Investment Committee Update – September 2022

The Integrity365 Investment Committee met in September 2022, with the economic landscape having not improved much since our previous meeting in June.

Inflation, and the measures being taken by central banks to combat it, remains the primary threat with the rising cost of living causing great hardship for many families. Regrettably, it looks like more pain is to come with the need to raise interest rates quicker and higher than was originally forecasted by the markets. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the global economy and closer to home. We remain confident in the long-term prospects of the global financial markets, but it looks like volatility will remain in the short term.

This quarter, the Investment Committee was joined by one of our new advisers, Sophie Haslehurst, to get to know more about how we work and to share her own insights. Sophie has over 10 years’ experience in the industry across a variety of roles, and adds another dimension to the team. She has some particularly detailed knowledge in the arena of tax-efficient investments, and we are sure she will make a valuable contribution.

The role of the Investment Committee centres around developing and overseeing the firm’s investment philosophy, and a key part of this is the selection and monitoring of investment solutions. As part of our regular review of the solutions that comprise our Centralised Investment Proposition, we monitor their risk level and risk-adjusted performance. This quarter, we found that a number of the solutions had moved from one risk level to another, and we make sure to track these movements so that when advisers are recommending investment products to clients they can ensure the risk profile is appropriate and in line with that agreed.

We also noted the continued under-performance, relative to benchmark, of two of our current approved solutions, and agreed a couple of actions. For one of these solutions, we are in the process of arranging to speak with the fund manager to better understand the poor performance, with the view of possible further measures taking place. In respect of the second, due to a sustained period of under-performance and in light of the fact that there are many other alternatives available in this space, we have placed the fund on our ‘hold’ list. This means that no new investments will be placed in this fund without good reason.

There are some key areas that the Committee will be shortly conducting a detailed review of, including: Discretionary Fund Manager solutions; Managed Portfolio Service solutions; fund solutions. These will be wide ranging reviews of the marketplace in all three areas, where we will look at our existing views and offerings to see if they remain appropriate. The investment landscape changes on a regular basis, and we periodically conduct detailed reviews to ensure that we are abreast of any key changes and that our investment proposition is the best it can
possibly be.