38 Years and Counting

This month I celebrate 38 years since the beginning of my career. In the beginning it was purely a sales job. Armed with a suit and a rate book, I was unleashed on the great British public to spread the gospel according to Abbey Life. I was taught to sell savings plans and life assurance plans. With a little further training and an additional rate book my sales repertoire extended to “personal retirement plans” the fore-runner to personal pensions which arrived in 1988. And so it was for 10 years.

I’m proud to say that some of those initial clients are still with me today. Thank you;

Rory, Ruth, Mo, Stuart, Joan, Ruth, Dek, Janet, Tony, Robert, Belinda, John, Roy, Kim, Brian, Julie, Ken, Geri, John, Chris, Diane, John, Philip, Graeme, Wendy, John & Andy.

I lost my insurance company religion when I realised that Abbey Life was making more money than the policyholders were and became an Independent Financial Adviser in 1997. If you want to read the full career backstory you can read it here.

Privatisations.

When I joined Abbey Life, Margaret Thatcher was our Prime Minister. She was re-elected with a manifesto to sell off state owned monopolies. She dreamed of turning ordinary citizens into an army of private shareholders. Thatcher vowed no industry should remain in private ownership. Do you remember the TV advertisements to, “Tell Sid” that British Gas was to be privatised?

Those privatisations left a lasting impression on me. I managed to invest £100 here and £100 there and made a profit in the short term. I couldn’t hold on to those shares for the long term unfortunately as there were mortgages to be paid, and children to be brought up. I’ve no regrets, but……

A little recent research revealed that if you invested £1000 in British Gas on flotation –” in 2023 you would now have £40,600, of which £24,400 is due to dividends being reinvested to buy more British Gas shares”.

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What’s all the fuss about?

Haters gotta hate

By now you probably all understand I am not a fan of the economic and social policies of this UK Government. To be fair I didn’t like most of the last shower’s either. Two sides of the same global agenda coin, putting global ideology before the people. I am unapologetically a Capitalist. I believe that capitalism works. It may be flawed, more rewards tend to end up going up the ladder than down, but it has proven to be the system that has lifted over 2 billion people around the world and counting, out of poverty. Socialism, Marxism, Command Capitalism all impoverish the masses, if not, then the price an individual pays is the loss of freedom.

So from a political point of view I do hate any ideology which impoverishes and removes personal freedoms. Which brings me to the position UK citizens currently find themselves in with this iteration of democratic government.

The UK economy is in a bit of a pickle.

As someone who is deeply interested in the future prospects of governments, economies and companies (we have the wealth of 200 families sat on our shoulders) I do read extensively and try to keep that reading balanced. I’m a capitalist and yet I will read articles in The Guardian to maintain that balance. Ultimately I source material from individuals with “skin in the game”, money on the line, rather than graduate journalists or editors with chips on their shoulders.

To cut to the chase, UK governments have already borrowed too much, and investors who hold that debt are worried. There was a time when investors in UK Government debt were domestic in nature. Large UK investment funds and UK pension funds especially. But over time that domestic loyalty has waned. A typical UK pension fund only holds the minimum mandatory level of UK gilts to remain within the law. Those funds have also reduced their holding of UK listed shares from around 40% to, wait for it, now just 4%! The Chancellor is currently trying to force UK pension funds to invest more. Watch this space.

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2024 Performance Review

A Happy New Year to all of our clients. We hope 2025 brings you all that you wish for. Here’s how each of our managed portfolios performed against our industry benchmarks over the last 12 months. I’m happy to say we beat all of our industry benchmarks once again.

Portfolio12 month Performance
H.J.Scott & Co Cautious Portfolio7.98%
ARC Sterling Cautious PCI TR4.37%
IA Sector Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares7.81%

“Very few clients are invested in our Cautious Portfolio. Trying to remain cautious in such a challenging investment environment, whilst giving a meaningful return over simply holding cash, remains a difficult proposition. I’m pleased to say we have beaten both our industry benchmarks (only just) and a cash only return too.”

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