Articles of the year

Missed opportunity: how investors counted the cost of being overcautious in 2019

Charlotte Ransom, Founder and CEO

Being overcautious can come at a cost – and in this article, Charlotte shows how much investors can miss out on by sitting on the sidelines. In association with YouGov, we conducted a survey to gauge how the political climate and uncertainty affected sentiment and highlighted what investors could do to achieve their financial goals.

How should we view the economic outlook?

Gerard Lyons, Chief Economic Strategist

In March this year, as the pandemic was widely taking hold, Gerard assessed the potential impact on the global economy. He draws parallels with the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and examines the effect of monetary policy, while underscoring that it is fiscal policy that will be required to do more of the heavy policy lifting in a recovery.

Strike 3 – another downturn, another failure by active managers to outperform

Iain Barnes, Head of Portfolio Management

Champions of active management often contend that market downturns present the ideal conditions for active managers to outperform. This wasn’t the case in 2020. And Iain’s close analysis reveals it wasn’t just during the pandemic that active managers failed to justify their costs – this has also been the case over the previous two downturns, too.

Day in the life of our head of operations

Rachel Willox, Head of Operations and Client Service

Being a dependable place for clients to go in time of need is important in establishing trust and confidence – and here Rachel explains how she and her team ensure that through good communication, forging strong relationships and by going the extra mile for clients we can deliver an exceptional level of service in all environments.

When should you change your risk level?

Matt Conradi, Head of Client Advisory

Many investors in 2020 may have been tempted to change their risk level in the face of extreme uncertainty. Matt urges caution, however, and assesses how active you should be in responding to events or economic news – and when it is necessary to make changes to your portfolio.

How you could benefit from new pension rule changes

Sam Pitts-Tucker, Senior Client Adviser

Pension rules frequently change and it can make a meaningful difference for individuals to stay on top of the changes. Yet the subject can be complicated and the impacts difficult to measure. Here Sam explains the pensions annual allowance and what the increases to the threshold income and adjusted income levels could mean for those saving for retirement.

How ISAs inject rocket fuel to a family’s finances

Tom Kimche, Client Adviser

Many of us realise the powerful investment and tax benefits of an ISA. Yet when a whole family makes use of these tax wrappers it can make an extraordinary difference to their finances, as Tom illustrates.

Engineered to adapt: how we manage money in a lockdown

Netwealth

Amid the first lockdown, different members of the Netwealth team described how they maintained a seamless and responsive service for our clients. It helps that adaptive DNA and powerful technology are at the heart of how we operate.

Please note, the value of your investments can go down as well as up.