The Solution

Scientifically validated tool for assessing financial risk

We provide a separate risk profile report which assists our client’s understanding of themselves & their risk capacity.

Identify whether you have a risk tolerance mismatch when compared to your investments.

We provide illustrations of historical portfolio performance compared with your expectations for varying levels of risk tolerance.

Our clients tend to have a more informed understanding of risk and return, particularly patterns of downside volatility.

“A good plan is like a road map; it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there!” – HS Judd

Our clients know:

How long their portfolio/retirement funds will need to ‘last’ for

How distributions & inflation impacts on their plans

How we establish primary investment objectives

What the important trade-offs clients may need to consider

We believe that the most important aspect of any investment is to provide each investor with a selection of assets which match their attitude to risk. ‘Asset Allocation’ as this is known, has been shown to be the most important aspect of successful investing over the long term.

Professor Harry Markowitz was awarded the Nobel Prize for mathematically proving that asset allocation and diversification work and later research showed that asset allocation is the most important factor in determining the performance of investment portfolios.*

* DETERMINANTS OF PORTOFLIO PERFORMANCE, PUBLISHED IN THE FINANCIAL ANALYSTS JOURNAL IN JULY/AUGUST 1986 AND UPDATED MAY/JUNE 1991, GARY P BRINSON, L RANDOLPH HOOD AND GILBERT BEEBOWER.

One of the first steps is to understand what the different asset types are and how they can be used in effective portfolio construction. Asset allocation relies on different types of assets rising and falling at different times which smoothes out the total returns.

Having determined your asset allocation between growth & defensive assets, we then turn to the macro economic outlook. This is used as a tactical overlay utilising funds we believe will be best suited to your investment objectives and risk profile. How This might look:

Fund Selection

After assessing a suitable asset allocation mix, it is important to choose the most appropriate managers and funds within each sector. By selecting those fund management companies with special areas of expertise and those fund managers with a history of strong performance, an effective combination of funds can be compiled. Other factors we consider when recommending funds include:

Consistency of fund performance
Fund risk
Value/growth orientation
Small/large cap orientation
Fund size Industry holdings
Underlying stock holdings
OBSR ratings Citywire ratings

Typically these are set by utilising standard recognised industry benchmarks. However, we also benchmark to our clients requirements & individual ‘goals and objectives’ to ensure over time these are being met. Rather than arbitrary numbers we can utilise inflation measures to target specific real returns – which are often far more relevant to our clients.

Circumstances change, new legislation is implemented and markets rarely stand still, so your financial plan will need to be reviewed and updated to remain consistent with your long term objectives.

Our services are based on a pro-active approach and include (as a minimum) an annual review.