Asset management veteran Jimmy Pun is helping the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s nonprofit charitable foundation to set up a platform for charity and retirement protection in Hong Kong, a dual structure billed as the “first of its kind” in the city.
Pun, chief executive officer of Adventist Charitable Foundation Limited (ACF), says the platform comprises charity trust services and living trust services. It was officially registered in April 2021.
“One of the platform’s purposes is to provide elderly and healthcare services, or even a low-cost version of private retirement protection, for average people in the city,” he says in an interview with Asia Asset Management.
Pun says seed funding for the platform came from the US-based Seventh-day Adventist Church. He declined to disclose the amount, saying only that the foundation aims to break even within five years.
Pun has over 30 years of management experience in various pension funds and asset management firms in Hong Kong, including the Hospital Authority Provident Fund Scheme, the city’s largest corporate retirement plan. He joined ACF in 2020 to engineer the dual-structure platform.
He describes the charity trust service as a “channel between donors and donees”.
“We help individuals set up a customised donation programme based on their preferences and wishes,” he says, adding that the minimum size of this segregated account is HK$1 million (US$128,000). “We will provide clients with value-added services, including evaluation and reports on charities and governance and oversight.”
Pun believes this model is better able to provide financial support to lesser known or small local charities which have been battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
As for the living trust service, he says it facilitates private retirement protection for individuals by offering wealth planning and inheritance distribution services.
Pun says ACF will manage the platform’s charitable assets by providing users with four investment options based on their risk tolerance. These options are made up of funds managed by ten traditional and alternative managers, including Schroders, Invesco, and Ping An Asset Mangement.
“The platform’s administration and trustee fees are lower than private banks as some managers provide discount on their funds,” Pun says, adding that ACF may include more managers on the platform when its assets grow.