Professionally, Wilfred Ling is a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC). The ChFC designation originates from The American College established in USA since 1927 as an accredited, non-profit education institution providing graduate and professional education. The ChFC is a designation for Financial Planning Professionals who are:

• Educated – Completed a comprehensive curriculum of 8 subjects namely in

1. Fundamentals of Financial Planning and investments
2. Risk Management, Insurance and Retirement Planning
3. Tax, estate Planning and Legal Aspects of Financial Planning
4. Investment Planning
5. Plan Construction, Practice Standards and Ethics
6. Planning for Business Owners and Professionals
7. Wealth Management and Financial Planning
8. Financial Planning Applications

• Qualified – Passed a serious of examinations (consisting of cumulatively 21 hours), assessments and attended compulsory tutorials.
• Experienced – Have met specific experience consisting of at least 3 years of full-time relevant business experience in financial services and related industries.
• Ethical – Maintained ethical standards prescribed by The American College Code of Ethics consisting of The Professional Pledge & The Eight Canons.
• Knowledgeable - By earning re-certification every two years thereby ensuring  informed on the latest developments in financial services. ChFC holders are required to complete a minimum 30 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits every 2 years.

 As a licensed financial adviser, Wilfred Ling passed the following examinations:

1. Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services Examination – Rules and Regulations for Financial Advisory Services
2. Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services Examination – Collective Investment Schemes
3. Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services Examination – Life Insurance and Invesment-linked Policies
4. Certificate in Heath Insurance (Singapore College of Insurance)

Prior to working in the financial service sector, he worked as a Research & Development (R&D) Engineer for 10 years. He graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering in Second Upper Honors from the National University of Singapore.

The following is a table showing the difference between Wilfred’s professional practice compared with others:

Reason 1: Overheads

Nobody provides advice for free. All advisers charge a fee – either indirectly through commissions or directly by stating the fee upfront. It is impossible for any advisory firm to provide free advice. The fee you pay – either in commission or agreed fee is meant to help offset the large amount of overhead as illustrated below (Note: not drawn to scale):

No, you will not be charged a fee if you speak to me.

Any fees have to be agreed beforehand. The exact nature of the service to be rendered has to be agreed in writing. Unless these two matters are put in writing, I will not and cannot charge fee to clients.

Many prospecting clients want to meet me first before deciding whether to go ahead with the financial service. If they come to my office to “check me out” and to know more about the service provided and as well as to find out about me in person, they will not be charged a single cent.

Before coming to my office, please make an appointment.

Since we charge based on an hourly rate, wouldn’t the fee be potentially unlimited? Implied in the question is the possibility of being overcharged. You will not be overcharged because we will be fair to you:

• Fairness among different clients - It is true that the Initial Planning fee is based on an hourly rate. This is the fairest method as a simple case will mean cheaper than a complicated case. All clients pay according to level of complexity of their own case. There is no cross subsidy among clients unlike a commission based model in which clients who buys products actually subsidizes those who do not.
• Fairness is about reasonable. We will not charge time spent in research that can be recycled for other cases. For example, if the planner spent time reading up on CPF rules, that amount of time spent will not be charged to the client since this research is applicable for other clients. Instead, only time spent on matters that are not-recycleable and non-reusable for other clients will be charged. Reasonable will also mean that we will not overcharge our clients. Remember that it is our duty to enhance our clients’ asset, not reduce it.
• Fairness is about remunerating the financial planner for actual work done. The popular commission-based model adopted by almost all advisers is an unfair method because clients pay commissions in proportion to the type of products bought – not in proportion to the actual service rendered.
• Fairness could also mean that we will not accept certain cases. If we found your case to be relatively complicated in which you will eventually not afford our service, we will inform you upfront that we cannot accept your case.

We received numerous feedbacks that clients would like us to quote a fix fee for initial planning rather than an hourly rate. Since we have not done any work on the case, it is impossible to know in advance what the scope of work is. If we quote a fee lower than actual service rendered, we make a lost. The planner will have to quote a higher fee to other clients to make up for the loss. If we quote a higher fee for others, those clients are being overcharged. Effectively, providing a fix fee for initial planning will result in cross-subsidy problems among clients. In other words, a fix fee rate is an unfair method for the client. The fee that client ultimate pays is wide ranging. Typically a case would require between 10 to 30 hours of work. Based on past cases, the client should budget a four figure sum in fee.

