Do you have a long-term investment strategy?

Keep focused on your end goals and don’t let market noise sway you

The complexity of today’s economic and global conditions, coupled with uncertainty in Europe, North America and China, have combined to create a degree of cautiousness among many investors. A long-term investment strategy could provide you with a clear advantage during uncertain times.

One of the world’s 
richest investors
Warren Buffett is one of the world’s richest people and is a highly successful investor. He’s achieved this partly by identifying companies that he believed were worth more than their market value, investing in them and, crucially, holding that investment for the long term. It sounds remarkably simple, but given the ups and downs of the global markets, it takes a high level of discipline, nerve and conviction in your decisions.

Keep focused on your end goals
It’s important to have in place a sound investment strategy to keep you focused on your end goals and not to let market noise sway you. If appropriate, consider investing at regular intervals over the long term. Keep on investing through market lows when share prices are undervalued, so that you gain more wealth when markets rise again. This can help smooth some of the stock market ups and downs and you avoid investing all of your money when the market is at a peak.

Your attitude towards investment risk
Understand your time horizon and your attitude towards risk. They affect how you invest. We’re all different, and our personal risk attitude can change with our circumstances and age. The nearer you approach retirement, the more cautious you’re likely to become and the keener you’re likely to be to protect the fund you have already built. Note that the value of your fund may fluctuate and you may not get back your original investment.

Spread risk through diversification
Diversify your portfolio so that when one part of the market does not perform it is balanced out by another part of the market that does. View your investment portfolio as a whole. Asset allocation is the process of dividing your investment among different assets, such as cash, bonds, equities (shares in companies) and property. The idea behind allocating your money among different assets is to spread risk through diversification – the concept of not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Assets that behave differently
Balance your portfolio and maintain a sensible balance between different types of investments. To benefit from diversification, you need to invest in assets that behave differently from each other. Each asset type has a relationship with others – some have very little or no relation to each other (known as a ‘low correlation’), whereas others are inversely connected, meaning that they move in opposite ways to each other (called a ‘negative correlation’).

Mirroring the performance of a particular share index
There will always be times when one asset class outperforms another. Generally, cash and bonds provide stability while shares and property provide growth. Funds are either actively managed, where managers make decisions about the investments, or passively managed (typically called a ‘tracker’), where the fund is set up to mirror the performance of a particular share index rather than beat it.

Benefit from compound growth
Think long term. It is time in the market that counts – not timing the market. The longer you are invested in the market, the greater the likelihood of making up for any losses. What’s more, the sooner you start investing, the more you will benefit from compound growth.

Investing as tax-efficiently as possible
Different investments have different tax treatments. Tax is consequential to many wealth management decisions. Our understanding and experience can help you manage and protect your wealth, whatever form it takes. We can advise you about the tax treatment of your current investments, and of any investments you are considering, to ensure that you are investing tax-efficiently. It’s important to remember that your requirements are unique to you. What’s a good investment for one individual is not automatically a good investment choice for you, so don’t follow the latest investment trends unless they fit with your plan.

Past performance is not necessarily a guide to the future. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise as a result of market and currency fluctuations and you may not get back the amount originally invested. Tax assumptions are subject to statutory change and the value of tax relief (if any) will depend upon your individual circumstances.

Trusts

Helping you control and protect your assets

One of the most effective ways you can manage your estate planning is through setting up a trust. The structures into which you can transfer your assets can have lasting consequences for you and your family, so it is important that you obtain professional advice
as the right structures can protect assets and give your family lasting benefits.

A trust is a legal arrangement where one or more trustees are made legally responsible for assets. The assets – such as land, money, buildings, shares or even antiques – are placed in trust for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries.

They are not the sole domain of the super-rich. Trusts are incredibly useful and flexible devices that people employ for all sorts of different purposes, including Inheritance Tax planning.

In its simplest form, a trust is just a legal mechanism for separating the ownership of an asset into two parts: the ‘legal’ ownership, or title to the asset, on the one hand, and the ‘beneficial’ ownership on the other hand.

It is in the course of Inheritance Tax planning, though, that people are most likely to come face to face with trusts, and seek to get an understanding of what they are and how they work. Their use is widespread and, despite some recent adverse changes in tax law, they remain an important tool in estate planning.

The trust is created when the settlor transfers assets to the trustees, who hold the assets in trust for the beneficiaries. The main reason a person would put assets into a trust rather than make an outright gift is that trusts offer far more flexibility than outright gifts.

The trustees are responsible for managing the trust and carrying out the wishes of the person who has put the assets into trust (the settlor). The settlor’s wishes for the trust are usually written in their Will or given in a legal document called the trust deed.

The purpose of a trust

Trusts may be set up for a number of reasons, for example:

– to control and protect family assets

– when someone is too young to handle their affairs

– when someone can’t handle their affairs because they are incapacitated

– to pass on money or property while you are still alive

– to pass on money or assets when you die under the terms of your Will – known as a Will trust

– under the rules of inheritance that apply when someone dies without leaving a valid Will (England and Wales only)

There are several types of UK family trusts, and each type of trust may be taxed differently. There are other types of non-family trusts. These are set up for many reasons, for example, to operate as a charity, or to provide a means for employers to create a pension scheme for their staff.

When you might have to pay Inheritance Tax on your trust

There are four main situations when Inheritance Tax may be due on trusts:

– when assets are transferred—or settled—into a trust

– when a trust reaches a ten-year anniversary of when it was set up

– when assets are transferred out of a trust or the trust comes to an end

– when someone dies and a trust is involved when sorting out their estate

The treatment of trusts for tax purposes is the same throughout the United Kingdom. However, Scottish law on trusts and the terms used in relation to trusts in Scotland are different from the laws of England and Wales and Northern Ireland.

Saving for a rainy day

Fewer people are putting money away despite improvements to the economy

T he gap between the fortunes of savers and non-savers continues to widen, and research supports these findings[1]. ‘Habitual savers’ continue to put away more for a rainy day, but the total number of people saving has fallen, and, despite improvements to the economy, one in five people in the UK have no savings at all.

Saving facts
1 The number of people in the UK with no savings at all has risen year-on-year from eight million to over nine million, or one in five of the UK adult population.

2 For those who are managing to save, the average amount that people have in savings was boosted by £175 in 2013 in comparison to the previous year, from £10,033 to £10,208.

3 The total number of people who are managing to save something has dropped from 14.8 million to 14.4 million (31% and 30% of the adult population respectively), and more than half (54%) of those surveyed said they were saving less than they did two years ago.

4 Many people are still only thinking in the short term – almost half (48%) said they prefer to spend their money rather than save and invest, and 64% said they know they are not saving sufficiently for their long-term needs.