Financial advice for Hong Kong’s less well off pays dividends for everyone

Getting advice on financial management is mostly something the well-off engage in: how do I take this chunk of money and make more out of it? How should I best plan for buying property?

“But if you think about it, the grass roots are more likely to need help with managing what they have to make life work,” says Rosetta Fong Sut-sam, group vice-chairman and executive director of Convoy Financial Holdings.

Her company is just about to open a “Life Investment Centre” in Sham Shui Po, to be run by Social Ventures Hong Kong, which will offer pro bono consultancy services to the community, including advice on personal finance, legal affairs, health care, as well as parenting and family empowerment issues.

“We’ll also do research through the centre to figure out what impoverished families really need, so as to come up with better ideas for poverty alleviation.”

Fong is excited about the possibilities of this new social initiative, but Convoy is no newcomer to community service. The company is not only a keen sponsor of many charitable events, it also believes in lending a physical helping hand.

Through actively engaging in charity work, Fong and her company’s volunteers have come to realise there are some seriously marginalised groups in society. “So we’ve decided to reach out to them because they are the ones really not getting any resources.”