Investments
At EWM Financial Planning, we provide comprehensive lifetime financial planning to help you grow your wealth, achieve your financial goals and ultimately optimise all facets of your finances – from your tax to your cost and investment returns.
Our expert financial planners combine unmatched expertise with the next generation of research tools, embracing every angle of fintech to help drive down costs for clients and increase their expected returns within a risk-adjusted, high-governance framework.
We believe in control, risk mitigation and slow and safe accumulation of wealth.
Investment Philosophy and Process
A financial investment is an asset you own with the expectation that it will provide a return in the form of income, capital appreciation, or both over time. The significant point here is that they are assets that will help you fulfil an objective, or multiple objectives, such as retirement or moving house.
Investments can take many forms, from stocks and bonds to property and alternative investments. The key is selecting the right mix of investments that align with your financial goals and risk tolerance.
Our investment process involves the careful selection of the best model portfolios on the market, based on a few key factors. Our financial planning process then allows us to determine which investments to use for the right part of our clients’ plans.
The key things we look for in an investment manager are persistence of the team, consistency of returns over time, consistency of volatility (indicative of tight risk control) over time, intrinsic and extrinsic costs and, obviously, returns.
Once we have identified these top performers, they remain on the panel (we refer to this as the central investment proposition) for 12 months before the research process reopens, and their place on the team sheet is at risk again.
Through this, we aim to continually optimise our investment proposition and keep our clients at the forefront.
Our core belief is that excess cost destroys wealth over time more than anything else; therefore, we work diligently to identify high-performing, low-cost solutions.
Our starting point is quantitative research. We filter every active, passive, ethical and impact manager by their 5-year annualised return stream. We believe that 5 years, an average market cycle, is the minimum timeframe required to analyse returns over. Once we have isolated the high performers, and more importantly, the consistent ones, we repeat the same cut of the data through all the risk strata, as there may be different top performers per risk class.
Once we have reduced the long list through performance filtering, we then look at costs. We utilise data streams from Morningstar and FE Analytics (third-party data aggregators) to gain a comprehensive understanding of both the intrinsic and extrinsic costs faced by our clients. We then heat-map our shortlist by cost to identify consistent outperformance that aligns with cost-effectiveness.
We then conduct our due diligence with the managers – we need access to the primary fund management team, not the sales team, for this purpose. We meet them, kick the tyres and ask the right questions.
Once interview, performance, cost, and consistency are established, we have a short list – from which we’ll review their risk controls and third-party risk appraisals and ratings, and then present the results to a committee to challenge and review the assumptions and opinions.
The yearly rework of the panel we recommend means that if they fall off the pace or even drop out of the top 5% of performers, we replace them. We do this yearly to ensure that, to the best of our ability, clients are continually optimised.
Why Hire Professional Financial Planners?
- You can leverage your financial planning through sensible investing, planning, tax management and strategy to achieve your objectives more effectively than solely through savings.
- While cash savings provide liquidity and security, investments offer the potential for higher returns that help your money grow faster than inflation; it’s so important to have both.
- Our financial planners bring professional expertise and access to top-tier research that individual investors cannot typically access alone.
- We stay informed of market performance and opportunities, and offer advice and adjustments to portfolios based on your evolving needs and changing conditions.
- Our disciplined approach helps you stay focused on your long-term goals and avoid the common risk of buying high and selling low when markets are volatile.
- We make it visual – we use lifetime cash flow modelling to show what the future may look like for you. We also use stress testing and stochastic modelling to examine risk to your portfolio and guard against it.
- We take insurance seriously and want to remove risk from our clients’ lives.
- Finally, we are a knowledgeable team who are always available to you to soundboard your financial decisions.
Our Financial Planning Investment Services
Personalised Portfolios
We utilise top-tier models to populate the framework of your plan, linking your investment risk to your timescale, your strategy to your needs, and incorporating all of your risk and investment preferences into your plan.
Among many other things, we will listen to your:
- Risk tolerance and capacity for loss
- Investment timeframe and objectives
- Income
- Tax situation
- Estate and assets
Professional Management
Investment management doesn’t end with portfolio construction. We provide ongoing monitoring of where you stand compared to your peer group; who is making more money than you in a well-governed, risk-controlled, and cost-effective environment? We want that to be your portfolio. We also want to ensure that your investments remain aligned with your goals and risk parameters as markets evolve, so we stay closely connected to both the client and the client’s current investments, as well as the broader market.
Tax-Efficient Strategies
We help you make the most of investment opportunities which minimise your tax obligations, including Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), Capital Gains Tax (CGT), inheritance and income tax planning, among others.
Regular Reviews
You’ll receive regular portfolio reviews and in-depth, personalised reporting, keeping you informed about the performance of your investments and any changes we recommend.
Our Leading Investment Tools
FE Analytics – a robust database and analysis tool containing most funds’ historical data. This allows us to show how your current portfolios would have fared through time and demonstrate how we can help improve their performance.
Morningstar – we utilise model portfolio services from leading investment houses for most of our clients. Morningstar allows us to compare the long-term performance of these investment houses against one another, forming a critical part of our central investment proposition research.
Dynamic Planner – this sophisticated tool allows us to risk-map your existing portfolios against our risk yardstick, showing whether the portfolio meets your risk expectations and aligns with your goals and investment preferences. It also allows us to conduct psychometric tests with you, helping us to establish your risk preferences, capacity, and ability to take risks, as well as your ethical choices. The tool works as both an analyser and a discovery tool. It also allows us to scour the market for the most appropriate custodians/platforms to house your assets.
Investment Planning and Management FAQs
How much should I invest?
What’s the difference between saving and investing?
How do I determine the right level of risk for me?
Should I invest regularly or in lump sums?
How often should I review my investments?
What are the risks of investing?
Why Choose EWM Financial Planning for Investment Management?
If you’re looking for professional, modern, and dynamic financial planning, our experienced team is ready to help.
We begin with a thorough assessment of your current situation and investment goals, then develop a tailored strategy to help you achieve those goals sustainably.
As part of our lifestyle financial planning approach, we consider how your investments complement and fit with your overall financial situation, including pensions, estate planning and lifetime modelling.
Whether you’re new to investments, taking your first steps, or an experienced investor looking to expand and diversify your portfolio, professional investment advice can help you make more informed decisions and potentially yield better outcomes.
Contact EWM Financial Planning today to arrange your initial consultation and start your financial planning journey.