About Phoenix Compass
An organisation built around patient learning.
We exist because we believe that understanding is not the same as acting, and that both deserve their own unhurried time.
Back to HomeOur Story
Where Phoenix Compass came from.
Phoenix Compass was established in Hong Kong in 2019 by a small group of educators and finance professionals who had grown frustrated watching the same pattern repeat: a person in their late forties, having accumulated savings over decades of work, arrives at the question of what to do with them and finds only two options — delegate entirely to an adviser, or wade alone through material written for traders.
Neither felt right. The educators in the founding group had worked in continuing education; the finance professionals had spent careers in institutional investment research. The shared conviction was that a third option existed: education at the right pace, with the right depth, and without any obligation to act at the end of it.
The name Phoenix Compass points at two ideas. The phoenix draws from Chinese culture — the Fenghuang, a symbol of steady renewal — and speaks to the midlife moment where accumulated experience can be turned toward something new. The compass suggests orientation rather than destination: we are not here to tell people where to go, but to help them understand where they are.
Our courses have been taken by several hundred learners across Hong Kong since 2019. Many are professionals, retired civil servants, or small business owners — people who are comfortable managing complexity in their own fields but have had limited exposure to how financial markets and investment vehicles actually work. We built our curriculum for exactly that person.
Mission & Values
What shapes every course we build.
Clarity over simplification
Our aim is not to make things sound easier than they are. It is to present things clearly enough that a careful reader understands them as they are. Those are different goals and the second is harder.
Learner autonomy
We do not believe education should create dependency on the educator. Each course is designed so that a learner who completes it can continue learning on their own with confidence.
Strict neutrality
We do not accept sponsorship from financial product providers and we do not earn referral income of any kind. Our revenue comes from course fees, which keeps our perspective fully independent.
Our Team
The people who build and deliver the courses.
Lillian Wong
Curriculum Director
Eighteen years in continuing education, primarily in professional development for accountants and auditors. Designed the course architecture and oversees content quality across all three programmes.
Martin Chan
Lead Facilitator
Spent fourteen years as an equity research analyst at institutional investment firms in Hong Kong and Singapore before moving into education. Leads the portfolio and advanced courses.
Siu-Ling Kwok
Participant Liaison
Coordinates cohort intake, manages the facilitator feedback cycle, and acts as the first point of contact for all participant questions before, during, and after each course.
Standards We Maintain
How we keep our courses trustworthy.
Annual content review
Each course is reviewed annually against regulatory changes, new fund structures, and shifts in the HK investment landscape. Materials are updated before each new cohort begins.
No product affiliations
We maintain a formal policy against accepting payment, sponsorship, or benefits of any kind from ETF providers, brokers, or platforms. This is reviewed and affirmed by our advisory board each year.
Regulatory compliance
As an educational organisation, we operate within the framework set by the Education Bureau and are careful to ensure no course content constitutes financial advice under Hong Kong's regulatory definitions.
Participant data protection
We collect only the data needed to administer your enrolment and communicate about the course. We never sell or share participant information with third parties, consistent with Hong Kong's Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.
Cohort feedback integration
Every cohort completes an anonymous feedback survey at the midpoint and end of each course. The curriculum team reads every response and incorporates relevant changes before the following cohort.
Facilitator qualification
All facilitators hold relevant academic or professional qualifications and undergo an internal content review before leading any session. Facilitators who give allocation plan feedback are held to specific written standards.
Our Approach
ETF education built for midlife learners in Hong Kong.
Exchange-traded funds and index-based portfolios now account for a significant share of assets held by retail investors globally, including in Hong Kong. For someone in their 40s or 50s approaching these instruments for the first time, the volume of available information — much of it conflicting, some of it commercially motivated — can make the subject feel harder than it is.
Phoenix Compass was built specifically for that moment of entry. Our three courses — ETF Foundations, Building an Index Portfolio, and Advanced ETF Considerations for Midlife — form a coherent progression from first principles to the decisions that matter most as one approaches or enters retirement.
We write for people who are experienced in other areas of life and want to bring that same careful thinking to their own financial understanding. The courses do not assume that all learners will build index portfolios at the end — many simply want to know enough to ask better questions of their advisers. That outcome is equally valid and equally served by our curriculum.
Our Wan Chai premises provide a setting for in-person sessions, and online attendance is available for those outside the city centre. We run cohorts quarterly and keep group sizes modest so that facilitators can engage meaningfully with each participant's questions.
Questions about who we are or how we work?
We are happy to speak before any enrolment commitment. Contact us by phone or the form below.
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