About Us
Philosophy
Getting the big decisions right determines how much your clients make on their money. We take asset allocation decisions to choose whether to be in cash or property, equities or government bonds, or in a mixture. So many asset managers charge investors for trying to choose the right shares but on average stock-picking managers do less well than just buying all the shares in the Index. We concentrate on the big picture and take long-term views about the likely performance of an asset. We do move more into cash if there is substantial economic and market disruption. If an asset class becomes unattractive we will sell it and if we cannot find enough attractive assets to buy because markets are difficult we will temporarily hold cash instead to avoid losses and preserve capital. Our investment universe covers over 30 asset classes across all geographic regions. The asset allocation team constantly monitor each asset class to find the best investment opportunities around the world.
We kept discretionary clients in cash for most of 2008 before investing in 2009 as we were very pessimistic about the world outlook in 2008. In 2009-10 we worried about the state of UK government finances and advised against any UK government bond investment. We do not feel we have to invest clients in given asset classes just because others are doing so or because it is traditional to do so. We do so if we think there is a reasonable prospect of a decent return compared to cash.
