Our Founder & CEO

Wai-Yee Chen

Wai-Yee started her career in finance in Singapore with a funds management firm in the early 1990's, after obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting with University of Newcastle. After qualifying as a CPA with CPA Australia, she furthered her education in finance with Macquarie University in a Masters of Applied Finance in 1995. Following post-graduate qualifications, she embarked on working in the stockbroking industry in Australia with Credit Suisse First Boston, Challenger First Pacific, ABN AMRO/RBS Morgans and Ord Minnett in the last more than two decades of her career, in financial advisory to high networth clients.

Wai-Yee established Acumen Investors in 2020 as the first step towards fulfilling the goal of providing investors with best-in-class investment products and services at fair prices. The goal was extended to empowering and supporting other Advisers within the Network with technologically driven infrastructure and institutional-level investment capabilities to better serve everyday investors (their clients) and for Advisers to better adapt to the evolving investment and compliance landscape.

Acumen Investors partners and work closely with external Investment/Asset Consultant(s). They add value to Acumen Investors’ capability by either acting as our Investment Committee in our Curated Managed Portfolios or in providing “in-house” research functionalities to Acumen Investors and its network of Advisers. This added institutional discipline ensures quality of investment advice to our clients.

Acumen Investors’ services are extended to Institutional Clients like Family Offices and Funds Management firms, particularly those based overseas; in providing the familiar institutional grade rigour and process to portfolio construction and management, be it ASX focused or multi-asset portfolios. Wai-Yee's vision for Acumen Investors is the provision of access to institutional grade wealth solutions to everyday investors, in a cost efficient manner.

Simple Sophistication. Wealth creation for All.

Our Team

The Who, not just What of Acumen Investors

Wai-Yee Chen

Chief Investment Office and Adviser

AR 001005379

https://au.linkedin.com/in/waiyeechen
Mobile: +61 425 304 302
Email: wchen@acumeninvestors.com.au

Background Information
Wai-Yee Chen is an investment author and a Derivatives Specialist Adviser. With more than two decades of investment experience, she is regularly sought out by the media to present investment ideas and shares her insights on radio and TV networks such as Ausbiz and previously CNBC and SKY Business. Wai-Yee is also a well-respected contributor/columnist for business media and previously for the Australian Financial Review.

Areas of Expertise
Wai-Yee is a trusted adviser to clients in Australia and around the world. She is skilled at matching investments to the individual at the required level of sophistication, and to meeting clients’ needs from a range of from limited-risk securities to astute derivatives strategies.

Educational Qualifications
Qualified as a CPA, Wai-Yee holds degrees in Accounting and a Masters of Applied Finance. Her postgraduate qualifications include a Diploma in Financial Planning and is FASEA qualified with Derivatives and Margin Lending Accreditation with the Australian Stock Exchange.

Personal Information
Educating the investing community is something Wai-Yee takes seriously. In the midst of the global financial crisis, Wai-Yee wrote her first book, OptionsWise: How to Invest Sensibly. This is a step-by-step manual to help investors and advisers understand how to use options to manage risks and enhance returns, all in a sensible fashion. In this book, Wai-Yee stresses the mindset required to use options successfully as part of an investment portfolio. You can read some of her work here

In 2013, Wai-Yee published her second book: NeuroInvesting – Build a New Investing Brain, published by John Wiley & Sons. This book is the culmination of her experiences, as well as the experiences of her clients. It contains observations and lessons learnt in the past decade from investing in different markets and trading in highly volatile instruments such as derivatives. Some of her work is available here

Wai-Yee actively speaks with and coaches other advisers, investors and members of the business community through organisations like Stockbrokers Association of Australia and the School of Practical Philosophy. These organisations, among others, allow Wai-Yee to help people make better finance and investment decisions. As an adviser, Wai-Yee’s unique sensitivity to the diverse personality profiles and psychological temperament of her clients gives her an edge in helping them work towards their true financial goals.