Our Investment Philosophy
Our investment philosophy is driven by the objective of creating a tailored portfolio to suit each client and their particular needs. Our portfolios are constructed in collaboration with our clients, where desired, to ensure our clients understand what they are invested in and are comfortable with those investments.
Our style of investing is designed to achieve a tax effective outcome to maximise the 'real', or actual return to investors.
We try to keep things as simple as possible for our clients by managing what we can with particular attention on diversification, asset allocation, risks and minimising costs, such as taxes.
We are guided by the following principles:
- We invest for an after-tax return
- We take no more risk than is required to meet a client's goals and objectives
- We invest for the long term to minimise transaction costs and reduce tax liability for clients
- We invest primarily in dividend (income) focussed investments. Income from shares has tended to grow in a far more predictable way than share prices
- Efficient implementation to create a cost effective portfolio (an efficient cost portfolio increases the returns for our clients)
- Diversification leads to more reliable investment outcomes
- It is important to us that our clients have an understanding of what they are invested in and why
- Where appropriate we utilise a core portfolio of direct investments. If required we utilise fund manager expertise to diversify a client's portfolio where due to costs or other constraints, holding direct investments is not possible.
We rely on external expertise as an input into our processes, however we take responsibility for our strategies, recommendations and investments.
Our Personal Insurance Philosophy
Our personal insurance philosophy is based on replacing personal exertion income, so that in the event of unforeseen death, serious illness or injury to a member of the family or partnership, life from a financial viewpoint can continue with minimal financial impact.
There are a number of options regarding each of the following cover types:
- Income Protection - in the event of injury or illness and the life insured is unable to work, they could be paid a monthly benefit of up to 75% of their income to replace lost earnings
- Critical Illness (Trauma) - in the event of a major injury or illness (as defined by the contract) to the life insured a lump sum is paid to cover expenses and other costs associated with the trauma
- Life Insurance - pays a lump sum upon death of the life insured
- Total and Permanent Disability - pays a lump sum when the life insured is totally and permanently disabled (as defined by the contract)
- Through the combined expertise of AFS and our professional partners, we can advise on the best way of structuring your insurance so that it is in line with your overall financial strategy.