Investment Advice
Investment Planning
· Investment portfolio construction and review
· Tax efficient investments
· Specialist savings schemes
· Cash management and investment
· National Savings & Investments
Specialist savings schemes (via our links with specialist third party managers) including:
· Alternative Investment Market (AIM) portfolios
· Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs)
· Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS)
· Inheritance tax efficient investments
Successful investment is all about balance - matching investment risk and return. Our approach does not suit all investors because we are not big risk takers. We look for real returns over and above inflation, but centre our efforts on reducing risk and retaining the existing capital. There are times when it is right to take full advantage of strong market moves but these do not present themselves all the time. It is a waiting game where patience is a virtue. One of the key principles with investment is to try and avoid losses - having to make growth to recoup losses is never good.
When we advise on investments we tend to follow a pattern:
- We establish your attitude to investment risk and views on future inflation.
- It is important to find out what level of income is needed, and how this is likely to change in the future.
- What level of capital needs to be kept liquid and accessible.
- Taxation considerations are important as these will often decide what type of product is most suited.
- How actively will the funds need to be managed - this decides whether we use a broadly managed, index-tracker or a specialist fund.
- How often should the portfolio be reviewed.
We use a mixture of charting analysis systems and economic fundamentals to design our asset allocation models. We have separate systems to help us identify fund managers that outperform their benchmarks. A lot of our work is simply reviewing existing investments and identifying weak areas. Asset allocation (being in the right markets and investment types) has more impact on performance than fund selection.