What is it we actually do?


Businessman hands around a crystal ball with 'future' written on it
What does a chartered wealth management company actually do?

Some industries appear shrouded in mystery to the public at large and ‘what is it you actually do?’ is a common question we hear as a chartered wealth management company – as no doubt do many others in various professions.

We offer various services, but the biggest by some margin is looking after the wealth of clients and investing it in a highly diverse manner across the entire investment universe, selecting only the holdings which we consider to offer the greatest return opportunities.

We aim to deliver balanced returns over a sensible time-frame, ensuring always that other money remains available to investors should an emergency arise.

That inevitably means dealing in market based investments, so we construct portfolios of assets ranging from shares, funds, commodities like metals and agricultural products, precious metals like gold or silver, loan stocks, insurance markets, commercial property, other alternative assets, currencies, Unit and Investment Trusts and from any provider. We have one goal and that is to do whatever we can to meet our clients’ objectives and act in their best interests.

World events such as the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine will of course affect values on a global scale and that is beyond our control, though we do all we can to mitigate the effects for clients.

We also make sure we do not hold direct exposure in some of the false bubble ‘trendy’ things such as US tech giants (did we mention that would crash? We did? Ah!) and most definitely not ‘Ponzi schemes’ such as Bitcoin!

So here are a couple examples of what we do do! An investment fund which we may have mentioned before has released its latest month-end value – it rose from March and stands 40 per cent above the price at which we are buying more shares for clients.

This fund is winding-up. This means that at some point, we shall be rewarded with that extra 40 per cent for nothing, all other factors remaining the ‘same’, less small administrative costs.

If that is two years, that is 20 per cent per annum on top of what the portfolio itself may deliver (and dividends). What is there not to like…? So we shall keep buying for new clients and retaining its priority for existing.

Another example is a secure loan fund, which is now winding-up. It will be suspended from dealing soon, when it has just the last few assets to repay.

Recently, we were still buying shares at a 43 per cent discount to that asset value, which is likely to be realised relatively soon, but even if it is in a year’s time, that’s fine. We had been building our stake and own 17.4 per cent of all the shares.

So what does it mean? If all goes to plan, our £1 invested recently will give us back a 75 per cent return, simply from the final borrowers repaying their loans. Are there risks? Yes, there are risks with ‘everything’, which is why we always spread our exposures very widely.

All investors need is patience and not to sell out now, as that opportunity is lost.

Hopefully that gives a little insight into what we actually do!