Chiang Mai · Est. 2016
Built slowly, for the long term
We are a small school with a clear purpose: to help adults in their middle and later years think more carefully about money — without the sales pressure or the jargon.
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How Chatri Academy came to be
Chatri Academy was founded in 2016 by Narinee Chatri, a former senior wealth management officer who spent two decades working with Thai families navigating the later stages of their working lives. She noticed the same pattern repeatedly: adults in their forties and fifties who had made sensible decisions for years, but who had never had a structured space to step back and look at everything together.
The first programme was run for six participants around a table in a rented room on Nimman Road. The format was deliberate — small, unhurried, anchored in the learner's own financial reality rather than theoretical scenarios. Word moved quietly through professional and expat communities in Chiang Mai, and each cohort that followed filled before marketing was needed.
By 2019, a second programme had been developed in response to learners who completed the introductory course and wanted more depth. The Comprehensive Later-Life Planning Academy followed in 2021, shaped in collaboration with a Thai estate attorney and a healthcare finance specialist who had each worked with the same population for years.
We remain deliberately small. The advanced academy is capped at six learners per cohort by choice, not circumstance. Our view is that genuine learning in financial matters requires the space to speak openly about your particular situation — and that cannot happen in a room of forty people.
Our Mission
To give adults 40 and beyond the frameworks, vocabulary, and quiet confidence to make considered financial decisions — without pressure, without shortcuts, and without anyone selling them something in the process.
Our Values
- Clarity over complexity — plain language, always
- Small cohorts because depth requires space
- Education, not advice — we teach, not sell
- Respect for where each learner is starting
- Thai context throughout, for Thai residents
By the Numbers
9
Years running
340+
Learners enrolled
3
Core programmes
6
Max per advanced cohort
The People
Faculty and staff
Everyone involved in programme delivery holds current professional qualifications in their field.
Narinee Chatri
Founder & Principal Instructor
Twenty-two years in private wealth management before founding the academy. Holds the Certified Financial Planner designation and has been a registered advisor with the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission since 2003.
Prawit Wongkamchai
Estate & Legal Faculty
A practising attorney specialising in Thai estate and inheritance law for over fifteen years. Advises families on cross-border asset transfers and Thai will preparation. Contributes to the advanced academy curriculum.
Sirima Pojanasin
Healthcare Finance Specialist
Spent a decade as a financial consultant to hospital networks in Northern Thailand before joining the academy. Guides learners through the practical and financial dimensions of healthcare planning in later life.
How We Work
Standards and commitments
Every programme is governed by a set of practices that we hold ourselves to consistently.
Separation of education and advice
Faculty do not hold a sales role and do not benefit from participant decisions. Our teaching is not a distribution channel for financial products.
Confidentiality within cohorts
Participants in group sessions agree to confidentiality before the programme begins. Financial details shared during sessions stay within that group.
Current professional qualifications
All faculty hold active, renewed professional credentials in their disciplines. Qualifications are reviewed annually and disclosed to participants on request.
Written programme outlines
Each programme is described in writing before enrolment — what is covered, what is not, how sessions are structured, and what participants leave with.
Pre-enrolment consultation
Every new participant speaks with a faculty member before enrolling to confirm the programme is a suitable fit for their background and goals.
Data handled with care
Participant information is used only for programme administration. We do not share enrolment data with third parties and retain records only as required by Thai law.
About our curriculum
Financial literacy for adults in their middle years looks different from what universities teach to twenty-two-year-olds. The questions are more specific: how to read a Thai brokerage statement accurately, how to think about the equity in a Chiang Mai property, how to have a useful conversation with a Thai estate attorney, how to plan healthcare costs for a family that spans two generations.
Chatri Academy's curriculum was built backwards from those questions. The three programmes — covering baseline financial clarity, portfolio examination, and comprehensive later-life planning — are sequenced so that learners move at their own pace and stop at the level that serves their situation. Not everyone needs the advanced academy. Many learners complete the first programme and find it sufficient. A smaller group progresses through all three.
The teaching methodology is structured but conversational. Sessions involve worked examples drawn from Thai financial contexts, discussion of real decisions participants are facing, and a gradual building of vocabulary that allows learners to read documents and speak with professionals without needing a translator. The aim is durable understanding, not exam performance.
Ready to start a conversation?
We are happy to answer questions about our history, our faculty, or which programme might suit your situation.
Get in Touch