We do not provide cash rebates. Instead, should there be commissions or referral fees, we have the leeway to reduce our fee as credits provided it is legally to do so. The exact classes of products eligible for such credit offsets and the formulae in determining such are provided to the client in writing in the agreement prior to the actual commencement of work.

We will not rebate or reduce the financial planning fees for the remuneration earned by other professionals and specialists. For example, if I would to refer the client to another colleague specializing in certain field, the commissions that he or she earned will not be rebated. In another example, if I would to refer the client to a lawyer, the legal fee earned by the lawyer will not be rebated to the client.

With effect from 1 February 2010, credits can only be used to offset Retainer Service Fees. It cannot be used to offset the Initial Financial Planning. I used to allow these credits the reduce the Initial Planning Fee but these transactions have become too complex to monitor. As an illustration of complexity, I would collect a partial Initial Planning Fee after the Financial Planning is completed to mitigate bad debts. However, the account has to remain open in order to wait for the client to decide whether to buy the product or sign up for the recommended service. If the client does sign up, I have to recompute any outstanding balance after taking into consideration of the credit offsets. This can take up to 3 months to close the account from the day which the Financial Planning was completed. As a result of this, there are too many outstanding accounts to monitor. Moreover, this has resulted in increased in bad debts. Obviously, this makes no difference for those who will sign up for the Retainer Service but it does make a difference to those who are only keen on the Initial Financial Planning.

Kindly refer to the Fees & Schedule page

You pay an initial deposit on the first meeting. We will sent you an interim invoice at end of every month until the entire planning process is completed. Payment is to be made by cheque to the company.

Our charges shown on the website are subjected to changes without notice. All clients have to sign an agreement prior to the actual commencement of work. Any changes to the charges will then be subjected to the terms and conditions of the agreement.

For those who are recent graduates, there is usually not much planning required. You can consider Simple Financial Planning which involves insurance planning. There is no need to sign up for Retainer Service because there isn’t much work to be done on an on-going basis.

Later on when you are going to get married you can sign up for the Comprehensive Financial Planning.

You can read this link on the difference between simple and comprehensive planning: HERE

In Promiseland Independent Pte Ltd, there are only a few fee-based financial planners.  The rest of advisers in the company are purely commission-based. The manner in which I conduct my advisory service is quite unique both within the company and in the local industry. In Singapore, fee-based advice is in a minority although it is more common in more advanced countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Moreover, the regulator does not mandate all advisers to be fee-based.

There is no sale quota imposed. Many other firms imposed sales quota which if not met could result in either monetary penalty, compulsory detention in office to make cold calls and eventual termination. You should avoid advisers working for such firms as your interest will not be taken care of.

Firstly, it is important to me that my clients are only charged for service actually rendered.

Second, it is important that I have good rapport and relationship with my clients. In the light of this, from experience it is not feasible to dwell in negotiation relating to consultation charges everytime my clients want to consult me.

Thus, I encourage all clients to sign up with the Retainer Service so that they pay a known quarterly fee. In this manner, they would know how much to pay and need not worry about charges everytime they wish to consult me.

For investment products such as unit trusts and life insurance, advice is regulated under the Financial Advisers Act.

For comprehensive financial planning, I am required to adhere to the Code of Ethics consisting of The Professional Pledge & The Eight Canons. Legally, clients’ interests are protected under Contract Law and Law of Tort.

There are countless financial products in Singapore. I do not claim to be able to “sell” everyone of them. As the saying goes “jack of all trade and master of none.” The following are list of product/services which I do not offer. However, I’ll assist my clients who would like some advice or purchase these products by recommending my colleagues who are able to do it:

• All general insurance including fire insurance, motor insurance, third party liability, personal accident, directors & liabilities, travel insurance, pet insurance, credit insurance, etc
• Bank loans market research and referrals

I am authorized to distribute the following products/services:

12 Insurance companies

30 Fund Managers

4 Overseas Investments

In addition, I am a Professional Estate Planner for Rockwills Corporation Pte Ltd. Moreover, I am an authorized Introducer for Rockwills Trustee Limited.

