Our Investment Philosophy
A tailored approach underpinned by solid investing principles.
Deciding how best to invest your money can be daunting. With so many options available and so many uncertainties, how do you choose what’s right for you?
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Our job is to eliminate as much of that uncertainty as possible and to work with you to identify the most appropriate way for you to achieve your financial goals.
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Our Investment Philosophy is designed with that in mind. It creates a framework for us to discuss your needs and expectations, to assess and agree your attitude to risk and then to build and manage an investment portfolio to match.
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Our philosophy is based upon decades of empirical data, backed by scores of academic reports and experienced through years of professional practice.
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Before we make any investment recommendations it is important that our clients understand the beliefs that guide our approach.
​These beliefs, which we hold dear, are an important foundation upon which we aim to build long-term relationships with our clients.
Needless to say, we believe in this so strongly that we follow the same approach when investing our own money.
12 Tenets of our Investment Philosophy
plan
All investors should set goals. A portfolio should only ever been seen as a funding mechanism for ‘The Plan’.
caSH RESERVE
Everyone should have enough readily available cash for rainy days. This means that you do not need to disturb you investments at inopportune times.
tHE LONG GAME
​It is widely recognised that investing for less than 5 years results in an unacceptably high level of risk of loss. The longer the investment term the greater probability of capital appreciation.
BEWARE OF INFLATION
The corrosive impact of inflation over time means that even benign rises in prices can quickly compound to significant reductions in buying power.
asset allocation
It is widely accepted that asset allocation has the biggest influence over the variance in portfolio returns. So that is where we focus our efforts in constructing your portfolio.
diversify globally
Diversification is the principle of spreading your investment risk around, not putting all your eggs in one basket.
time in, not timing
We do not believe that it is possible for most investors to "time" the market. Numerous studies show the high risk nature of attempting to do this and the cost of getting it wrong.
reduce costs
Over long time periods, high management fees and related expenses can be a significant drag on wealth creation.
passive over active
We tend to favour Passive investment strategies over Active strategies as there is overwhelming evidence proving that Active managers underperform their benchmarks.
taxes and access
Our planning needs to be as tax efficient and flexible as possible as you never know when life will throw you that curve ball which means you need to change course.
avoid financial journalism
Bad news sells and grabs your attention.
Holding a globally diversified portfolio of investments and letting it compound over decades does not make an exciting story, but can help achieve your dreams.
behavioural finance
We experience the feeling of financial loss more acutely than the same level of gain. Emotionally driven investment decisions can lead to clouded judgement and irrational choices. Achieving positive outcomes relies on making educated decisions.