Linking with Other Practices

linking with other practices


We believe we have a high quality independent financial planning service to offer your clients that will enhance your relationship with them.


How can we demonstrate this?


Our knowledge of investment products differs from that of other financial advisory firms that have reasonable ‘surface’ knowledge, but less understanding of the inner workings of investments –  including exchange traded funds and structured products.

We have experience of working both here and abroad and on the other side of the product fence.  With past clients including leading fund managers and hedge funds, we have covered most international asset classes and their derivatives. We believe this gives us greater understanding of the broad range of investments, how they are priced and crucially, their suitability.

Our derivative knowledge also means we are very familiar with the benefits and limitations of using Monte Carlo simulation when used in lifetime discounted cashflow modelling and financial planning software.

So while we use CashCalc for fundamental cashflow planning, we use our own in-house software SumItAllUp for more sophisticated risk analysis and dynamic pension planning.

And that means that, having carefully assessed the risk awareness of a client, we can also give them a better understanding of actual risk and volatility.

How we provide the service is down to you – you may require a regular clinic or a bespoke service. We are also happy to talk at seminar on a variety of topics, from general advice to specific topical subjects.

If you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact Chris Pearce directly.

A topical example.


MYIMAGEABOUTUSAt a recent conference (October 2015) about investing for income, three different product providers made the case for ‘alternative’ assets as part of a multi-asset portfolio.

They discussed variance swaps and catastrophe bonds. And they could have included peer-to-peer (p2p) loans.

What all these have in common, but was not discussed, is that essentially all three are a form of underwriting- respectively, stock index volatility, catastrophic insurance risk and unsecured retail loans.

At the end of the conference I was thanked by the host for a series of questions concerning the stock index variance swaps that he was sure that he would not get at any of their other seminars around the country.

And while I may have been looking at index volatility for a long time, I also have subscribed to the news releases of the International Society of Catastrophe Managers for four years. You can also read two customer focused blogs on P2P investing here and here.

So that’s where I’m coming from. It’s important to be able to demonstrate to clients that in order for a product to do what it says on the tin, you know what’s in the tin.

And that’s also why I wrote our 5-model investment planner, SumItAllUp.

Chris Pearce, Director