For the first appointment, you should bring along the following:

• A signed copy of the “Know Your Client” form. This is the fact finding form as required by regulation. It is compulsory that you fill it up so that you can select the mode of advice – whether it is product advice, specific needs advice or full-disclosure advice. For all cases handled by me, the full-disclosure advice is the only option available.
• A signed copy of the Memorandum of Understanding for Financial Planning. This MOU specify the scope of service, the fee structure and deliverables.
• All insurance policy documents. If you have lost the policy, you should request a duplicate copy from your insurer.
• Latest benefit illustration from your insurers for participating policies. This has to be requested from your insurers as well.
• A copy of the latest investment statements and your Investment Policy Statement (IPS) from your investment adviser (if any)
• A copy of your latest tax statement from IRAS
• A copy of your Will (if any)
• A photocopy of the letter from CPF Board stating your existing CPF Nomination
• A copy of your CPF statements showing the latest balance and transactions over the last 18 months as well as the amount used for investments/property purchase
• A copy of your latest housing loan outstanding
• Copies of the last 3 months of credit card bills
• A copy of your car loan agreement (if any)

All the above will be retain by us for record keeping except for policy documents which will be return when the planning is completed (usually in 2 or 3 meetings).

For clients who wished to invest through me, the minimum initial amount is a lump sum SGD 20,000 for exchange traded funds (ETFs). However, not all the entire amount needs to be invested immediately.

If this minimum cannot be met or for investment using SRS and CPF, I’ll recommend unit trusts for which the minimum is dependent on each unit trust fund’s requirement.

I could also implement regular saving plan (RSP) for unit trusts and exchange traded funds too. The optimum minimum amount for RSP on ETFs is SGD 2,000 per transaction. If this minimum cannot be met, an RSP for this amount every two or three months interval can also be arranged.

Note that I could also advice on clients’ investments on their existing ILPs bought from other financial advisers. However, the client will have to transact these themselves. Fortunately, major insurers these days permit online fund switching for their ILPs without the need to see their agents.

For maximum benefit, it is recommended that you are familiar with the following subjects:

• Time value for money. Advanced time value for money is used throughout the financial plan.

• Differences between the different asset classes namely: cash, cash-equivalent, property, fixed income and equity.

As the company size is quite significant, I often receive queries from those who wants to engage my service but hesitated as their existing financial advisers are from the same company as me. If this is the case, you should seek the consent of your existing financial adviser before engaging me.

When come to estate planning, most people will just go directly to the Will writers and give instructions to them. But for me, this is not permitted. There are various reasons. One is due to my preferred style and another is a practical reason.

My preferred style of providing professional advice is to understand the client’s needs thoroughly first before any recommendation. This is the way I conduct my professional business. Prospective clients who wish to find someone who can understand their needs will find my approach useful. But prospective clients who just want to “get-on-with-the-products” will find my approach to be waste of time. For the latter case, you can approach countless product pushers in the marketplace which will be more than happy to sell you another Lehman Brother Minibond and tell you that’s estate planning! So good luck to you.

The practical reason is this. For estate planning, it can be highly technical. Unless the individual is already in the industry, it becomes impossible to do estate planning yourself. If I allow the prospective clients to give me the instructions on how the Will contents or testamentary trust should be like etc, I will end up spending more than 50 hours in emails and meetings explaining to them what can be done and cannot be done because they will come up with all sort of weird and unsound ideas. At the end of the session, they will be either be confused or not satisfied because so much hard work has to be put into. It is also not productive for me as it means spending too much time on a single case with so little work being achieved. Thus, I prefer to fully understand the clients needs through thorough analysis and make the suitable recommendations. This will take 20-30 hours altogether which is much shorter in hours. Usually 90% of the recommendations will be agreeable by the client because it meets the needs exactly. The remaining 10% is usually due to personal preference changes. It is easier to deal with the changes in 10% than the entire 100%.

There is actually hardly any estate planner in Singapore. Most specializes in specific estate planning tools like Will writing, Trusts, etc. These are just tools. Usage of such tools is not equivalent to estate planning. Here are the difference between others and myself: