Investments News & Insights

Associate Director and Financial Adviser, Christina Brady talks about Blacktower Financial Management in Spain and the work she and her team carry out on a day-to-day basis.

Increasing numbers of investors are motivated to put their money into ethically and ecologically minded investments. This is undoubtedly an admirable aim, however, investors who fail to take adequate international financial advice risk becoming vulnerable to scammers looking to prey on their good intentions.

This fact has recently been underlined with the conviction and sentencing of five men for their operation of a multi-million pound fraudulent eco-investment scheme; a scheme which has been described by HM Revenue & Customs as one of the largest of its kind to be carried out in the UK.

For all but the highest net worth individuals, a pension pot will be the most valuable retirement asset in the long-term financial plan. Despite this, many retirement savers take a passive approach to pension planning and ultimately fail to realise the benefits of considering all the options and opportunities available to them.

One such opportunity is to transfer pension savings into a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) and then drawdown to access your money.

But what exactly is a drawdown pension, and what should you be mindful of when considering pension drawdown options?

There is a lot I have learned over more than three decades in the financial services industry and while this period of managing client investments was made possible by my education and enthusiasm, the years have taught me that there is no substitute for experience. There is a big difference between knowing something theoretically and having first-hand, practical experience of it.

However, another side of my experience has been as a financial planning "firefighter"; learning, after the event, from the experiences of others, typically those clients who come to me a little crestfallen or embarrassed as a result of losses or stagnation caused by regrettable investment decisions.

This week we look at what the recent re-election of the Socialists in Portugal means for expats and foreign visitors.

While Prime Minister Antonio Costa may be jubilant, it is likely that he will continue to rely on the investment and economic stimulation generated by foreign citizens and expats if he is to help the country keep its spiralling debt under control.

Many British pensioners enjoy healthy private pensions or have built up substantial savings that more than meet their day to day living needs. It is not surprising then to learn that about one in ten elects to gift part of their savings to their grandchildren, with average gifts amounting to £15,000 according to a survey by OneFamily.

To make the most of the rest of the year, one important wealth management question you should be asking yourself now is how diversified do you need your investment portfolio to be.

You could follow this with more questions: are you invested in a single country or region? What about industry sectors? And how is the mix of your asset types looking?

These questions, and your answers to them, can help you review and build your investing strategy so that you can provide for your retirement objectives. Having an understanding of some of the theory behind a good strategy is a good place to start.

Investment management is the practice of buying, selling, and trading financial assets, with the intention of securing a greater return than the amount paid in. Not everybody is experienced in understanding how investment management works, so it’s important to consult a financial advisor if you’re uncertain.

Good investment management is about looking after your money and will involve finding the investment style to suit your character and risk tolerance as well as your overarching retirement financial goals.

One aspect of this process is finding the right balance of growth stocks v value stocks for your portfolio - but what are they? Below we take a look at the difference between value and growth stocks, and their relevance to successful investment management.