The following is a press statement issued by LGBT Capital and Financial Partners on Feb 4, 2013:
LGBT Capital and Financial Partners today announced the launch of LGBT Wealth, the first Wealth management operation focused on the LGBT community in Asia. LGBT Wealth has been established to provide a specialist service for the LGBT community, with advisors understanding the particular needs of this Community and products and services screened for this growing market.
LGBT Wealth will provide advice and services through its regulated entity, Financial Partners, in a number of important areas including Retirement Planning and Saving, Insurance, Property and Wealth Protection and will combine experienced financial planning resource with a knowledge of the special issues facing the LGBT community.
Paul Thompson, Chairman of LGBT Wealth and Founder of LGBT Capital, the world’s first specialist investment management company focused on the LGBT sector said: "We think a specialist Wealth advisor focused on the LGBT community is a very important development. Many people in the LGBT community do not have access to advisors who truly understand their needs and the LGBT life cycle can be very different. Important issues like saving for retirement can be overlooked and with a generally higher disposable income there is real opportunity with the right advice for the LGBT community to achieve their financial goals."
[Fridae editor's note: Paul Thompson is also the Executive Chairman of Fridae.]
Howard Clark Burton, CEO of Financial partners, one of Asia’s leading independent financial advisory firms and the regulated entity for financial advice said: "We are delighted to be introducing a service for the LGBT community which we believe is underserved in financial advice. Very often, the legal protections for LGBT partners are not in place in Asia and we believe the correct advice can help LGBT individuals protect their Wealth and their Partners."
The LGBT market is a significant and growing market. It is estimated that the LGBT population in the Asia region is over 200 million and represents some US$800 billion in spending power each year. Globally, the LGBT population is estimated at over 400 million with a spending power of some US$3 trillion.
Paul Thompson added: "Clearly the LGBT consumer represents a significant opportunity for both spending and investment but it is essential that where Financial Advice is given, there is understanding of the individual’s specific issues and in Asia, where many LGBT individuals are more private about their lifestyle, it is even more important to have a trusted advisor with whom they feel comfortable discussing their situation and objectives. We believe that LGBT Wealth will provide this."
About Financial Partners:
Financial Partners, an independent advisory firm, was established in Hong Kong in 1988 and holds licenses with HKSFC, HKCIB and MPFSA.
Financial Partners is majority owned by its staff and, on a daily basis, works towards the vision: A marketleading, client-driven, financial planning and wealth management consultancy.
Financial Partners strives to attract and retain the best personnel available in the Financial Services sector. A cornerstone of our strategy is the FP Academy, which focuses on developing advisors to become recognized as amongst the leading wealth managers in Hong Kong.
About LGBT Capital:
LGBT Capital is a boutique investment management advisory firm with operations in the UK and Greater China specializing in the LGBT consumer sector.
LGBT Capital is part of the Galileo Group of companies, launched in 2004 to provide investment advice to capital providers and bridging between investment opportunities and sources of suitable capital.
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Reader's Comments
I think that's great idea. many gay people make much money but not have good plan on their retirement, insurance, etc. there's a huge market on developing country.
Well, let's not be skeptical at first. if they're an independent financial consultant which not refer us to some kind of scam investment, it's something worth to try.
and I wish I could join them as one of their financial planner consultant, hahaha..
:D
YOU mean you can't figure out a savings plan and retirement? Then god bless you. These people are not interested in the gay community they are taking advantage of our disposable income that so many gay people throw away, WAKE UP... \
AND respondent (4) are you brain dead? The straight community has pushed us down for years. If I am going to give any benifit it will be in the gay community to build it and surpass the STREIGHTS.
What the LGBT community needs is certain solutions that are lacking. Retirement home and long-term care services particularly. There is strong evidence from the research conducted by universities that points to gay discrimination in retirement facilities in the West. According to an Australian academic, certain gay seniors who had come out during their youth are forced to hide back into the closset after moving in to such facilities. Already, this problem had been serious enough to trigger the establishment of gay retirement villages in countries like the USA, Australia and Spain. The LGBT communities of Asian countries would need to address this problem so that we won't end up in a situation where we had done all the necessary financial planning and are receiving the required insurance and annuity pay-outs, but still aren't able to live comfortably during our retirement because WE CAN'T FIND ANY GAY-FRIENDLY RETIREMENT SERVICE-PROVIDER.
Hence, if this LGBT advisery business will move on to explore gay retirement services in Asia as part of its organic growth, I think it'll be a really good news.
Here's a reality check because, like most people, I work for a living in the big bad world.
Hedge funds and investment banks don't give a shit about retirement villages. The straight ones don't give two hoots about them unless they can rip off the residents of those retirement villages and the gay ones won't either.
Wall Street is predatory - look what happened to Lehman Brothers and how many lives Bernie Madoff's 40 year-old ponzi scheme destroyed. Wall Street wants YOUR money to make money for them NOT you.
If you want a Utopian retirement village where everyone wears a bouquet of roses for glasses, you'd be far better off trying to convince Mother Teresa's (God rest her soul) Missionaries of Charity to start one.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/02/spains-first-gay-retirement-home
I think the lgbt communities in our region will have a real life case to study after this Spanish project's completion. we will have the benefit of being able to study it before we launch our own versions. it is structured as a co-operative, which, if well-formed, i think would keep blood-suckers away, or at least check their greed.
although no plan is perfect, we should still look into adopting this spanish idea, with some modification to suit our unique needs perhaps, in order to address our own retirement prob. we will come to a stage where a critical mass of concerned professional lgbt (inc lawyers, doctors, financial consultants, etc.) in this region who are approaching their retirement ages become concerned enough to get together to solve their common prob collectively by forming a team to look into this. this had happened in spain, and so will it here.
Your question had already been answered in the news article:
Question: Sunthenmoon, where's the MONEY coming from for your Spanish hacienda?
-A GROUP OF elderly Spanish GAY MEN are rebelling against the homophobia of their generation by SETTING up what will be the country's first gay and lesbian retirement home.
-Now he needs to find 120 like-minded people to sign up as members of the CO-OPERATIVE and start paying the quotas needed to raise a bank mortgage. Around 20 have already joined.
-The retirement home would cost €1,000 (£834) a month to live in, he said – much lower than the average Madrid price of €1,400.
ref:
http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/02/spains-first-gay-retirement-home
At the end of the day, sunthenmoon, the MONEY has to come from somewhere and Wall Street, straight or gay, is NOT going to fund anything without an ROI, i.e. return on investment.
Your argument fails on all counts because the REALITY of life is that there is NO free lunch.
Bon appetit!
When had I ever proposed:
1) " that Wall Street manage this money"?
2) Or, finance the seed money?
3) And, the management of funds or provision of loans don't come at a cost?
4) there is 'free lucnch"?
Please enlighten.
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