Lowes Magazine Issue 120

COMMENT

Pricing pressure YOU WILL BE AWARE THAT ENERGY PRICES are soaring – if you haven’t yet felt it, you will. If you do the weekly shopping, you’ll have felt the impact of price increases there and have no doubt seen signs of some shortages beyond

There are understandably, those that feel strongly that civilization’s efforts should be focused on trying to repair our own planet, rather than trying to find the next place to live. On that front, I am hoping also that governments of the world will do our planet proud as they meet in Glasgow for the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference between 31 October and 12 November. The evidence is overwhelming that we need to change how we utilise the Earth’s resources if we are to tackle climate change and sustain an ever-growing human population. This subject has become a major focus of investment houses with 129 ‘responsible investment funds’ having been launched in the past four years. With a plethora of terms banded about – ethical, sustainable, responsible, ESG – which can mean different things to different people, unfortunately, there have been found to be incidents of ‘greenwashing’ where marketing material over eggs the responsible investment credentials of a fund. If you wish to consider a more ethical bias for your investment portfolio, be sure to talk to us – we have two discretionary managed, ethical portfolios which undergo regular screening by our investment committee to ensure they are the ‘right shade of green’.

those at the forecourts. These are all going to have an impact on you. We went to press with this issue before the release of the latest inflation figures but even without them, look at the figures for the twelve months to the end of August in the middle of the previous page. Inflation is a threat to your wealth and hedging out its impact is one of the primary reasons why people need to invest. Whilst it constantly nibbles away, often going unnoticed, it is currently taking big bites out of peoples’ savings. Even if it does only peak short term, what it takes won’t ever be given back. A year of 4% inflation and 1% interest sees 3% of deposit capital gone, for no benefit. That is why we must invest. When it comes to investment advice, I’m very proud to say that we are really good at it. You don’t have to take my word for it, it has been the view of successive panels of judges in the annual Money Marketing Awards who have identified Lowes as the Best Investment Advice Firm in the UK for the third time in four years. And then there’s the 97% of respondents to our last client satisfaction survey who rated our investment advice to be ‘good’ or ‘very good’. While focused on investment, there is no doubt that our success is thanks to the various constituent parts of the Lowes team working together and acting in the best interests of our clients. It also is testament to the benefits of Independent Financial Advice, a philosophy that allows us to use investments from across the market in our client portfolios. I hope all of this provides an extra layer of confidence that your personal finances are in the very best of hands. In other news, William Shatner has finally boldly gone where few men, and none as old as him, have gone before, but many will follow. The space race is definitely on! The world’s billionaires – Branson, Bezos and Musk – are turning science fiction into science fact. It won’t be long before space related investment opportunities are innumerable, and I can see potential for such to turn into another historic bubble akin to the Railway Mania of the 1840’s.

Ian H Lowes, Managing Director

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