We build our investment portfolios using mutual funds with strong managers and good investment processes and a great deal of our time is spent analysing these funds and meeting the respective fund management teams. We also spend time researching other investments including alternative investments such as structured products, hedge funds and Exchange Traded Funds.

A summary of the performance of our principal mutual funds in included below (updated monthly/quarterly). This shows the performance of a number of key funds over the last 5 years and over the last 1, 3 and 6 months

UK Funds

International Funds

Fixed Interest and Management Funds

We also produce a “league table” of returns in the Equity Income and Equity Income and Growth sectors, based on consistency of performance. This overall measure gives different weights to short term performance and longer term consistency. An example of this league table is shown below.

UK Equity Income League Table – April 2010

Research Articles

The forthcoming changes to the taxation of discretionary trusts create an even greater impetus to review existing – and proposed – portfolios. From April 2010 the trust rate of income tax will increase from 40 per cent to 50 per cent on rental and savings income and from 32.5 percent to 42.5 percent on [...]
Investment Bonds for Trustees

Commercial Property investment is attractive to many investors. It seems less complicated than share based investment, it is seen as a solid investment because you can actually touch it, and you feel you have some experience in the area because most have bought their own homes.
Many owner managers will look to purchase their business premises, [...]
Purchasing Business Premises

In recent years we have seen a proliferation of asset allocation tools. These purport to reduce the overall “risk” of a portfolio, and in some cases, to increase the potential returns that an investor could expect over the medium term. We believe that the majority of these asset allocation / risk management tools are[...]
Asset Allocation Models and Risk

The number and value of Hedge Funds has increased dramatically over the last fifteen years. It is estimated that the number of Hedge Funds has grown from around 530 funds with a value of $50 billion in 1990 to over 8,000 Hedge funds at the end of 2004 valued at nearly $1 trillion. It is [...]
Overstatement of Hedge Fund Returns