Jimmy Lee Shun-hing, at 32, has already made significant achievements, with his impressive resume including an MBA, a BA (Hons), three Cs (certified public accountant, chartered financial analyst and certified financial planner) and a good corporate title. Mr Lee is vice-president of Sun Hung Kai Wealth Management, and is responsible for providing personal financial planning services to both individuals and corporate clients. It seems that a lot of things happened after you graduated, what exactly were they? In 1994, I graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor's degree, with a double major in economics and actuarial science. My first job was with a local CPA firm as junior auditor. After two years, I moved on to one of the big four - Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu - as semi-senior accountant, specialising in financial institutions and manufacturing sectors. I have always dreamed of being an investment banker. As you know, it is very difficult to get in, particularly after the Asian financial crisis when job opportunities were fewer. Finally, I joined Dresdner Kleinwort Benson as a senior administrator but that stay was brief because the job was largely internal and less exciting. When an old friend of mine introduced his financial planning services to me, I was intrigued by his job. He was outgoing and could meet with a lot of people. I joined the sector and have since worked with Pegasus, Hantec Investment and Sun Hung Kai Wealth Management. What are the fun parts of your job? It is very challenging and rewarding to gain the trust of clients and build long-term relationships, especially as an independent financial adviser where you are not attached to a big brand name. Also, meeting a variety of people from a range of different industries has certainly widened my personal connections. It is enjoyable to see that most of my clients make money in their investments and realise their dreams, and this helps give them peace of mind. The wider connections have provided me with more opportunities in both my life and career. I am now teaching investment planning and finance subjects at the Baptist University of Hong Kong and the Open University of Hong Kong on a part-time basis. What are today's challenges? Definitely the fierce market competition. We have to compete with retail banks which offer cut-throat discounts, do-it-yourself investors and other market players. In addition, prospective clients are often looking for brand names, so we do lose to the private banking sector in this respect. Interestingly, we find that prospective clients from the mainland do not particularly care about the name. Rather they rely on and trust you as a person and they are the clients we need to go after. The pitching process is also longer. Clients are more mobile these days and travel a lot for their work. This makes it more difficult for us to pin them down to discuss investment decisions. What are the rewards? Helping clients to capitalise on their gains is the key. Up to 95 per cent of my clients are by referral, which is a recognition of my service and performance. Another reward is gaining a client's trust to get them to share their personal financial position. Many of them have now become my friends. You have a lot of professional qualifications; how did you do that? I am like an examination machine, aren't I? Yes, it did require a lot of hard work. If you are going to treat this as your lifelong career, it is very important to work towards the appropriate qualifications. For the future, I think it will be a must to have both the CFP and CFA qualifications. In addition, the analytical training for the CPA qualification helped me a lot. I benefited from all these as I picked up essential knowledge. Upon qualification, I subscribed to all the leading international journals, which have helped me remain up to date and to improve continuously. What advice would you like to share with young people? You have to be really interested in the job. Do not look for short-term money. You have to be prepared to work hard and not rely on or listen to what other people say. You also need to have a keen analytical mind. At the same time, professional qualifications are essential. You do need to give up personal time to do the examinations. Do not listen to others saying how difficult the examinations are. You need to be ahead of everyone in order to gain the qualification. You can never anticipate what will happen next. You need to have a plan; just put your head down and go for it. Qualifications 1998 Master of Business Administration (finance). California State University at Hayward, United States 1996 Graduate Diploma in Accounting. University of Southern Queensland, Australia 1994 Bachelor of Science (with majors in economics and actuarial science). University of Toronto, Canada 2001 Certified financial planner, Hong Kong 2000 Chartered financial analyst 1998 Qualified member of CPA Australia Work experience 2003-present Vice-president, Sun Hung Kai Wealth Management 2002 Associate director, Hantec Investment Consultants 2000-2002 Investment services manager, Pegasus Fund Managers 1999-2000 Senior administrator, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson 1996-1999 Semi-senior accountant, Deloitte Touche Tomatsu 1994-1996 Audit intermediate, Eddie K.K. Lau & Co