Edward Lim, CFA April 2025 In “The Art of the Deal,” President Trump famously advocated for negotiating from strength and employing leverage, suggesting that projecting an image of power is indispensable. One of the key quotes earlier in the book was “The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal seems desperate to make […]
16 Raffles Quay, #41-02
Hong Leong Building
Singapore 048581
Covenant Capital is a Singapore-based independent wealth manager / multi family office.
We hold the Capital Markets Services License issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Our Firm operates on a fundamental bond between ourselves and the clients we serve. A bond built on professional and social ethics, expert knowledge and an unbiased stewardship towards holistic wealth accumulation and preservation.
Covenant Capital exists with a single-minded purpose to serve only the interests of our clients. We believe that such a covenant of trust, between clients and partners, is the only sustainable basis of long term wealth preservation, accumulation and partnership.
We earn predominantly via a fee based model, recognising that professionals are best aligned when clients are their paymasters. Yet we acknowledge that in Asia, both investors and wealth professionals need time to shift from a transactional model to a fee based model. The team-in-Covenant proactively supports RM teams in that shift towards the model where alignment is key.
We are not restricted to a single house view and instead have access to street-wide research to deliver an independent and unbiased prognosis for our clients in an increasingly challenging and changing world.
Every member of the founding team are stake owners of the firm which means we are intricately linked to our clients’ well-being, both financially and personally.
We pride ourselves to be different from other wealth managers. Our core team comprises largely investment-focused professionals.
The word S.E.R.V.E. embodies a heart of humility in the way we engage each other. The spirit of service, externally to our clients and families we serve, internally to each other within the firm.
StewardshipCommitment to our clients and community.
ExcellenceConstant improvement to be at the forefront.
Respect & humilityRespect is having the humility to listen
Value relationshipsCollaboration & team spirit.
Employees are keyWe are called to be stewards of our greatest assets — our team.
Edwin Lee CFA, CAIA
Chief Executive Officer
Some have asked me, ‘How big do you want to grow?’, ‘Where do you see the firm in 5 years?’, ‘What is your vision for the firm?’. In the world of wealth management, the common measures of success are ‘Assets Under Management’ (AUM), ‘revenue’, and other quantitative metrics. We look and plan ahead, with details on AUM growth, but sometimes it is important to look at the qualitative aspects of things as well.
Our long-term goal is to make an impact on the wealth management industry in Singapore and Asia. We want to drive investment professionals – private bankers, investment counsellors and other financial services professionals, back to the fundamental role that they are called to – the stewardship of clients’ assets.
In 2016, we launched with a team of seven in a cozy shophouse along Club Street. I firmly believe in finding and building the right team dynamics and synergies. As a firm today, we have a solid team of individuals with different gifts and skill sets but work towards the same goal of achieving stewardship of client assets.
While the temptation to grow bigger will always be there, without a deep foundation, the risk of failure when storms hit will be there. Covenant Capital is built on the foundation that strong values and a strong investment core is crucial to weather the ever-changing economic and market conditions. It is my hope and prayer that as we strive towards excellence in wealth management for our clients and grow over the years, the Covenant Capital team will always remember our how and why we first begun.
We offer unparalleled investment expertise with a core team comprising of highly experienced and disciplined investment-focused professionals with an average span of 18 years of experience in the financial services industry.
We align interests to clients and their heirs, and empower clients to be stewards of their assets by providing discretionary and advisory investment solutions throughout their life journey, from wealth accumulation to wealth preservation, and eventually to wealth transference.
We tap on an open architecture approach and have access to an ecosystem of platforms and products globally and in Asia, which enables the firm to provide sound investment recommendations and wealth management opportunities that are tailored to the clients’ best interests at the most efficient cost structure.
We offer unparalleled investment expertise with a core team comprising of highly experienced and disciplined investment-focused professionals with an average span of 18 years of experience in the financial services industry.
We offer unparalleled investment expertise with a core team comprising of highly experienced and disciplined investment-focused professionals with an average span of 18 years of experience in the financial services industry.
