Each portfolio has been expertly designed to meet the needs and objectives of our investors, whether they be private individuals, corporate clients, charities or trusts.
Our portfolios are designed to provide consistent, cost effective discretionary managed solutions for investors. Risk management, competitive pricing, income generation, diversification and performance analysis are just a few of the many key benefits.
Risk Management
Keeping portfolio risk under control has always been an integral part of the FAS Investment Management service. This key factor underpins the Concepts Discretionary Investments portfolios where each portfolio is specifically constructed to maintain expected levels of volatility and provide exposure to a range of asset classes.
Low Costs
Competitively priced actively managed funds are used as part of our portfolio approach. Consistently strong active management can yield significant outperformance for the majority of markets. Where their analysis suggests that active management does not provide sufficient outperformance to justify the additional costs, the Investment Committee will blend passive funds to keep overall costs of the portfolio competitively priced.
Income
For many FAS/MGFP clients, including Trustees, generating a reliable and attractive level of income from the investments is an important feature. A criticism levelled at many discretionary services is that income levels can be disappointing. Our Defensive, Balanced and Progressive Income portfolios are designed to provide attractive levels of income combined with good prospects for capital growth.
Diversification
Whereas some portfolio services focus too heavily on UK investments, the FAS committee actively looks to diversify each portfolio to obtain global exposure to North American, European, Far Eastern and (where appropriate) Emerging Markets, such as China. Furthermore, each portfolio holds a balance of Fixed Interest Securities, Infrastructure and Commercial Property to provide greater spread. The precise composition of each portfolio is determined by the risk rating and objectives of the portfolio.
Performance Analysis
A vital component of the investment process is to review and compare the performance of the CDI portfolios against wider market performance. As one would expect, Concepts Discretionary Investments uses a wide range of industry standard benchmarking and analysis tools to measure not only performance, but also volatility and risk, on an ongoing basis.
Concepts Discretionary Investments portfolios are ideal solutions for private Individuals and Trustees
For Individuals
- A responsive service alleviating the need to deal with documentation to undertake fund switches within the portfolio. This ensures the portfolio can adapt quickly in light of changes in market conditions and economic factors.
- Through careful planning and management of the portfolio, we aim to limit volatility and investment risk.
- Value for money compared with alternative providers. A focus on low cost funds to keep overall portfolio costs as low as possible.
- Income portfolios available for investors seeking regular income from their investments, with attractive levels of yield when compared to traditional portfolio management methods.
- Comprehensive reporting package to give clear information on portfolio performance.
For Trustees
- Regular review of the portfolio, and automatic changes based on market conditions and fund performance, help to ensure Trustees meet their obligations under the Trustee Act to keep the investment portfolio under close review.
- By reviewing the portfolio automatically, this alleviates the need for Trustees to sign documents and respond to recommended changes to the portfolio, thus saving both time and cost.
- A value for money solution when compared to Discretionary Management offered by traditional stockbroking firms. Unlike “off the shelf” Discretionary Management solutions that invest in direct Equities or Offshore funds, our low-cost approach can reduce associated costs that erode performance.
- Income portfolios are also available to Trustees, with attractive levels of natural income. These are an ideal solution for Life Interest Trusts.
- Comprehensive reporting package to give clear information to Trustees on portfolio performance, including relevant benchmarks for performance comparison.
