Benchmarking

I think all investors understand that fortune did not favour the brave in 2011. In fact if you invested aggressively you probably lost money; Greece the sequel saw to that. However let’s remember that aggressive investors are handsomely rewarded in the good years.

So in a year like 2011, how do you know how your investment adviser (we) did? You look to see how your adviser performed relative to other advisers. That’s where the AFI index on Trustnet can be useful. To quote;

“The Adviser Fund Index is made up of the recommended portfolios of a panel of leading UK financial advisers. Based entirely on the funds actually recommended to clients, the AFI Aggressive, Balanced & Cautious portfolios carry real-life credibility, and provide insight in terms of the benefits of holding top quality funds.”

Click here to see the AFI methodologyClick here to see the AFI panelists

So here are the results for the preceding 12 months:

Click to see the AF Aggressive Index (Red Line A) versus our Aggressive Growth Portfolio (Blue Line B)
Click to see the AF Balanced Index (Red Line A) versus our Moderate Growth Portfolio (Blue Line B)
Click to see the AF Cautious Index (Red Line A) versus our Cautious Growth Portfolio (Blue Line B)

We are currently applying to the FSA to amend our permissions to include Discretionary Management. We will then have to benchmark our investment performance against our competitors once permission is granted, so we have been tracking the indices for 12 months now. These figures help to confirm our value for money but we understand that last year is history now.