Poor fund performance? Need a new Financial Adviser?

Are you the victim of poor fund performance? Is your investment portfolio continually falling to produce the returns you expected or were promised? Perhaps you have an underperforming pension fund and are worried about meeting your needs at retirement?

You may be surprised to learn that during the five year period from January 2009 until January 2014, across four IMA (Investment Management Association) sectors: Mixed investment 20-60% shares, mixed investment 40-85% shares, flexible investment and global investment; a total of £78.7 billion of investors money was held in below average funds. The total cost to investors in these four sectors was a staggering £19.8 billion over the 5 year period.

In 2013 a report from broker Bestinvest claimed that more than £30 billion of pension savings were languishing in funds that were suffering from poor fund performance. The company said there were 113 pension funds, each with assets of more than £2.5 million that had consistently failed savers. These funds had been shown to underperform the index they were supposed to out grow by more than 10% over 3 years; even worse were “dog funds” whose poor fund performance was to the extent that they had underperformed their rivals by in excess of 20% over the past decade.

• Would you be satisfied if your investments were left in these underperforming funds?

• Would you expect your adviser to inform you if you were invested in these underperforming funds?

The reasons for finding yourself invested in poor performing funds can be varied; much will depend on who has been appointed with the responsibility of ensuring your investment portfolio, or pension, is regularly reviewed and on track to meet your objectives. If you have assumed responsibility for this yourself, well then the buck stops there I am afraid!..But.. if your money has been entrusted to a professional adviser, such as your pension provider or your Financial Adviser, then you should rightly be asking the question: Why?

The fact remains that the most common reason for poor fund performance arises from a failure to carry out or receive regular reviews of your investments. This may be as a result of losing contact with your original Financial Adviser or from a lack of contact from your current Financial Adviser or pension provider. In the case that you do posses the expertise to have assumed the responsibility of this task for yourself, perhaps you have simply suffered from being unable to allocate sufficient time to ensure that this task is carried out methodically and with regularity.

The difficult economic climate over recent years has emphasised just how quickly things can change – and so what might be the best place for your money today, may not be the right place tomorrow. Without ensuring your investments are reviewed on a regular basis, your portfolio may start to underperform and deliver lower returns than you could otherwise have achieved.

With such a wide variety of choices of where and how to invest, together with the requirement to ensure the performance of your money is regularly monitored, it is understandable why many see investing as such a daunting prospect. Whilst investing will always involve an element of risk, and guarantees will be hard to find; by working with a Financial Adviser you can trust and depend on, you can have confidence that your best interests will always be looked after – which includes ensuring you are not sat languishing in underperforming funds

The First Equitable commitment to our clients

• As our name suggest, we are committed to providing you with the very best solutions that put your needs first 100% of the time.
• Our business is built on trust and providing exceptional service; we will continue to deliver you with strong support and expert guidance at every step of the our journey together.
• We will take the time to gain a full understanding of your individual financial needs and goals and help you to correctly determine your appetite for risk and reward.
• Whilst the past performance of any investment we recommend is always something we consider – as part of our wider due diligence process – our focus is always forward driven when it comes to selecting the best investments. This approach helps us to ensure we continue to select investments with the most potential to deliver you the best possible returns.

If your investment portfolio or pension fund is suffering from poor fund performance, or if you have lost contact with your Financial Adviser, don’t suffer in silence; take the first positive step towards rectifying the situation today by completing our quick contact form.

A member of our experienced team will then contact you to arrange your free financial review, which will include a follow up report detailing any recommended action where appropriate.

Please note that all investments involve risk, and there is no guarantee that any investment strategies will achieve the desired results under all market conditions. Each investor will therefore need to ensure they understand their individual risk profile and capacity for loss before purchasing any investments or entering into any contracts. Past performance should not be relied upon as an indicator for future returns; you may get back less than you invested.

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