For business owners
The company is insured. The cash is still sitting there.
Most owners I meet have done the protection work and stopped. The company account holds a balance with no job, no horizon and no one reviewing it: a decision, just an unmade one.
Not all of it is idle. That’s the point.
“We need the cash liquid” is true of part of the balance, not all of it. The work is separating the two honestly and treating each tier by when it is needed.
Needed any day
Operating float
Untouchable. Payroll, suppliers, tax. This money is not an investment and should never be treated as one.
3–12 months out
Reserve buffer
Known commitments and the rainy-day cushion. Capital stability first, with a yield better than a current account, and access measured in days rather than months.
Beyond 12 months
Surplus
Genuinely idle. This is the tier where the difference between a deposit rate and a properly structured portfolio compounds into real money over a few years.
Once the surplus is identified
Three jobs it could be given
It depends on the company’s horizon and appetite, not on what is marketed that quarter. A lumpy order book and five years of retained profit need different answers.
Liquidity
Stability and access, with a return that beats leaving it in the account.
Short-duration, high-quality instruments. The goal is not to make money — it is to stop losing it quietly to inflation while staying able to withdraw.
Income
A regular, predictable stream the business can actually plan around.
Structured to pay out on a schedule. Useful when the company wants the surplus to contribute to running costs rather than simply sit.
Growth
Long-horizon capital, for surplus with no claim on it.
Accepts volatility in exchange for a materially higher expected return. Only appropriate for money the business has no plan to touch for years.
Illustrative categories, not products. Any specific recommendation follows a proper fact-find and suitability assessment. Investments carry risk, including loss of capital, and returns are not guaranteed.
356,600
SMEs in Singapore as at 2024 — enterprises under 200 workers.
94.7%
of them employ fewer than 25 people. Owner-run businesses, where the owner and the company are financially the same story.
1
conversation that covers both sides. That is the whole proposition on this page.
Source: Ministry of Manpower / Singapore Department of Statistics, 2024 figures.
What a corporate review covers
The cash is usually the way in. It is rarely the most valuable part.
Corporate cash structure
Split the balance into float, reserve and surplus, then match each tier to something appropriate. Most of the value is in the split, not the product.
Key-person protection
What happens to revenue, lending covenants and client confidence if the person the business depends on is suddenly not there.
Shareholder & succession
Buy-sell funding between partners, so a death or exit doesn't force a distressed sale or hand a stake to someone's family who never wanted it.
Employee benefits
Group cover as a retention tool, sized against what it actually costs to replace someone.
The owner's own plan
The business is usually the largest single holding in the owner's net worth. That is a concentration risk, and it belongs in the personal plan.
A second opinion on the company balance sheet
No obligation and no product pitch. We look at what the cash is doing, what would break if you were away for six months, and whether your own plan is over-concentrated in your company. The first conversation is free; any costs are agreed in writing before work starts.