Lowes Magazine 122

COMMENT

Making the right decisions IT SEEMS INCONCEIVABLE THAT IN THE THREE short months since the last issue of the Lowes magazine, we are experiencing the effects of an invasion in Europe. The defiance and courage of the Ukrainian people is something to behold, and our thoughts are with all those suffering as result of this war. There has been an inevitable effect on global stockmarkets and individual economies, which is likely to continue, as they each adjust to these events.

investment universe, because for us it is about finding the best investments and putting our clients’ interests front and centre, where they should be. We are also always looking at ways we can enhance our client services. Most recently, we have been developing web and mobile app-based solutions to give clients new ways to see their investments. Whilst as mentioned above we would caution against portfolio watching, if you would like to be amongst the first to access our latest digital solutions, please get in touch. As I write, the inflation figures to the end of March have just been released. At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, I can only emphasise the risk that inflation represents. The traditional measure, the Retail Prices Index, reflects price rises over the last year of a staggering 9%. At a time when money held ‘safely’ in a bank has earned, say 1%, this means that £100,000 of deposit capital is now worth £8,000 less than it was a year ago. Therefore, anything you do in terms of investing, to help lessen this impact on your overall wealth, is a step worth taking. If you know someone who could benefit from Lowes expertise and our unique approach to investment management, we always welcome referrals so please do not hesitate to put them in touch.

I would stress again, that in such times, when it comes to your investments it is important to stay calm and not react to the media hype, but to see the bigger picture, so that no rushed, and potentially regretted, actions are taken. If we look at some of the major events over the past three decades – the 1987 stockmarket crash, the dotcom bubble, the Iraq Wars, the Financial Crisis, and others, we can see that they did not stop good businesses trading and while stockmarkets may have faltered for a short time, they have continued to rise after every event. The course of action that has stood the test of time is to accept that volatility happens and to have in place a solid, sound strategy of investment diversification combined with a longer-term view of wealth building. This is the pragmatic path we encourage our clients to follow to deal with these times and it is no surprise to us that research shows investors who have the support of an Independent Financial Adviser are those that fare better when negative stockmarket events occur. This is because part of our role is to help take any worry away, which is why we have always cautioned against portfolio watching – instead, we recommend leaving investments to do their job of building wealth over the medium to long-term. The breadth and depth of expertise we have at Lowes and the passion of our people to do the very best at all times for our clients, is something of which I am very proud. We are a team now of close to 100 people with a deep and diverse range of specialisms and expertise, all dedicated to providing the best possible service to our clients. Many advice firms limit the investments they allow their advisers to recommend, this is referred to as ‘restricted’ advice. While this can be more profitable for those firms, we remain staunchly ‘independent’ in our approach, spending the time to research across the

Ian H Lowes, Managing Director

4 Lowes.co.uk