Investors should consider giving their portfolios a Spring Clean too

Investors should consider giving their portfolios a ‘Spring Clean’ too
31 Mar 2015
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The start of Spring is a time of year when people have traditionally given their homes a top to bottom freshen up, removing any unnecessary clutter. Yet it isn’t just houses and flats that deserve a thorough annual deep clean - investors should do the same too says leading investment and financial planning group Tilney Bestinvest.

Jason Hollands, Managing Director of Tilney Bestinvest comments: “Many people rush around at the end of the tax year hunting for an idea or two just to beat the deadline, with the final investor on our website opening an ISA account at 23:57 on 5 April 2014. Yet investing doesn’t have to be a hurried exercise at the very last minute, and the start of a new tax year is as good a time as any to stand back and calmly review your overall investment strategy. Even originally well-planned portfolios need to be periodically reviewed and rebalanced, as allocations to different asset classes and markets naturally drift over time. That can mean the risk-profile of a portfolio can change materially, and the portfolio no longer matches your needs or goals.”

Three steps for an investment Spring Clean

Tilney Bestinvest believes that the key criteria to consider when reviewing your portfolio should include:

  • understanding the level of risk you are exposed to
  • how well-balanced your asset allocation is
  • the quality of the underlying funds and stocks

Hollands continued: “Many investors simply don't regularly review or rebalance their portfolios. They tend to buy investments as ad hoc decisions, hold … and forget. And there can be habit of always choosing a new fund, rather than topping up existing ones which over time leads to sprawling portfolios that are difficult to monitor. In addition to making sure you have a thought-through mix of assets, it is vitally important to keep a beady eye on your individual funds, especially those which are actively managed since fund managers can drop the ball or change jobs and therefore need to be monitored closely.”

Free Investment Report Service & Tool

Tilney Bestinvest believes the problem could be particularly acute amongst those investors who have parted company with their financial adviser since the introduction of reforms to how financial advice is paid for, a period which has also seen some banks withdraw from providing financial advice.

To help investors undertake their own reviews instead, Tilney Bestinvest offers a Free Investment Report Service & Tool (FIRST) which has been used by over 75,000 members of the public. FIRST enables investors to enter details of their funds, investment trusts, ETFs and shares from drop-down menus, input the approximate value of each and receive free analysis to show how much Risk the portfolio is exposed to (based on its volatility), how well balanced the Asset Allocation is (against Tilney Bestinvest’s models), and a view on the Quality of each investment held. The analysis is generated in real-time, but users can also generate a PDF report.

FIRST is available at www.bestinvest.co.uk/first

- ENDS -

Important information:

The value of investments, and the income derived from them, can go down as well as up and you can get back less than you originally invested. This press release does not constitute personal advice. If you are in doubt as to the suitability of an investment please contact one of our advisers. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. Prevailing tax rates and reliefs are dependent on your individual circumstances and are subject to change.

Press contacts:

Roisin Hynes
0207 189 2403
07966 843 699
roisin.hynes@tilneybestinvest.co.uk

Matthew Gray
0207 189 2492
matthew.gray@tilneybestinvest.co.uk

About Tilney Bestinvest

Tilney Bestinvest is a leading investment and financial planning firm that builds on a heritage of more than 150 years. We look after more than £9 billion of assets on our clients’ behalf and pride ourselves on offering the very highest levels of professional client service with transparent, competitive pricing across our entire range of solutions.

We offer a range of services for clients whether they would like to have their investments managed by us, require the support of a highly qualified adviser, prefer to make their own investment decisions or want to take more than one approach. We also have a nationwide team of expert financial planners to help clients with all aspects of financial planning, including retirement planning.

We have won numerous awards including UK Wealth Manager of the Year, Low-cost SIPP Provider of the Year and Self-select ISA Provider of the Year 2013, as voted by readers of the Financial Times and Investors Chronicle. We are pleased that our greatest source of new business is personal referrals from existing clients.

Headquartered in Mayfair, London, Tilney Bestinvest employs almost 400 staff across our network of offices, giving us full UK coverage, and we combine our award-winning research and expertise to provide a personalised service to clients whatever their investment needs.

The Tilney Bestinvest Group of Companies comprises the firms Bestinvest (Brokers) Ltd (Reg. No. 2830297), Tilney Investment Management (Reg. No. 02010520), Bestinvest (Consultants) Ltd (Reg. No. 1550116) and HW Financial Services Ltd (Reg. No. 02030706) all of which are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 6 Chesterfield Gardens, Mayfair, W1J 5BQ.

For further information, please visit: www.tilneybestinvest.co.uk



Disclaimer

This release was previously published on Tilney Smith & Williamson prior to the launch of Evelyn Partners.