Executive Interview
Executive Interviews
An Interview with
Yugi Lee
Blackhorn Wealth Management Limited
Founder
Blackhorn Wealth Management is an external asset manager (“EAM”) based in Hong Kong. Our team draws on decades of experience in private wealth and investing to provide best-in-class wealth solutions for our clients and their families.
As an external asset manager, we partner with the most reputable private banks. These trusted partnerships ensure that clients gain access to a diverse array of products and services to best suit their needs. Beyond private banking, we also identify alternative investment opportunities that help our clients diversify and achieve their long-term investment goals. The advisory process with clients is based on understanding, collaboration, and results.
Blackhorn Family Office is the family office governance arm of Blackhorn Weatlh Management. We provide valuable services to clients including legacy planning, trust arrangement and cross-border tax planning. Based in Hong Kong, the financial gateway of China perfectly positions us to capture the unique opportunities offered by the city’s financial connectivity and infrastructure.
Publish Date:
5 September 2022
Hong Kong
Location:
Tell us about your background, and how you came to found your company?
Yugi Lee is a former private banker. She started her finance career when she was 22 as one of the founding members of the Hong Kong division of Bank of Shanghai. She later joined Credit Suisse Hong Kong in the external asset management unit before joining the UBS private banking division in 2015. Her talent and drive did not go unnoticed when she became the youngest banker at UBS Hong Kong to be promoted to a director role at just 26-years-old. She attributes her success to her client first philosophy. By demonstrating loyalty and sincerity to clients above all else, she has retained a close network of clients as she advanced through her career.
Having a strong network of support and a loyal client base gave Yugi the confidence to step out of her comfort zone to start Blackhorn Wealth Management. She fast tracked her career to become an entrepreneur and co-founder for Blackhorn Wealth Management. The Company was established in 2021. Together with co-founder, Mary Chiu, the two women have formed a unique partnership in asset management, a field that is mostly dominated by men with pedigrees from investment banks and private-equity firms. They started the multi-family office concept with the support of several loyal clients. The idea quickly evolved into a wealth management platform to serve both families and ultra-high-net-worth individuals with a full suite of services including investment advisory, estate planning and tax advisory.
What is most important to you and your organization – mission, vision, or core values? Why?
Clients are always our biggest assets to the company. Our mission is simple: We provide clients with tailor-made strategies and open communication to deliver meaningful results.
At Blackhorn Wealth Management, we understand that navigating complex investment opportunities can be challenging. Through our expertise and research-driven principles, we guide our clients to customized solutions that suit their personal objectives.
Can you explain briefly how your service(s)/product(s) works?
As an external asset manager (“EAMs), Blackhorn covers comprehensive service provided from wealth management to multi-family office services which is different from the product and service coverage by traditional banking. The rapid rise of EAMs in US and Europe have proven that EAMs can provide more wide range of services which satisfy needs of high-net-worth clients. Driven by increasing complex client needs, we can see the demand of EAMs in Hong Kong or other Asian countries. Blackhorn can search for the best options of investments from varies private bank platform that suit their clients most.
For high-net-worth or ultra-high-net-worth clients, wealth management is only part of their needs. They are not only looking for investments for increasing value of assets. What they also need is how to preserve the assets passing to the next generations.
We have professional Advisory Team to provide timely global market updates and Investment Management Consulting Team to manage clients' portfolios. The investment philosophy is guided by a strategic long-term view, emphasizing portfolio diversity with downside protection which is very different from product selling. We maintain very good and long-term relationship with clients.
Basically, our clients are sophisticated high-net-worth or ultra-high-net-worth clients. Blackhorn Family Office is the family office governance arm of Blackhorn Group.
We provide valuable services to clients including legacy planning, trust arrangement and cross-border tax planning. We partnered with top-tier insurance brokers and trustees to provide our clients with tailored insurance solutions for preserving wealth and protecting legacies. With these specialized arrangements available to Blackhorn Wealth Management clients, we provide powerful tools across a proven network of experts to help families realize their goals.
How has the industry been changing in recent years?
External Asset Managers (EAMs) is very well established in Europe and the USA but not in Hong Kong and other Asian countries. However, we can see the model of EAMs has been rapidly expanding in Hong Kong and Singapore in recent years.
Traditional investors in Hong Kong and Asian regions were keen on maximum control of assets and normally wealth management was dominated by banks. As Asian investors become more sophisticated particularly for those young generations are well educated. tradition investment tools such as stock trading may not be able to satisfy their investment needs. They are looking for more variety of investment products and services. Banks normally can only provide basic and traditional investment products. Young investors are more open to different forms of wealth management and we can see increasing demand for EAMs in Asian countries.
What makes you different from what’s currently available in the market?
Blackhorn covers comprehensive service provided from wealth management services to Multi-family office services which is not most of the external asset management companies can fully cover with in this industry in Hong Kong.
Blackhorn partnered with seven of the most reputable private banks and 5 investment bank issuers when we were newly established in 2021. We have very good relationship with private banks. These trusted partnerships ensure that clients gain access to a diverse array of products and services to best suit their needs. Beyond private banking, we also identify alternative investment opportunities that help our clients diversify and achieve their long-term investment goals. The advisory process with clients is based on understanding, collaboration, and results.
On wealth management side, Blackhorn has a team of Investment Management Consulting Team with more than 20 years of experience in the industry. All of them have worked in reputable international private banks before joining Blackhorn.
Not all external asset management companies have their own advisory team. Blackhorn’s team has great support from an internal advisory board of impressive experts provide high-quality advice to Blackhorn Wealth Management. Nejteh Demirian, a senior director at Hashkey and former founding member of Fountainhead Partners, and Jody Leung, former CIO at Nan Fung Trinity and former managing director at Credit Suisse, offer a wealth of knowledge and experience. The investment philosophy is guided by a strategic long-term view, emphasizing portfolio diversity with downside protection.
Blackhorn Family Office is the family office governance arm of Blackhorn Wealth Management. Our clients come from diverse backgrounds and their needs require highly personalized solutions. A large proportion of Blackhorn Wealth Management’s clients are families with enterprises based in both Hong Kong and China with a global outlook. From industrial enterprises to the property and services sectors, we cater to their enterprises and beyond. Hence, our team of experts provide a range of services under one roof for a fully integrated approach to wealth management. As families grow and adapt, our experts are here to shape their services around these needs.
Blackhorn Wealth Management offers a competitive advantage for clients. The organization offers institutional services on a personalized level and leverages a large network of professionals to achieve what individuals and families need to succeed in a complex environment.
What does the future hold for your company?
Blackhorn has been established for one year. We are now having ten asset managers of the Investment Management Consulting Team. We target to expand the team double in 2023 We are also planning to partner with more reputable private banks in order to provide more choices to our clients as market is changing and become more competitive. We keep our competences and position in the market.