Investment Management

We provide a discretionary portfolio management service, where you delegate the day-to-day investment decision making responsibilities to our Investment Committee. Many investors choose this approach as it relieves them of the responsibility and frees up time to spend on the things that matter to them most.

We offer a personalised service and will tailor the experience for you. You may wish to meet annually or prefer more regular contact with your Investment Manager. You are always welcome to bring family members or other advisors with you. Through Digital Wealth, you can monitor your portfolio and access key documents at your convenience. Whether you are new to investing or have many years of experience, our team has the experience and expertise to ensure you get the level of support.

We firmly believe that investors with similar objectives and risk tolerance should achieve consistent outcomes over time. We aim to achieve this via a centralised framework through which the Investment Committee delivers our collective view across all client portfolios. We deliver model-based portfolios across a range investment styles and risk levels, meaning that whatever your investment preferences, we will have a solution that is right for you.

We believe the key to successful long-term investing is active management and diversification. Over time, diversification mitigates short-term volatility by spreading your portfolio across different asset classes and strategies while active management allows you to benefit from short-term market opportunities.

All our model portfolios have a long-term strategic asset allocation, which is set by our Investment Committee, and reviewed annually. This is the ‘neutral’ or ‘base case’ portfolio asset allocation. For most of our investment services, we then have a shorter-term tactical asset allocation overlay whereby we adjust the asset allocation to take advantage of near-term opportunities or to react to market movements.

We may invest across all major asset classes, including:

• Fixed Interest
  • Gilts
  • Corporate bonds
  • Emerging market debt
• Equities
  • Developed markets
  • Emerging markets
• Commercial property
• Alternatives
  • Alternatives
  • Hedge funds
  • Infrastructure

We believe that outperformance is delivered by being receptive to changing market conditions and having the confidence and expertise to react accordingly. Our framework allows for the flexibility to be creative in our approach whilst our governance process ensures that we remain true to our core structures, disciplines, and beliefs.

We advocate investing for the long-term as true performance is delivered by compounding returns over time. By combining this long-term approach with strong diversification and active management we aim to deliver consistent value, in line with your appetite for risk and growth expectations.

While short-term fluctuations in financial markets, and therefore portfolio valuations, can be disconcerting, discretionary portfolio management can alleviate concerns. We recognise that when markets are volatile, you may feel more nervous. We will communicate with you on a regular basis, ensuring you have access to the thoughts and decisions of our investment committee. Your Investment Manager will be available to discuss your portfolio and any changes we make to it.

The adage of time in the market, rather than timing the market is commonly touted by financial commentators and advisers alike, and for good reason. Often, although not always, some of the best single-day investment performance returns come straight after some of the worst. This means that for investors who are trying to time the market, those who may have ‘sold out’ as markets were falling can often miss the upside when markets recover.

Below is a chart from Bloomberg Data which shows the impact on returns of missing the best five, 10, 30 or 50-single days for the S&P 500 between 1979 and 2019. The figures are based on an initial investment of $10,000 with dividends being reinvested. As you can see, even missing the best five days has a notable impact on final returns. Those investors who can ‘sit tight’ through the volatility are usually rewarded over the long-term.

Please remember that past performance is not an indicator of future performance and that your capital is at risk. Investments can go down as well as up.