Your portfolio is exactly that, your portfolio. By getting to know you and your objectives, your investment manager will construct a portfolio focusing solely on your needs and goals.
Understanding your goals
Your investment manager will ask you to define the objectives of your portfolio, as they will be seeking to understand precisely what you want to achieve from it in order to suggest an appropriate investment strategy and tailor the portfolio accordingly. For example, you may wish for your portfolio to be passed on as an inheritance, or you may have more specific plans for spending it in the future, such as covering university fees. Alternatively, the primary reason for investing may be that you would like the income generated from the portfolio to supplement your pension income, or you are simply seeking a return greater than that offered on cash deposits. Should your objectives change at any stage, your investment manager will need to know in order to ensure the strategy employed remains appropriate.
UNDERSTANDING RISK
It is important to consider your objectives and your attitude to risk when discussing with your investment manager the investment strategy to be employed in managing your portfolio. If you are unable or unwilling to accept investment risk, our services will not be suitable for you, as any type of portfolio exposed to stock market investments will contain an element of risk. As such, it is important for all investors that wish to invest in the stock market to take a medium to long-term approach to investing. With any defined level of risk, you should accept that there is a minimum time horizon for managing a portfolio; this is normally five years.
Asset allocation
In keeping with the bespoke nature of our investment management service, we do not have a standard approach to asset allocation. Wherever appropriate, taking into account of your objectives and risk appetite, we aim to adopt a diversified asset allocation approach in order to spread the risk of your portfolio. Our Strategic Asset Allocation Committee provides guidelines for our investment managers to follow in order to achieve the appropriate level of risk. Your investment manager will discuss this approach with you at your request.