Endowus is a Singapore and Hong Kong investment platform built on the fee-only model: its only remuneration is a percentage of client assets, and trailer fees — the commissions fund managers pay distributors for bringing in money — are rebated to the investor in full as cashback. Two legal entities hold the licences: Endowus Singapore Pte. Ltd., supervised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Endowus HK Limited, supervised by Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).
Endowus is not a bank: it offers no payment accounts and no lending against a portfolio, and client money and fund units are held by custodians off the platform's balance sheet. Nor is it a broker for trading individual shares: market access runs through mutual funds in institutional share classes. Its place among neighbouring solutions is covered in the investment platforms overview.
Licences and supervision
Regulation is dual, with one licensed entity per jurisdiction.
| Jurisdiction | Entity | Supervisor | Permitted activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore | Endowus Singapore Pte. Ltd. | MAS | Capital Markets Services licence: fund management and dealing in capital markets products (units in collective investment schemes); separately, exempt financial adviser status |
| Hong Kong | Endowus HK Limited | SFC | Since 25 January 2022: Type 1 (dealing in securities) — limited to passing orders to exchange participants and dealing in fund units; Type 4 (advising on securities); Type 9 (asset management) — without discretionary management of funds |
The Singapore entity appears in the MAS Financial Institutions Directory as a Capital Markets Services Licensee for both activities and at the same time operates as an exempt financial adviser; its registered address is 158 Cecil Street. The company discloses its licence number, CMS101051, in its own materials. What each of these activities permits is explained in the article on Singapore CMS and financial adviser licences. The Hong Kong entity appears in the SFC public register under CE number BQR225 with Types 1, 4 and 9 regulated activities, all three effective since 25 January 2022.
The practical meaning of this set is defined by the conditions on the Hong Kong licence. Type 1 allows Endowus HK only to communicate client orders to exchange participants, introduce clients to them and deal in units of collective investment schemes, so the Hong Kong entity is not a full broker. Type 9 is granted with a prohibition on discretionary management of collective investment schemes: it may manage a client's portfolio, but not a fund. In Singapore, fund management covers portfolio management, dealing in CIS covers transactions in fund units, and exempt financial adviser status covers advice on funds. How the Hong Kong and Singapore asset-management regimes compare is shown in SFC Type 9 versus the Singapore CMS licence.
Where money and securities are held
The set contains no custody licence, so safekeeping sits with third parties. In Singapore, the client receives a custody account in their own name with the broker UOB Kay Hian; cash moves through UOB Kay Hian's client trust account at HSBC, and financial assets are segregated from both firms' own money. The Endowus fee on cash portfolios is paid from this trust account, and trailer-fee rebates are credited to it; for CPF and SRS, the rebate goes to the CPF Investment Account or the SRS account at the agent bank, as the fee terms state.
For both jurisdictions, the company states that it does not commingle client assets or cash with its own balance sheet, offers no leverage, does not lend client assets out, requires full payment before purchase, and that invested assets are ultimately held by fund-appointed custodians. Protection therefore works on two levels: units are recorded in the client's custody account, the funds' own assets sit with their custodians, and the cash balance in Singapore sits in the broker's trust account at a bank.
The platform's main parameters as of October 2026 in one table.
| Regulators | MAS (Singapore) and the SFC (Hong Kong), one licensed entity per jurisdiction |
|---|---|
| Licences | Capital Markets Services CMS101051 and exempt financial adviser status; SFC Types 1, 4 and 9 with restrictive conditions, CE number BQR225 |
| Custody in Singapore | Custody account in the client's name with UOB Kay Hian, cash in the client trust account at HSBC |
| Minimum entry | S$1,000, no lock-ups |
| Platform fee | 0.25–0.60% a year on cash, 0.30–0.40% on CPF and SRS, 0.15% on Cash Smart |
| On top of the fee | The funds' own expenses (0.05–1% a year as disclosed by the platform) and GST at 9% |
| Pension money | CPF Ordinary Account above the first S$20,000, Special Account above S$40,000 (under 55, Fund Smart only), and SRS |
| Private markets | From US$50,000 a position, 0.30–0.60% a year; accredited investors in Singapore, professional investors in Hong Kong |
| Scale | More than US$12 billion in assets and more than 300,000 clients as of June 2026 |
Fees
The Endowus Fee (called the Endowus Access Fee on the website) is calculated quarterly on the daily average value of each investment goal and is usually deducted within 10–15 business days after quarter end; since 1 April 2023 GST is charged on top, at Singapore's rate of 9% since 1 January 2024. The published schedule as of October 2026 is as follows.
