Expert Wealth Management

Investors love good stories. In recent years, many of these stories have centered around innovations that have fundamentally changed the way we live our lives. Some examples might include the release of the original Apple iPhone in 2007, the delivery of Tesla’s first electric cars in 2012 and the launch of Amazon […]

When one looks into the future it soon becomes apparent that a crystal ball would be useful. Unfortunately, they are in short supply. At times of uncertainty, such as this, it can be tempting to run ‘what if’ scenarios in our heads, such as ‘perhaps I should move into tech stocks and pharmaceutical companies - as surely these sectors will do well’ or to pick out specific companies that appear likely to thrive in the future.

‘Its déjà vu all over again!’ Yogi Berra, famous baseball coach and part-time philosopher The recent announcement by M&G that it had taken the decision to suspend redemptions on its £2.5bn M&G Property Portfolio – after suffering ‘unusually high and sustained outflows’ estimated at £1bn over the past 12 months – is […]

Persistently skilled fund managers are a very rare commodity, hard to identify in advance and hard to live with over time. Anecdotes and examples of great managers are often used to justify active management, yet even some of the truly ‘great’ managers have failed to live up to their billing. Like the […]

There is always a temptation to fiddle around with a portfolio’s structure to try to position it ready for potential short-term global events, such as Brexit. Investors would do well to remind themselves that the core tenets of good investing hold true through all market conditions. It is also worth remembering that the efficacy of a portfolio’s strategy should be judged not on the post-event outcome, but in terms of the quality, validity and prudence of its construction discipline in the face of future market uncertainty. Portfolios are well-structured around inalienable investment truths, particularly the value of deep diversification.

For many investors – particularly those in retirement - the question ‘how long is long-term?’ could also be translated as ‘I’m getting on a bit, so should I still be investing in the stock market?’. When is comes to systematic investing – that is to say, capturing specific market risks in a disciplined and rules based manner – a subsidiary question might also be ‘should I still own value and small cap stocks, as their excess returns, relative to the market, can take some time to come through?’.

The world of financial planning can be complex and technical. It's sometimes easy to lose sight of why having a financial plan is so important! We recently came across this amazing video of Doris Day, singing in the 1950's and felt it was an apt reminder of what we're trying to achieve in the Expert Wealth family. Have a look!

Systematic, evidence-based investing often results in very little activity in a portfolio. It is wrong to think that this is the result of a ‘set-and-forget’ strategy.

December 2018 dished up a rather distasteful present for the holiday period. Many lines were written in the broadsheets about the global equity market falls, but were they really anything out of the ordinary? The challenge for investors today is that they have been spoiled by the run of strong returns since the Credit Crisis, with only one down year since 2008 until, that is, 2018.

Human beings are not well wired to be investors. Not only are we not very good with percentages - often accepting seemingly small percentage charges as immaterial - but we also grossly underestimate the impact of compounding these deductions from our portfolios over time.

Sharp eyed clients may have noticed guest content from the fantastic Abraham Okusanya of FinalytiQ contributed to our Expert Opinion section earlier this year. We're now pleased to be able to announce a new partnership between Expert Wealth and FinalytiQ that will allow us to further improve the standard of service we can offer our clients.

The world of financial self-serve technology is changing for the better, and we'll soon be making some significant improvements to our in-house systems. Find out more now.

It's an important part of Expert Wealth Management's vision that we make an active contribution to our local community. Around a month ago we saw an opportunity to purchase a Defibrillator unit for the Mickey Cranks Cycling Club.

We feel that by recording our interactions with you, we'll be able to increase our focus and engagement with what really matters... Your life goals.

Sometimes, having owned your Individual Savings Account (ISA) for a few years, you might notice that the underlying investments no longer give you what you need.

It is important to remember that equity market falls are an inevitable part of the process of building wealth through equity ownership. This note seeks to put market falls in perspective and offers some behavioural tips for surviving them.

Thirty years ago, securing an income in retirement was relatively simple; collect years of service in the company’s pension plan (or some government pension plan for public servants) and retire on a defined percentage of your final salary. A combination of poor government policy, weak investment strategy, and rapid increases in longevity has all but destroyed this type of pension.

Have you ever considered if the attempt to select and buy individual stocks is a worthwhile exercise? Is it better to stick with a disciplined approach to investing and look to win in the longer term? This vlog explores some thoughts on the matter (and there's a very cold dip involved!).

During my youth I quickly learnt to get ahead you had to play the ‘Winners Game’. Do you remember school sports day in the days when competition was actually allowed?

All you want is to get a decent return without too much worry, so what is diversification and how can it work for you? Many professional investors are experts in their field. They can specialise in a market and make informed decisions quickly. They buy and sell their shares at exactly the […]