Investment professionals are called to be stewards of assets. They need a supportive ecosystem within which they can work for your best interests. The system can either empower them to perform their role as stewards or leave them feeling conflicted as sometimes sub-optimal solutions are delivered.
In the traditional wealth management model, significant conflicts of interest result in a less than ideal outcome both for investors and advisers.
Our conviction is the key lies in the Independent Wealth Manager Model where clients and investment professionals interests are aligned.
Unlike most wealth managers, Covenant Capital has a dedicated investment team whose main focus is to conduct research, form in-house views, and manage our clients’ portfolios.
The value propositions of our dedicated investment team:
Often, the pressures faced by investment professionals are under appreciated. Striving to manage and meet the expectations of clients in the midst of volatile market conditions, coupled with firm and management demands, the forces around can indeed be overwhelming. It takes a strong heart and a stronger sense of conviction to stay on the course to be a good steward of our clients’ trust and their assets.
You might be exploring independence for the first time, or this might be 5th year since you first considered it, but in both cases, you still find the option daunting and find it difficult to muster up the courage to take the leap of faith.
The questions in your mind are multi-faceted:
It’s hard to put a price tag on the deep satisfaction that comes with knowing that we have done our job for our clients to the best of our ability.
We would be more than happy to chat through things over a cup of coffee, but here are a few key fundamental differences in the business model:
Through the fee based model, our compensation (both investment professional and firm) are pegged to the value of the clients’ portfolio. By not receiving fees from the banks and fund managers, our interests are truly aligned with the clients’.
We recognize that some Asian clients prefer to pay a transaction fee rather than an ongoing management or adviser fee. Yet we can see that investor mentality is shifting, and they are seeing the risks associated with the transaction fee model (e.g. lack of post sales monitoring and due diligence.) and are willing to give the fee based model a shot. Over time, we believe that this will be the dominant industry model.
One of the often-touted benefits of independence is that access to street-wide research and best of breeds products.
Yet in this day and age when one is swamped with information, this can be a daunting fact. Bankers and Investment Counsellors often have trouble keeping up with one firm’s research and investment ideas. Sifting through 5 firms’ research might not be the most appealing alternative.
Here’s where a key strength of Covenant Capital comes in. The thought leadership and depth of experience of the CIO’s office provides the much needed investment direction. The team provides the much-needed support to our bankers and investment counsellors by sifting through the wheat from the chaff and distilling key macroeconomic research to chart the way forward.
At each stage, we discuss with you your target return and risk tolerance to design a bespoke and unbiased wealth management plan to achieve these objectives. We employ an open architecture where both 3rd party services offerings and in-house expertise are utilized.
We deliver our services to you through a combination of discretionary and advisory model as we recognized there are differences in each client’s level of sophistication in the financial markets.
In the early stage of your wealth journey, our focus is to deliver capital appreciation with a total return objective in mind. Subsequently, income needs and capital preservation become more important in the next stage. Throughout our journey with you, we are constantly involved in your legacy, insurance and tax management needs.
In a discretionary mandate, you entrust your wealth to be managed by our team so that you can concentrate on your own business, family and charity work. We currently offer solutions across the objectives spectrum from our lower return/risk income generation mandate to higher return/risk capital appreciation global asset allocation mandate.
In our Advisory services, there is a symbiotic relationship between you and us when you engage the financial markets. By working with us, you will have access to our investment professionals expertise plus external research from the entire street. We help you distill from the myriad of views and information and formulate an action plan for you to profit from the markets. Given our fee-based revenue model, you will never be alone when you are invested in the market. Whilst you may have made the decision with inputs from us, we will be alongside you all the way, updating you and advising when to take profit or even cut loss.
As we are fully committed to providing the best-of-breed investment services and solutions, we are equally committed to work with you to find and select a network of qualified external service-provider partners to advise, select and implement solutions in the areas of risk management, tax planning and legacy planning.
In collaboration with you, we will work side by side with you and our panel of experts. Throughout the whole process, we can help you to crystallize your needs, decide on the best suited service-provider partner to work with, coordinate and monitor the implementation of the plans.
Insurance and risk management
Tax planning
Legacy planning
16 Raffles Quay, #41-02
Hong Leong Building
Singapore 048581