There are a few levels on which maintenance occurs.
The start of anything we do is to review the latest research and evidence. We then decide whether we need to make changes to any of our processes. This ensures they prudently reflect the latest thinking. When we say the latest thinking, we do not mean shorter-term market outlooks and forecasts. We mean widely accepted evidence on how to invest. This is quite a slow process and changes tend to be small over time. The widely accepted evidence is that chopping and changing and moving a portfolio around doesn’t work. Instead, any portfolio advice we give reflects our understanding of market risks and their expected compensation over the longer term.
We constantly monitor our portfolios to assess whether they are performing how we would expect them to. If they are not, we find out why and work out whether this means we should advise our clients to make any changes.
At a lower level, we regularly review the funds we recommend to make sure they are doing the job they are meant to be doing. We also continually look at the market to find out whether there are any doing that job better.
Finally, we regularly recommend to our clients that they rebalance their portfolios back to their original structure. This ensures that the risk they are taking is stable. Tax consequences of portfolio changes are always part of the issues we consider we always discuss the best route with each client.
