Welcome

Welcome to the first of my Quarterly Updates through 2021 to keep you updated with the world of financial and investment planning and Richmond House. Obviously last year was unlike any we have experienced before, and the beginning of 2021 still finds us all in lockdown but with an expectation of large-scale vaccinations and the hope of an early Spring. There are four key areas, I would like to address in this edition.

Investment Prospects

Equity markets continued to rally in December and finished 2020 strongly, with news surrounding the arrival and potential roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines continuing to boost investor sentiment. Boris Johnson also delivered the long-promised gift of a Brexit deal with the European Union. However, near-term headwinds still exist, with renewed winter lockdowns, country-specific spikes in virus cases, new variants of the disease and the logistics of a vaccine roll-out acting as a restraining influence on markets and investor sentiment.

Although consumer confidence and business investment may take time to fully return, the direction of travel is slightly more positive. An improved cycle of corporate earnings growth can be expected in 2021 with continued accommodative policy measures and extensive support schemes from central banks and governments.

Richmond House Group

The sale of the business last year and the acquisition of Carnelian Capital has created a business which looks after £290m of your funds. This is a huge responsibility, and we are committed to ensuring that you feel a valued client providing a service and advice which builds your financial plan into reality or, for our corporate clients, provides your staff with the employee benefits they deserve.

As ever, we continue to review our business practices and processes to enhance our proposition and how we interact with clients and the regulator. The investment of IWP in the business will result in improved IT, access to a wider range of compliance and support services and the funds to finance further strategic acquisitions across Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Our Service

We have taken key parts of both the Richmond House and Carnelian service propositions and have harmonised them to enhance a client experience. Over the coming months, at your next review meeting, your planner will be able to talk through the changes such as a new Valuation Document which provides a richer level of information and detail.

We have spent some time, refining and revising our policy for Vulnerable Clients as undoubtedly the pandemic has meant we have a greater duty of care for both our staff and clients. Once again, if appropriate your planner will discuss the greater safeguards you have if your circumstances have changed because of Covid or any aspect of your life which has been disrupted.

Richmond House Investment Management

Our wholesale review of the business is demonstrated by the decision to bring Bordier in to run our Managed Portfolio Service.

In terms of investment performance, strong gains were delivered across all Richmond House mandates for the month of December, outperforming underlying benchmarks.

With an improving economic outlook, the Investment Committee agreed to increase risk exposure, within tolerances, across all strategies during December. Capital held in ‘cash’ has been redeployed through the introduction of thematic and global sector exposure. This will be generated via investments in the Ninety-One Global Environment and Legg Mason Global Infrastructure funds. The Investment Committee feel these sectors are best placed to capitalise on recent global policy shifts in Europe (European Green Deal), China (carbon neutral policy by 2060) and the US (Biden’s presidential election victory).

Overall, this concludes what has been a positive second half to 2020. Back in June, changes were made to asset allocation methodology and portfolio fund selection. These changes have delivered significant improvements in portfolio performance across all Richmond House strategies and we hope to build on this as we enter 2021.

Final words

It goes without saying, we are working towards a new normal but importantly we are a business that is resilient, demand for good quality financial planning advice has never been stronger and our aim is to ensure we grow both organically and by acquisition without losing our core values and client-centric philosophy.

Should you have any comments or questions, please get in touch with your usual contact but equally take this as a personal invitation to get in touch with me directly.

Regards

Jonathan Howard MA (Hons) AFPS

Chief Executive Officer
jhoward@richmondhousewm.co.uk