Investments

DISCOVER THE RIGHT MIX FOR YOU

Personal product recommendations

Which is the best car for you – the fastest, the most economical, the largest? It all comes down to personal preference and needs. Choosing the right investments and selecting the correct product to place them in for your journey is similarly complex.

Investment is the basis of most financial plans. Whether you’re living from your capital, planning retirement, concerned about inheritance tax, or trying to fund your long-term care, investment is the core discipline across all these areas of financial planning.

To provide you with full planning recommendations, we will start by reviewing your current circumstances and listening to your concerns and objectives, before turning these into recommendations to achieve your goals.

We also need to understand how you feel about investment risk. We’ll therefore use modern investment-profiling tools to create your investment profile, which may also include your attitude towards Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investments.

Only after understanding your circumstances, your objectives and your investment profile can we start to research the right products to achieve your aims.

INVESTMENT WRAPPERS:

Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs)
General Investment Account (GIAs)
Onshore and offshore investment bonds
Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs)

INVESTMENTS:

Open-ended investment companies (OEIC)
Unit trusts
Investment trusts
Stocks and shares
Corporate bonds
Gilts
Deposit accounts

MOST SUITABLE FOR:

Investors looking to invest for capital appreciation, a regular income, or a mix of both, from personal or inherited savings
Power attorneys or deputies and trustees of will trusts

ETHICAL INVESTMENT FUNDS

Environment, Social and
Governance investing (ESG)

There are risks to investing, including investment in the latest fad. ESG is nothing new – previous incarnations include green funds in the late 1990s and sustainable investments in the noughties, many of which were neither green nor sustainable. However, ESG is different.

This time, most western economies have committed to reducing greenhouse gasses and eliminating fossil fuel consumption. Through using modern communication and news channels, we have become better informed and are able to call out or boycott any companies or governments not participating. The result is that most large organisations have adopted a ESG policy committed to being better for the environment.

This has had a very significant impact on ESG investing – many of the companies used by investment managers already have green credentials. New investment research providers such as Sustainalytics rate companies for their ESG credentials, making it easier for fund managers to build portfolios with a natural ESG leaning. Which all means that investment funds have become far more environmentally friendly.

To embrace these advances, William Highbourne has taken two key steps. Firstly, we’ve made some conscious changes to our investment strategy without throwing away our whole investment ethos by selecting the ethical investment funds over standard funds if performance is comparable. The second step has been to replace fossil fuel investments with clean energy ones.

The William Highbourne investment committee has also added two metrics to our research templates: the Morningstar Portfolio Sustainability Score, which assigns every fund a score so we can compare the ESG rating for funds investing in a variety of asset classes; and the Morningstar Sustainability Rating, which assigns 5 globes to the best in the sector and 1 globe to the lowest percentile range.

Our clients are informed of the sustainability score for their portfolio and if requested we will take further action to reduce the sustainability score to ensure we meet their objectives.

For more information, contact us
or call us on +44 (0) 1395 207350.