| Source of money and product | Threshold | Endowus Fee, a year |
|---|---|---|
| Cash, long-term portfolios | up to S$200,000 | 0.60% |
| Cash, long-term portfolios | S$200,000 – S$1 million | 0.50% |
| Cash, long-term portfolios | S$1 million – S$5 million | 0.35% |
| Cash, long-term portfolios | from S$5 million | 0.25% |
| CPF and SRS, portfolios of two or more funds | no tiers | 0.40% |
| CPF and SRS, single-fund portfolio | no tiers | 0.30% |
| Cash Smart, cash management | no tiers | 0.15% |
Tiers are calculated on the sum of all the client's cash goals, Fund Smart portfolios included; for a single-fund Fund Smart portfolio funded with cash, the rate is the lower of 0.30% and the tier rate. Pension money does not count towards the tier: CPF and SRS are priced separately, so S$700,000 in cash plus S$400,000 in CPF does not reach the S$1 million tier. Endowus charges no subscription, transaction, deposit or withdrawal fees and rebates trailer fees in full; banks may levy their own charges, and since 10 November 2025 a fund transfer-out requested within six months of the subscription trade date or transfer-in date costs US$100 per fund plus GST.
On top of the platform fee sit the funds' own expenses — the total expense ratio, which is built into the unit price and, as disclosed by the platform, ranges from 0.05% to 1% a year depending on the fund. The Endowus Fee is therefore not the total cost of ownership: the two figures have to be added together with GST, and for its cash-management products the platform discloses both.
Product range
Minimum entry is S$1,000, with no lock-ups. The range is built from four blocks.
Flagship — global portfolios of passive and factor funds in six allocations: 100% equities, 80/20, 60/40, 40/60, 20/80 and 100% bonds, separately for cash, SRS and CPF (the fund line-up differs by source of money, because CPF admits only funds from its own list). The building blocks are Dimensional, PIMCO, BlackRock iShares and Amundi, and for CPF Schroders, Eastspring and UOBAM. Over the ten years to June 2026, the platform reports for the cash version 12.09% a year for 100% equities at 12.53% volatility, 10.11% for 80/20 and 8.25% for 60/40.
Income — dividend and coupon portfolios for investors who need a regular stream of payouts.
Cash Smart — three cash-management solutions, all at 0.15% a year on top of fund expenses.
| Portfolio | Net yield, a year | Fund expenses | Maximum historical drawdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secure | 1.3% | 0.19% | −0.05% |
| Enhanced | 2.1% | 0.27% | −1.55% |
| Ultra | 2.5% | 0.29% | −2.88% |
Yield data are as of 31 August 2026 and are not guaranteed. Secure is half Fullerton SGD Cash Fund and half LionGlobal SGD Enhanced Liquidity; Enhanced adds UOB's United SGD Fund; Ultra is built from six short-duration funds. Cash Smart is an investment product with no guarantee of capital, and Ultra's −2.88% drawdown is comparable to its annual yield.
Fund Smart — a self-directed builder: more than 400 funds from 70+ managers, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, JP Morgan, PIMCO, Schroders and T. Rowe Price. The key detail is share classes: the platform gives access to institutional unit classes whose total expense ratio is lower than retail, because the distribution mark-up has already been removed from them.
