We believe in playing to our strengths and focus in house on two particular areas of investment – namely UK ‘blue chip’ equities and global ‘investment grade’ bonds. We do not believe it is credible that any one investment house can realistically claim to have top-level expertise in all global markets, or in all types of product. As a result we select third party funds for all other investment areas.

Having established your attitude to risk, your income requirements, benchmarks and any investment restrictions, we then start to construct your portfolio using our 'Building Block' approach.

The three Building Blocks are:

• Higher Risk Assets
  Equities, long dated bonds, private equity funds, commodities, hedge funds and any asset (including cash) held outside the currency of the account.
  
• Medium Risk Assets
  Bonds (more than 5 years to maturity) rated A or better and certain investment grade bonds.
  
• Lower Risk Assets
  Short dated (less than 5 years to maturity) bonds rated A or better and cash in the currency of the account.

The proportion of your portfolio in each Building Block is based on our assessment of the relative attractions of the different asset classes in meeting your objectives. Each Building Block will hold the most appropriate equities, bonds or funds and your portfolio will be regularly reviewed to determine whether the mix of asset classes should be altered to reflect changing economic circumstances.