Our approach
OUR PROCESS
Our highly qualified and experienced in-house investment team decides the LIFT-Invest portfolios – driven by rigorous analysis and due diligence. We take an holistic approach to building each portfolio , focusing on delivering superior risk-adjusted returns throughout each stage of the process.
With LIFT-Invest you can invest in three types of portfolios:
- Core – which are a mixture of actively managed and passive funds.
- Beta – which use purely passive funds i.e. those which track markets and are not actively managed.
- Sustainable – including both actively managed and passive funds.
RISK
Our portfolios are mapped to the Risk Profiling Tool, which your financial adviser complete’s with you as part of the process to determine your risk appetite for the discretionary service. This is kept under regular review, and you must inform your adviser if your circumstances change.
An overview of the different risk profiles for our models is below:
| Portfolio type | Level of risk |
|---|---|
| Cautious | You are prepared to take only a small amount of investment risk and it is important to you that your capital is protected. |
| Moderately cautious | A limited investment risk in order to increase the chances of achieving a positive return but you only want to risk a small part of your capital to achieve this. |
| Moderate | A moderate amount of investment risk in order to increase the chance of achieving a positive return. |
| Moderately Adventurous | An above average degree of risk with your investments in return for the prospect of improving longer term investment performance. |
| Adventurous | A substantial degree of risk with your investments in return for the prospect of the highest possible longer term performance. |
ASSET ALLOCATION
Asset allocation is the process of dividing your investments across many different asset classes to create a diversified portfolio that can yield stable returns while minimising overall risk and volatility. LIFT-Invest considers a wide range of asset classes, including equities, bonds, cash, property, infrastructure, and absolute return funds to help achieve this. Different types of assets have historically had different levels of risk and return potential, with a higher weighting to equities tending to offer greater return potential but more volatility in the short term. Conversely, bonds are generally considered to be more stable and provide a regular income – but their returns over the long term are lower when compared to equities.
Our Investment Team constantly considers the state of economies and investment markets worldwide, closely examining factors such as macroeconomic indicators and geopolitical tensions before deciding upon our asset allocation.
FUND SELECTION
After deciding on asset allocation, our Investment Team determines which individual funds are added to the portfolios. The two main types of investment funds are those that are actively managed and those which passively track an index, with both having their benefits and drawbacks, and both potentially suitable for a particular asset class at different times.
An actively managed fund will be more expensive, but will be able to leverage the expertise of our dedicated Investment Team and build their own portfolio according to their own convictions. On the other hand, a passive fund will be much cheaper, using computer algorithms to buy and sell assets and track a chosen index (such as the FTSE 100 or S&P 500) as closely as possible.
Before an actively managed fund is included, our Investment Team would typically have met representatives from the fund (often the Portfolio Manager) several times, as well as performed detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis on it – we are also able to leverage strong relationships with fund groups and regularly negotiate cheaper share classes for our investors.
Our Beta portfolios only contain passively managed funds, whereas the Core and Sustainable portfolios will contain a blend of both active and passive.
PORTFOLIO MONITORING
Once a fund is included in our portfolios, we monitor performance on an ongoing basis – running a monthly performance document, which is subsequently discussed at our formal monthly Investment Committee meetings. However, performance is naturally also discussed weekly by members of the team through the general course of business. We also look to meet buy-list actively managed funds at least once per year, with research notes circulated to the rest of the Committee for those unable to attend.
The Committee meets quarterly in person to review the asset allocation of the portfolios and decide on which funds we will proceed with. If any changes are required, they will be agreed upon at the meeting and implemented as part of the quarterly rebalance which takes place for every discretionary account. We may also decide to implement an ‘ad-hoc’ rebalance at any point should our view of the investment environment or a particular fund change, warranting a more immediate modification to portfolio weightings.
PORTFOLIO FACTSHEETS
Our Portfolio Factsheets which include net performance returns data over various periods are sent directly to our clients by our Financial Planners on a quarterly basis.