CPF and SRS
Endowus positions itself as the first digital adviser in the region to cover both a client's free cash and CPF and SRS pension savings. Money in the CPF Ordinary Account earns 2.5% a year, and only amounts above the first S$20,000 in the account may be invested under the CPF Investment Scheme. Technically this requires a separate CPF Investment Account, opened with one of three agent banks — DBS, OCBC or UOB — after which the portfolio is built on the platform; Flagship for CPF works only with the Ordinary Account. CPF exists only for Singapore citizens and permanent residents, so the option is not available to foreigners.
The Special Account depends on age: for members aged 55 and above the Special Account was closed in January 2025, and the savings were moved to the Retirement Account and Ordinary Account. Citizens and permanent residents under 55 can also invest through Endowus Special Account savings above the first S$40,000 — in Fund Smart funds only and without a separate CPF Investment Account.
On 12 February 2026 a new CPF investment scheme was announced: simple, low-cost, diversified products with automatic rebalancing as members approach retirement age and capped all-in fees. Providers are to be selected in the first half of 2027, with launch planned for the first half of 2028. CPFIS continues, and the new scheme will be an additional option with the same eligibility criteria — CPF money will gain another route to the market besides platforms such as Endowus.
The Supplementary Retirement Scheme works differently: citizens, permanent residents and foreigners can open an SRS account, contributions qualify for tax relief, and the annual contribution cap is higher for foreigners — S$35,700 against S$15,300 for citizens and permanent residents. The platform fee is the same for SRS and CPF — 0.40% for a multi-fund portfolio and 0.30% for a single-fund one.
Private Wealth and private markets
A separate segment is open to accredited investors — private markets and hedge funds, with their own fee scale in US dollars.
| Assets in alternatives | Endowus Fee, a year |
|---|---|
| up to US$500,000 | 0.60% |
| US$500,000 – US$1 million | 0.55% |
| US$1 million – US$5 million | 0.50% |
| US$5 million – US$25 million | 0.40% |
| US$25 million – US$50 million | 0.35% |
| from US$50 million | 0.30% |
The manager list is made of familiar names: Apollo, Ares, Carlyle, HPS, Oaktree and Blue Owl in private credit, AlpInvest, CVC, EQT, HarbourVest, Partners Group and Vista in private equity, and Point72, Brevan Howard and Schonfeld among hedge funds. The entry threshold is US$50,000 a position. Part of the feeder infrastructure comes through an alliance with iCapital agreed in January 2023. On 19 August 2025 private infrastructure from Macquarie Asset Management was added — the manager's first partnership with a digital wealth platform in Asia; the product is open to accredited investors in Singapore and professional investors in Hong Kong.
The segment is growing faster than the platform as a whole: by October 2025 clients' alternative assets had passed US$500 million, tripling in a year, and in Hong Kong they grew fivefold over 2025.
Hong Kong
Endowus HK Limited operates under its own SFC licence, granted on 25 January 2022. Separately, in October 2022, the group completed the purchase of a majority stake in Carret Private Investments Limited, a Hong Kong multi-family office serving ultra-high-net-worth families. According to Endowus, Carret continues to operate entirely independently and holds its own SFC licence. How regulators approach such transactions is covered in the article on change of control of a licensee.
The Endowus-branded platform launched in Hong Kong in April 2023 with more than 140 funds in Fund Smart and its own alternatives shelf, and in April 2024 the full-service version followed, with Flagship portfolios built on Amundi, BlackRock, Dimensional and PIMCO funds. The Hong Kong business is led by Steffanie Yuen, Managing Director and Head of Hong Kong; she was previously a managing director at Value Partners and, before that, Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Ant Group.
The economic rationale for Hong Kong is the same as in Singapore: the fee-only model removes the conflict of interest in which a distributor gains from the fund with the more generous manager commission. Over 2025 the Hong Kong client base doubled, assets under advice tripled and alternative assets grew fivefold.
The threshold for private markets in Hong Kong is professional investor status: for an individual, a portfolio of at least HK$8 million or its foreign-currency equivalent. Retail products — Fund Smart and managed portfolios — are available without this status.
