OUR APPROACH

Our advice process

Our advice is bespoke to the individual, therefore we need to ensure that we have a complete picture of your personal and financial circumstances before we can create a financial plan for you. Our advice process allows us to ensure that our advice is appropriate and, most importantly, affordable.

Our investment strategy and the investment committee

The volatility that we have witnessed in global stock markets since January 2000 has been unprecedented and traditional investment portfolios may not have fared well. In the first quarter of 2011, we decided to review the way in which we invest money on behalf of our clients. We set up an investment committee with the aim of:

Creating and maintaining a robust investment process for Premier clients of Roberts Mackie Winstanley
Assessing the investment process regularly by way of twice yearly review meetings
Identifying investment funds (both passive and active) that can be used to provide investment solutions for our clients
Sharing ideas and continually improving the investment service offered to clients of Roberts Mackie Winstanley
Drawing on the specialist knowledge of an investment expert to advise on both our strategic and tactical asset allocations.

The investment committee employs a specialist investment adviser to assist us with all aspects of the work that is undertaken by the investment committee. This includes due diligence on our recommended investment funds, specialist economic advice on the outlook for the global economy and a review of our strategic and tactical asset allocation models.

We have an established method of determining what we consider to be the most suitable investment portfolio for any given risk profile. Our investment process involves allocating a percentage of your money to certain asset classes to provide you with a diversified portfolio based on your own attitude to risk. We review our tactical calls twice a year. This approach helps us to devise investment portfolios for our clients that can help mitigate the risk of sudden changes in the global economy.

Model portfolios

We have created a series of 10 model portfolios for various different levels of risk: 1 being the most cautious and 10 the most adventurous. Each portfolio will contain a blend of different asset types to provide diversification. Diversification helps to reduce volatility within the portfolio (i.e. how much the value of the investment will go up and down).

Assets can be either ‘directly correlated’ (i.e. if one asset increases in value, so does the other – such as shares of companies trading in the same markets – e.g. oil) or ‘negatively correlated’ (i.e. if one asset increases in value, the other decreases or remains stable in value).

We also employ a blend of active and passive fund management within our model portfolios. We decided to combine these approaches so that our clients can benefit from the reduced overall cost of passive management and the portfolio can gain from the added value that an active fund manager can bring to certain asset classes.

Your adviser will discuss the different asset classes available to you and the potential risks and returns associated with each of the model portfolios. The actual asset allocation of the model recommended to you and the funds in which you will invest will be confirmed by your adviser at the time you invest. This information, along with comparative performance data, is provided in our model portfolio factsheets. To keep you up-to-date, we will provide you with our latest model portfolio factsheet after each investment committee review.

Rebalancing your model portfolio

Over time, the asset allocation within your model portfolio will naturally move away from the tactical asset allocation applied when you first invest. This could be as a result of the performance of the funds, the different fund charges applied, or because of the regular income you are taking, for example.

The process of realigning the weightings of your portfolio of assets is called ‘Rebalancing’. Rebalancing involves periodically buying or selling assets in your portfolio to maintain the original desired level of asset allocation. The investment committee meets twice a year to review the funds selected in our model portfolios and to determine whether we should revise the asset allocation of our model portfolios.

We will rebalance your account (subject to our review of a variety of factors, including capital gains tax) after each investment committee review to ensure that your portfolio is brought into line with the latest tactical asset allocation agreed by the investment committee.

We believe that this type of intensive portfolio management is key to helping you achieve your financial goals.