Most founders believe the paperwork is the hard part. Not true. Paperwork is a grind, sure, but you can hire someone to handle it. What you can't outsource is deciding who you are as a business. MAS wants to know that. The regulator looks at your story long before it looks at your forms: what you invest in, who your investors are, who runs the show, and why any of it deserves to hold other people's money.
Choose your lane early Alder Compliance
The Singapore route mostly splits by who you serve. If you only manage money for accredited and institutional investors, you apply for a Capital Markets Services licence in the lighter category. Take on retail investors and the bar jumps, with higher capital and tighter rules. Most new managers take the accredited route, and honestly that's usually the sane call for a first fund.
Some families managing only their own wealth don't need a licence at all, which surprises people. That route comes with its own tax-incentive angle, so don't assume it fits you either way.
The people question
Your team is the application. A resident director, a compliance officer, a few individuals with real track records. If your CIO's history is patchy or hard to document, MAS will spot it, and it will ask. Politely, but it will ask.
My advice is to gather performance evidence before anything else: old audited statements, reference letters, employment records. Not exciting stuff. Also the stuff that tends to sit in a drawer at a former employer.
Money and timing
There's a floor on base capital, so confirm the current figure directly with MAS, since thresholds get revised. After that, the cost of running a compliant shop: office, auditors, a compliance framework that exists outside a PDF. Budget for a full year of that before your first fee lands.
Expect applications to drag on for several months, with rounds of regulator questions stretching that even longer. Plan your runway around the slow version, not the brochure version.
Where Alder fits
Talking to Alder before you file anything is the sensible moment. A short chat can show whether your structure holds up, which licence category fits, and what's missing from your pack. Fixing a gap in week one costs almost nothing. Fixing it after MAS flags it costs you months.
Bring your strategy, a draft team list and a rough first-year budget. Even messy notes work. Nobody expects polish.