We will work with you to find out what risk you are willing to take and then build an investment solution within these boundaries using leading fund managers to help meet your goals. We will then aim to ensure that your investments stay on track to achieve your
aims and adapt your plans, as necessary, should your goals and aspirations change over time.

Investing your money is one of the most important decisions you will make.

It is best to do it with our expert guidance and under no illusions whatsoever.

This emotional response can be highly detrimental to your investment portfolio. This is why we put in place a clear plan to ensure your investments stay within your risk profile and tolerance to loss, focusing on your long term goals.

Cycles of Market Emotions

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There are budget announcements from the Government that affect income, capital gains, inheritance and welfare each tax year.

It is important that you take advantage of our expertise to help ensure that:

• you do not lose out on any valuable allowances that once they are gone, are gone forever (e.g. ISA)
• ensure you do not miss out on any monies or reliefs owed to you
• your current plans are still in the correct shelter and ownership name, so that you legally and ethically do not pay too much tax when you want to spend that money

We will ensure that your investments are rebalanced, where appropriate – so that over time your investments do not drift away from what we have agreed with you.

We can provide ongoing updates regarding the performance of your investments and can agree a scheduie of regular reviews in the style and frequency to suit you.

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While there are many tangible benefits for using a platform, it is not always in every client’s interest to hold all or any of their monies on a platform. We will review your existing provisions and make recommendations as to whether you should consider holding your assets on a platform.

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• Some give you back tax that you have already paid on money when you invest (e.g. pensions)
• Some allow you to not pay tax on the money you make (e.g. ISAS)
• Others allow you to delay paying tax till a later date, when it may be more beneficial for you (e.g. on and offshore bonds)
• It can also be in your best interests to invest directly into a fund.

The government tends to review these schemes every year, which means it is impossible to say one is better than another without individual advice.

We will recommend the most effective way to hold your investments, whether held in single or joint names, and often with a combination of available schemes. Sometimes we simply recommend you move money from one to another to take the maximum advantage of the current incentives and allowances

The choice of tax wrapper affects what tax you pay on the investment funds inside, and should not affect how well the actual investment does.

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There are others that believe that markets are efficient, that ‘demand and price’ will balance themselves to a natural equilibrium, and so it is not easy to beat the market average (known as taking a ‘passive’ approach).

As we do not have a way to see into the future, we cannot guarantee which approach is the best, therefore, we can offer either or a blend to suit your own attitudes and feelings.

We aim to build a wide ranging investment solution for our clients, investing in a diversified portfolio – a broad selection of assets which meet your own attitude to risk and stated investment goals.

In other words, we won’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The Benefits of Diversification

The chart below shows that when it comes to picking asset classes, (the different types of investments you could put your money into) it is almost impossible to predict a winner. You can see how no individual asset class consistently outperforms the others.

The black boxes on this chart represent a diversified portfolio that invests equally in all the other asset classes in other words, spreads the eggs across many baskets. We will build a diversified portfolio that is designed to meet your investment goals whilst working within your risk profile.

We will remove, by a process of elimination, any funds or products that are not suited to you.

We use leading fund managers to create bespoke fund solutions that exactly match the risk parameters you are willing to accept

You will always know the possible implications of your fund selection and we will make it clear how these funds can help you achieve your financial goals.

The Efficient Frontier

By selecting funds that ‘do what they say on the tin’ in order to match the correct asset allocation for your investment goals and risk profile, we can position you at the efficient frontier – that is the optimum point for maximising gains and minimising risks, given the appetite for investment risk that we have identified with you.

You can see on the chart that portfolio A could achieve the same potential returns as portfolio B, but for less risk.

We will design an investment solution that aims to position your portfolio on the efficient frontier, at the right point for you.

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We can analyse investments that you already have and show you whether or not your current investments are on course to meet your goals.

We can also examine how aligned they are with the attitude towards investment risk that we have identified as being appropriate for your circumstances.

Often, it can be easier and more cost effective to re-balance your existing provisions than consider starting new plans

Getting a Clear Picture of Your Portfolio

Our simple yet powerful tools will be able to show you the make-up of your overall current investment portfolio; analysing the underlying holdings of individual funds to provide a full picture.

• Example of Current Assets Mix (image)
• Example of Target Assets Mix (image)

So, at the start of our investment process we aim to get to know you, your financial circumstances and your goals and then build a plan to meet your goals, rather than taking a one size fits all’ approach.

Taking no more risk than you are comfortable with

Before we can identify the best investment strategy for you, we’ll work with you to identify the level of risk you feel comfortable taking – the potential losses you would be prepared to accept in return for potential gains.

Our simple yet advanced planning tools will produce an assessment of how much risk you are prepared to take in order to meet your goals over the time period that is right for you.

Crucially we will then discuss this with you using clear monetary values, so you get a real feel of how the investment journey may be as values fall and rise over time.