Derek is the founder and director of Lighthouse Legacy Planners Pte Ltd. He also serves as the Advisory Director with finexis advisory Pte Ltd, one of the country’s largest independently owned FA. Besides his own practice, he is responsible to mentor a team of specialist advisers, and develop specialized capabilities in wealth succession planning. Today, Lighthouse Legacy Planners has its network of partners in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia. Since 2010, he has formulated a values-driven legacy planning approach that has helped more than 80 high-net-worth families leave their unique brand of family legacy. In 2019, he published his second book Next Generation Legacy Builder which has been distributed and sold to several East Asia countries.

Through his passion and dedicated service to his clients from senior professionals to business owners, he has received many industry’s top accolades including the Court of the Table and Rockwills CEO Awards (Trust Category). Most important, it was his clients’ testimonials that propel him to keep upgrading and keep raising the bar of his advisory work. Derek is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), Associate Estate Planning Practitioner (AEPP®), a STEP® Affiliate, and also holds an Advanced Certificate (Trust Services) from Wealth Management Institute, NTU. For his values-focused work, he was also featured in Sunday Times (ST, 10 Mar 2019).

Derek is an Institute of Banking & Finance (IBF) -accredited trainer on Digital Wealth & Succession Planning. He has spoken at various organisations including Standard Chartered Bank (Malaysia), Singapore’s Estate Planning Forum, Central Provident Fund Board, National Trade Union Congress, Academy of Principles (Singapore), Republic of Singapore Navy, Mount Alvernia Hospital, Firmenich Asia and Ricoh (Singapore) to name a few. He also contributed his works to Family First Singapore and Malaysia, a non-profit organisation that serves Asian families. Together with another senior legacy planner, Kee, both also conduct their signature half-day workshop, entitled “Leave a Heritage, not just an Inheritance”, since 2014.

Derek sat in the Editorial Board of Financial Planning Association of Singapore (FPAS) and the Advisory Board of GoalsMapper Pte Ltd, a financial technology firm he co-founded. He graduated with a First Class Honours in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from NTU (Top in Cohort) and Post-graduate Diploma in Christian Studies with TCA College. Derek is married to Ms Lynne Tan with 4 children and the family served passionately in Risen Christian Assembly.