Investment Philosophy

“Investing should be more like watching paint dry or grass grow. If you want excitement take $800 and go to Las Vegas”

Paul Samuelson

When making investment recommendations, we are guided by our four key principles:

  1. Keep it simple. Unless thereā€™s a compelling reason to do otherwise, our approach will always be to keep things as simple as possible. This usually results in less cost and less risk.
  2. Keep costs to a minimum. We always try to use lower cost investments first. We tend to prefer ā€œpassiveā€ investment funds rather than ā€œactiveā€ alternatives. Ensuring costs are kept to a minimum should mean our clients keep a greater proportion of any investment returns that are generated.
  3. Minimise tax. Not only do high costs impact returns, but tax also plays a big part. Weā€™ll analyse your circumstances and objectives, then recommend what we believe to be the most tax-efficient way to hold your investments.
  4. Less risk is better. Some people prefer to take more risk with their investments, but we would only advocate this after having answered this key question: ā€œwhat level of risk is necessary to achieve your objectives?ā€.

Here are the steps we follow to ensure successful investment.

We find out about your objectives in as much detail as we can. What do you want to achieve? By when? What kind of income or capital will you need? How important is inflation? How are you currently planning on achieving this?

We will identify your risk preferences and tolerances. These will feed through into our investment recommendations.

We will make some assumptions and test how likely you are to achieve your goals for a stated level of risk. We often do this through building a detailed and robust cashflow model.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that getting the asset allocation of your investments right is the key driver behind performance. We make sure we get this right; we will recommend a portfolio that we believe gives you the best chance of achieving your objectives, consistent with your attitude to risk.

We will make sure all the processing and paperwork is completed as efficiently as possible, ensuring all investment instructions are clearly and accurately represented and implemented.

An ongoing process

As far as weā€™re concerned, setting up your investment portfolio is just the first step.

We aim to monitor not only your investments, but regularly review and update your goals and objectives. We will also continue to review your attitude to risk, ensuring that any investments you have remain consistent. We know that ongoing advice, monitoring and reviews are key to investment success.

What do our clients have to say?

I was recommended to Simon when I moved from London to Hampshire around 10 years ago. I wanted top quality financial advice across both my highly intertwined business and personal/family lives, able to be delivered often face to face without too much travel effort. My needs started with tax management advice but quickly spread to how to fund a house purchase and renovation, and then my childrenā€™s education. As I reach my mid-50s, the questions have been more to do with pension, London property and my family investment portfolio. Simon has been beside me all that way. Why? Well, professionally, because he knows his subject, is always well prepared, can explain things quickly and clearly, and is sensible and sincere in his advice. When occasionally I have questioned him toughly, he has proved his advice can withstand that. So, I have learned to trust his recommendations, which always save me time, stress and help me to be financially well prepared. On a personal level, it is always nice to see him as he is friendly, tries really hard to help and makes all his clients, however unimportant in terms of fees, feel looked after and valued. Trust him, itā€™ll be worth it.

James, from St Marybourne

We have used Simon for around 10 years. We started from a point where retirement was a scary thought which we could never afford. Working with Simon we put a plan together and now we feel that financially the future is much clearer. Simon is not one for fancy high risk instant results; he has always made this clear and in the process has steered us away from several ā€˜get rich quickā€™ schemes that have tempted us.

Mike, from Whitchurch

We were looking to invest a windfall for the long term in a tax-efficient way so that it could provide additional support to our disabled child in the future. Simon arranged a plan that provides for this and also combined our various pension schemes onto a consolidated platform. This enables accurate cash flow modelling that would not be possible with a variety of scattered funds. Our regular reviews have been invaluable in reducing any financial uncertainty and concern. Simon has arranged life cover offering greater value for money and with premiums paid directly from my company, effectively reducing the cost.

John, from Godalming

I have been working with Simon for a number of years now and have come to really value his financial planning advice. He first helped me to invest the money I made from selling my business and since then he has continued to advise my husband and I on all aspects of our financial and retirement planning. Simon brings a well-informed, balanced perspective to our financial decision-making that is always reassuring.

Rachel, from Richmond-Upon-Thames

We originally contacted Simon shortly after we married, as we had a diverse portfolio which was proving difficult to manage. Simon helped us to clarify our investment aims for growth and income over our working lives and into retirement, providing the information we needed to select the appropriate risk strategy for our investments. Our portfolio is now well structured and easy to manage, together with regular updates on the value. Simon meets with us at least once a year to discuss our portfolio, is always well informed, providing us with appropriate advice and information to make any decisions.

William, from Southampton