How We Look After Your Savings

Risk Management

Our goal is to help you achieve your goals by producing more consistent returns with less risk. We think about risk differently to other managers who use terms such as ‘tracking error’ or ‘standard deviation’. We use a simpler and more practical definition. We define risk as losing money that can’t be made back. Based on this definition of risk, we’ve designed an investment approach aligned to your needs – managing risk, growing your wealth, and not investing in assets if the reward isn’t worth the risk.

Introducing the CPI+ Objective

To determine your investment objective, we start with the rate of inflation and add to that an additional amount that can be matched with your risk profile and financial goals. This gives us a CPI+ objective. So your objectives and ours are the same, namely growing savings above inflation and increasing purchasing power.

Why Is It Important to Beat Inflation?

Inflation is the increase in the average level of prices, or in other words, the cost of living. It’s measured and tracked using the Consumer Price Index, or CPI. It stands to reason that as prices increase, your savings need to increase so that you maintain your buying power and standard of living.

Asset allocation expertise

Based on our CPI+ objective and desire to manage risk over the market cycle, we’ve designed an investment approach that gives us the flexibility to invest in asset classes only if it makes sense to do so. If the reward isn’t worth the risk, we’re able to avoid the asset class completely. This approach is known as ‘Valuation Driven Asset Allocation’. Many other investment managers use a ‘Strategic Asset Allocation’ (or a set-and-forget) approach.

We know that markets change. Our active, Valuation Driven Asset Allocation approach means that we are able to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, rather than at a once a year (or longer) rebalance, as is typically the case with a ‘Strategic Asset Allocation’ approach.