Meet Roger, a dedicated financial advisor with a comprehensive approach to securing your financial future. With expertise in will planning, business succession, and divorce planning, Roger helps individuals and businesses navigate life’s most complex transitions.
By offering personalised strategies, he ensures clients’ assets are protected, families are taken care of, and businesses can thrive through generational changes or challenging life events. With a deep commitment to guiding clients through these pivotal moments, Roger is a trusted partner in building lasting legacies and achieving financial peace of mind. Here’s his story.
What inspired you to specialise in will planning, business succession, and divorce planning within the financial consultancy?
This is essentially a mid-life career switch for me. My father passed away due to stage 4 renal cancer, which is kidney cancer. We had a family business, he was the keyman. Upon his death, there was a creditor laying claim on his estate to the tune of 7 figures.
Therefore, I understood the importance of credit protection in a business, business succession in terms of proper successor choosing, properly done wills, and leaving behind assets for the client.
How do you approach guiding clients through emotionally sensitive topics like divorce and succession planning?
I believe my technical expertise comes into play here in the sense that I am able to separate the emotional and technical aspects during these discussions. At the start of the conversation, I always tell my clients, “My job is not to handle your emotions. My job is to help you lay out practically what’s potentially going to happen if you decide to proceed with this particular topic.”
Therefore, with this in mind, they are able to have a clearer idea and make informed decisions.
What are some common misconceptions people have about will planning and business succession?
The common misconception about will planning is that everybody thinks if they do nothing, their assets might happily go to their family. Is this true? Maybe, but sometimes it’s very simple.
The usual example I give is this: a husband, his wife, and two children. What does it mean by fair and reasonable? One house divided among three people is not exactly fair, but it’s equal. The correlation between fairness and equality is the usual problem that comes up during will planning.
A lot of people always shy away from writing their first will. Why I talk about the first will is because, in our lifetime, I believe everybody needs to write at least three wills.
Can you share the importance of how succession planning can help safeguard a client’s business or family assets?
Going back to my initial answer in question one, if proper succession planning had been done, I probably would not be in this industry. My father and his partner jointly signed as personal guarantors for a loan and mortgage.
Therefore, they were all 100% liable. If, at that point in time, proper credit protection had been in place—meaning the company bought insurance on each partner’s life—upon their death, the insurance proceeds would have cleared the loan. There would have been no issue and no dispute in my father’s estate, and I would have been happily still working at my previous job.
How do you ensure clients’ wills and succession plans stay relevant as their circumstances evolve?
A lot of people always shy away from writing their first will. Why I talk about the first will is because, in our lifetime, I believe everybody needs to write at least three wills. The first will is the first time you do it. The second is likely when you reach a life stage, for example, marriage, divorce, first property, or first child.
The third one is the one you review along the way and is likely to be a final one when you are ready with all your distribution intentions. Look back at our Founding Father’s wills, and you will get a better view of why multiple wills and revisions are important.
What trends are you seeing in financial planning for divorce settlements, and how do you help clients navigate them?
The main trend nowadays is, firstly, more clients are willing to talk about this taboo subject. Secondly, it is more frequently published in the news, especially in the Sunday Times. Nowadays, when people read, they understand it’s not always 50/50.
When we talk about direct and indirect contributions, the indirect contributions sometimes matter more than the direct contributions. People are willing to talk about it because they understand they can benefit. The ruling, at the end of the day, could be 60/40, 70/30, or 65/35, depending on the judge and the evidence presented.
What advice would you give to business owners who have yet to consider succession or will planning for their companies?
The basic thing every business owner should have is a trust. Having a trust will protect their assets against creditors and in-laws and allow them to provide for their loved ones unconditionally, based on their initial intentions, no matter the trends or direction the business is going.
Where do you see yourself and what’s your vision for Singapore in the next five years?
I see myself giving lectures and seminars on the three topics: will planning, business succession, and divorce planning.
I hope that Singapore, as a nation, also brings up more education and awareness on the importance of these three topics and provides much better platforms for people to talk about them without the taboo that is often stuck to these topics.
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