Background, capital and the economics of the model
The company was founded in 2017 by Samuel Rhee — chairman and group CIO, formerly head of Morgan Stanley Investment Management in Asia — and Gregory Van, the current CEO. The group's holding company is Endowus Technologies Pte. Ltd.
Capital and scale
In October 2025 client assets passed US$10 billion. A round of more than US$70 million closed at the same time — US$20 million of new money plus the conversion of previously issued notes — led by Illuminate Financial with Prosus Ventures, Citi Ventures and Asian family offices; total funding raised exceeded US$130 million. In August 2023 a US$35 million round brought in new investors — Citi Ventures, MUFG Innovation Partners and four Asian billionaire families — alongside existing shareholders including UBS Next, EDBI and Prosus Ventures.
By June 2026, according to the company, the platform managed more than US$12 billion in assets for more than 300,000 clients in Singapore and Hong Kong. The company puts its clients' cumulative investment result at more than US$1 billion in net gains.
The economics of the model
The model's economics have a hard ceiling. Refusing to retain trailer fees means the platform's entire revenue is 0.15–0.60% of client assets, which at US$12 billion amounts to tens of millions of dollars a year. Such a margin works only with high client retention and low servicing costs: the WealthWise AI assistant, according to the company, cut the share of queries needing human involvement by more than 60%.
The stated uses of the latest round are pension platforms in both jurisdictions, AI applications and B2B products for independent advisers and external asset managers. Selling its own infrastructure to outside professionals gives the model a second revenue source besides the fee on client assets.
Onboarding and who is turned away
Accounts open online; sign-up, according to the company, takes under five minutes. Singapore citizens and permanent residents need only Singpass MyInfo authorisation, which pulls data from government records. Foreigners living in Singapore open an account with a passport and proof of address dated within three months. Deposits are accepted only from a bank account in the client's own name, and withdrawals go to the linked account. People who live in neither Singapore nor Hong Kong may still apply — Endowus sets out the next steps after reviewing the application; US persons (citizens, green card holders and US tax residents) and anyone with a US address are not accepted.
Access is closed or narrowed for three categories.
| Who | What is unavailable |
|---|---|
| A US person (citizen, green card holder or US tax resident) or anyone with a US address | The whole platform |
| A foreigner in Singapore (Employment Pass, S Pass and other passes) | CPF portfolios: CPF exists only for citizens and permanent residents |
| An investor without accredited investor status in Singapore or professional investor status in Hong Kong | Private markets and hedge funds |
Accredited investor status in Singapore is established under the criteria of the Securities and Futures Act: income of at least S$300,000 in the preceding 12 months, or net financial assets above S$1 million, or net personal assets above S$2 million with a cap on the contribution of the primary residence; details in the analysis of the status.
Competitive context
The platform's position among neighbouring models is defined by who pays the adviser and for what.
| Model | How it earns | What it adds beyond portfolio management |
|---|---|---|
| Endowus | Fee-only, 0.15–0.60% of assets, trailer fees rebated to the client | CPF and SRS, private markets from US$50,000 |
| Banks and fund platforms | Sales charges and trailer fees from managers | A broad fund shelf |
| ETF robo-advisers | Fee on assets | Portfolios of exchange-traded funds |
| Private banks | Fee on assets plus product margin | Lending against the portfolio, transactional banking, structuring |
The private banking segment is covered in the private banking overview, and a platform for accredited investors with a different remuneration model in the profile of Arta Finance.
Scenarios
Expat on an Employment Pass
A foreign manager in Singapore opens an account with a passport and proof of address, without Singpass. Available to them are Flagship cash portfolios, Cash Smart for operating balances and SRS, whose contributions reduce the year's taxable income. The fee on a portfolio up to S$200,000 is 0.60% a year plus GST.
Key risk: deposits and withdrawals go only through a bank account in the client's own name, so on leaving Singapore that account has to be kept or replaced in advance.
Citizen with CPF savings
A resident with S$120,000 in the Ordinary Account opens a CPF Investment Account with DBS, OCBC or UOB and invests the amount above the first S$20,000 in a multi-fund Flagship portfolio at 0.40% a year. Cash and SRS are run as separate goals with their own pricing.
