WHITMAN BANKING ON DIGITAL WAVE

Company offers first mobile app-driven wealth management adviser in Malaysia

WITH digital transformation ripping through most industries, Whitman Independent Advisors Sdn Bhd is catching up with the wave to help users achieve financial freedom.

The company, which started as a traditional holistic wealth management advisory firm offering face-to-face service to high net worth and upper middle-class clients, would be the first mobile app-driven wealth adviser in the country.

Founder and managing director Yap Ming Hui said the app, iWealth, leverages the versatility of the Internet and technology, as well as human advisers to deliver world-class wealth management services at a fraction of what it would normally cost.

“However in this day and age and due to advancement in technology, speed, time and convenience are precious commodities.

“Emails, for example, are being replaced with instant messaging via

Whatsapp as a preferred method of communication.

“As such, we find ourselves evolving with the times. While we continue to serve our clients who prefer face-to-face interaction, iWealth makes good use of online meeting tools,such as Skype, google hangouts, and GoToMeeting to achieve the desired results,” he said.

“I am an advocate of a hybrid module that incorporates the best of advisory via human-to-human connection, and complimented with the speed and intelligence of technology,” he added.

iWealth offers two types of services — an entry level tool called iWealth Basic and iWealth+.

iWealth Basic seamlessly integrates a personalised Do-It-Yourself (DIY) element to Whitman’s renowned “Roadmap to Financial Freedom” service, a proprietary solution to help clients ascertain if their wealth is growing fast enough to achieve all their financial goals.

iWealth+, on the other hand, pairs human wealth manager’s advisory services with fintech innovation to deliver personalised wealth management solutions capable of helping Malaysians achieve financial freedom.

At RM480, Yap said iWealth’s low-entry cost makes it possible for a segment of the market, namely millenniald, to tap holistic wealth management services unreachable for them in the past due to the high fees and high minimum asset requirements.

“Riding on technology, iWealth+ will deliver holistic financial solutions in a manner that suits the new generation of consumers, whose demand for greater convenience, accessibility and affordability is insatiable,” he said.

Yap said the difference between iWealth+ and traditional licensed wealth manager’s service was that iWealth service would be delivered 100 per cent online whereas traditional licensed wealth managers normally deliver their service face to face offline.

iWealth+ will deliver holistic financial solutions in a manner that suits the new generation of consumers. YAP MING HUI

Whitman Independent Advisors founder