness rather than purely aiming for speed. As the firm’s first overseas expansion, Endowus is highly committed to the Hong Kong market, aiming to demonstrate both its product-market-fit, and transferability of its model beyond its home market. Future growth will continue to be guided by fiduciary discipline, adapting to local conditions and ensuring that technology and governance scale together. Endowus is confident its experience in Hong Kong will serve as a strong case that a fee-only model can gain traction in structurally different wealth markets. Building relevance through understanding local structures and dynamics Endowus’ Hong Kong business illustrates how wealth platforms can be designed around structural realities rather than aspirational benchmarks. By grounding its model in incentives alignment and behavioural governance, the firm has prioritised relevance over rapid expansion typically driven by aggressive marketing lures. As Hong Kong’s wealth landscape continues to evolve amid inequality, demographic shifts and regulatory change, Endowus’ approach offers a case study in how fiduciary models can be adapted to markets where traditional assumptions about wealth no longer hold.
