Global Investment Advice

We provide a global understanding of and insight into:

  • Asset Allocation;
  • Investment Strategy; and
  • Security and Fund Selection.

Our approach to independent investment advice derives from a set of ten core investment philosophies and beliefs, which have been developed from our long experience in investment markets:

  • Asset Allocation is critical. The most significant decisions in the investment advice process stem from our conversations with our clients concerning their objectives and risk appetite. From these, we identify how their portfolio should be structured between cash, bond, equity and real assets such as real estate and commodities;
  • Diversification of investment portfolios offers a reduction in the volatility of the overall portfolio. We believe it is essential to spread the risk across a number of asset classes;
  • A global mindset is necessary to identify the most attractive investment opportunities, but also to properly understand developments in the UK. The last few years has shown very clearly that the UK economy and its financial markets are hugely influenced and dependent upon events in Europe, the USA and Asia;
  • Understanding and being on the right side of the secular economic trends is central to long term investment performance. In the first decade of this century, it was the rise of China and its impact on the world economy which was the key to a successful investment strategy, in the current decade it is the way in which levels of indebtedness globally move which will determine investment performance;
  • In the shorter term, economies and financial markets tend to move in cycles. These cycles are closely linked to trends in expectations in growth and inflation, which underpins our investment strategy;
  • We will only invest our client’s money in investments we have researched, understood, approved, can explain clearly to our clients and which we would invest in ourselves;
  • We avoid complex and opaque investments, which are frequently designed to benefit their providers rather than investors, and search for managers that can add value over time;
  • The only certainty in an investment portfolio is the drag to performance from the fees and charges involved in managing it. Working at reducing fees without compromising performance, is the easiest way to improve returns;
  • An approach based on value, seeking to buy assets when their prices are low and sell when they are high is straightforward, sensible and most likely to deliver good investment performance; and
  • A long term approach seeking to make steady returns is ultimately more profitable (though a lot less exciting) than chasing the latest investment fashion.