Key risk: the benchmark for the portfolio is the 2.5% a year the OA pays without risk; in an unfavourable market cycle the result is worse than doing nothing.
Accredited investor with alternatives
A client with US$3 million establishes accredited investor status under the MAS criteria and adds private credit and hedge funds to the liquid core from the US$50,000 threshold per position. The platform fee on alternatives at this amount is 0.50% a year, with alternatives tiered separately from cash.
Key risk: on top of the Endowus rate sit the alternative managers' own fees, and the full cost has to be calculated as the sum of both.
Q/A
Who can open an Endowus account?
In Singapore, citizens and permanent residents onboard through Singpass MyInfo, and foreigners living in Singapore with a passport and proof of address; they can use cash portfolios and SRS, while CPF is open only to citizens and permanent residents. Deposits are accepted only from an account in the client's own name. People who live in neither Singapore nor Hong Kong may still apply — Endowus sets out the terms after reviewing the application; US persons and anyone with a US address are not accepted. In Hong Kong, private markets are for professional investors with a portfolio of at least HK$8 million.
How much does the service cost?
The platform fee: 0.25–0.60% a year on cash depending on the amount, 0.40% on CPF and SRS in multi-fund portfolios and 0.30% in single-fund ones, 0.15% on Cash Smart, and 0.30–0.60% on alternatives in the Private Wealth segment. On top come the funds' own expenses (0.05–1% a year as disclosed by the platform) and GST at 9%. There are no subscription, transaction, deposit or withdrawal fees; a fund transfer-out requested within six months of the subscription trade date or transfer-in date costs US$100 per fund plus GST, and trailer fees are rebated to the client in full. Endowus.
What does the trailer-fee rebate mean in practice?
A fund manager builds a mark-up into the retail share class and uses it to pay the distributor for bringing in money. A platform that keeps it earns more on the funds that pay more generously. Endowus returns this portion to the client and also gives access to institutional share classes, which carry no such mark-up in the first place — so the platform's economic interest no longer depends on the choice of a particular fund.
Where are client assets held?
In Singapore, in a custody account in the client's name with UOB Kay Hian; cash moves through UOB Kay Hian's client trust account at HSBC and is segregated from the money of Endowus and the broker. Invested assets are ultimately held by fund-appointed custodians. Endowus does not commingle client assets with its own balance sheet, offers no leverage and does not lend client assets out.
Can CPF pension savings be invested?
Yes. Ordinary Account amounts above the first S$20,000 are invested through a CPF Investment Account at DBS, OCBC or UOB; members under 55 can also invest Special Account savings above the first S$40,000 in Fund Smart funds. The option is open only to citizens and permanent residents; the Special Account for members aged 55 and above has been closed since January 2025. In the first half of 2028 a new CPF investment scheme with government-selected providers is due to start alongside CPFIS.
Does Endowus replace a private bank?
Partly. The platform covers management of a liquid portfolio and access to alternatives, but offers no leverage, no lending against a portfolio or property, and no transactional banking. The usual configuration is a core of assets on the platform plus a separate banking relationship for credit and payments.
How sustainable is the platform as a business?
Revenue is limited to the fee on assets, so the model rests on scale and client retention: more than US$12 billion in assets and more than 300,000 clients by June 2026, total capital raised above US$130 million, and investors including UBS Next, MUFG Innovation Partners, Citi Ventures, Prosus Ventures and Illuminate Financial. Client assets are held by custodians, off the platform's own balance sheet.
How does the Hong Kong business differ from Singapore?
In Hong Kong the regulator is the SFC and the licence covers Types 1, 4 and 9 with restrictive conditions; in Singapore it is MAS, a CMS licence and exempt financial adviser status. CPF and SRS are Singapore pension schemes, and the platform does not offer them in Hong Kong. Private markets in Hong Kong require professional investor status with a portfolio of at least HK$8 million; in Singapore, accredited investor status.