Robo-Advisor Released by Lighthouse Canton

Lighthouse Canton, an investment manager with USD400m AUM, now offer accredited investors access to hedge fund strategies without hedge fund costs, via their App Store robo-advisor. In partnership with WeInvest, a Platform-as-a-Service provider, it grants ease of access across a fully supported range of strategies, asset classes and currencies. Lighthouse Canton offer their clients access to these strategies starting from 0.4 percent versus the traditional hedge fund 2-and-20 fee structure. Executed & custodized with Pershing, a BNY Mellon company, investors will have the added security of one of the world’s largest custodian.

Research from advisory PwC found that 62 percent of high-net-worth individuals in Asia-Pacific believe it is important for their financial advisor or wealth manager to have a strong digital offering. “Lighthouse Canton operates at the cutting edge of technology. We believe our partnership with WeInvest will help us to service our clients better, with a robust and seamless offering,” according to Lighthouse Canton CEO, Shilpi Chowdhary.

Figures from Business Insider Intelligence predict that robo-advisors will take over 10 percent of global assets under management by 2020. This places the potential at $8 trillion. The research also shows that such services will be predominantly utilized by pre-existing investors. For Lighthouse Canton, this shapes their plans to introduce the robo-advisor to existing clients. “Our primary goal remains to offer world class investment solutions to meet the specific financial needs of our clients” from CIO, Rajesh Sundaresan. “We will continue to provide our clients with transparent and unbiased financial advisory services, using the most advanced solutions in the market”

“Pershing has been at the forefront of the digital advisory initiative in the US. We are delighted to bring our expertise to Asia and to collaborate with Lighthouse Canton on their robo-advisory platform with WeInvest. Its unique offering coupled with our next-generation API-based platform combines the best of fintech expertise with our trusted execution & custody solutions for Lighthouse Canton and our other clients in Asia.” according to Mark Nelligan, Managing Director, Pershing Securities Singapore.

Using the ‘Platform-as-a-Service’ model minimizes capital expenditure, operational expenses & time-to-market says WeInvest CEO, Bhaskar Prabhakara. “This is particularly true with the highly diverse spread of regulations, capital controls, investment behavior & demographics in Asia.”

According to Preqin, the hedge fund industry in Asia-Pacific totals $159bn with outflows of $1.3bn in 2015. An accredited investor in Singapore are those with net personal assets exceeding $2 million, with an income minimum of $300,000 per year.