Financial services:
Portfolio management
Managing client investment portfolios is a core part of our practice. We manage portfolios from around £75,000 up to many in the £millions. Each portfolio is individually designed and, on an ongoing basis, individually reviewed. There is no such thing as a standard Cassons portfolio. We take full account of each client’s investment objectives, their attitude to risk, their income and capital requirements, their timescales, and their tax circumstances. We do not offer discretionary management. We prefer to offer advisory management, meaning that you are always fully involved in every investment decision.
We do not normally choose individual stocks and shares. With over 2,300 quoted shares in the UK alone, it is impractical for a private investor to obtain, and maintain, a balanced portfolio. Instead, we choose collective investment funds, mainly unit trusts and open-ended investment companies (OEICs). By pooling the money of many investors, such funds are able to obtain a far wider spread of investments than individual investors can effectively do, thereby reducing risk. They also deal at lower cost, and their stockpicking is informed by teams of analysts and by company visits.
The UK represents about 10% of the world by market capitalisation. That leaves 90% to go at. International diversity provides a further opportunity to spread risk. Equally, in appropriate cases, it provides an opportunity for more creative asset allocation in the pursuit of higher returns. It is generally not practical for individual UK investors to deal in shares in overseas markets. Collective investment funds are the most practical way to do so. There are hundreds of collective investment funds investing in overseas markets. Our skill lies in choosing the right ones.
Our portfolios are constructed using sophisticated asset allocation models. We then choose funds within each asset sector using our in depth knowledge of the universe of such funds. That is built on years of research, on following the progress of funds, on reading their regular bulletins, on attending their presentations, and on speaking to the fund managers. Tables of past performance are now readily available; in depth knowledge is rather harder to come by.
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