Strategic Partners
We're free to choose
As "whole of market", fee charging advisers, we're free to choose from an unlimited number of portfolio options, funds, strategic partners and qualified professionals.
We remain entirely unbiased and independent, and we have no vested interests, commission or commercial relationships with any of the people we work with. The choices we make are based purely on our clients' best interests.
The strategic partners we work with provide access to leading economic research and portfolio expertise. They also provide better targeted funds in more desirable portions of the world's markets than those available to retail investors. The volumes of business we place with them result in better terms and lower charges which we pass on to you.
- Wealthtime Ltd
We have researched the services and fees of every UK 'wrap' manager, reviewing and comparing all aspects of their services including their charges, valuations, ease of administration, fund trading abilities and restrictions, online functionality and their service level agreements.
In review of the research we have conducted, we recommend Wealthtime Ltd as the Wrap Manager of your assets which hold your investment accounts. We believe Wealthtime are the most appropriate wrap provider for our clients assets for the following reasons:
- Wealthtime Ltd is financially strong, it is well funded with a strong balance sheet, no debts and has the resources to commit to you long-term.
- Wealthtime Ltd offers a full 'wrap' facility and provides access to every permitted investment available. (A 'Wrap' is a system that helps us to manage your assets effectiveley and efficiently whilst minimising costs to yourself).
- Administration costs are low for the size of your portfolio when compared to other providers.
- Wealthtime Ltd has computer systems which can deal with administration work efficiently and quickly.
- Wealthtime's charging structure is completely transparent, and is based on the value of your wrap. There is no minimum charge applied and you will not be charged for any transactions on your accounts.
For further information please visit www.wealthtime.co.uk
- Dimensional
So why choose Dimensional?
Dimensional is one of the largest independently owned institutional investment management firms in the world. Dedicated to managing investments on behalf of clients and operating in their best interests, they were rated by over 1,000 US investment advisors as the best overall company in the US fund management industry three years in a row.
Applying leading academic research to the practical world of investing, Dimensional is a pioneer in the field of passive institutional investments. Their portfolio structure is based on a close analysis of the sources of investment returns and the understanding of the factors that drive equity performance. Their strategies combine the broad diversification, low cost, and reliable asset class exposure of passive strategies and add value through engineering and trading.
Dimensional's investment management fees are positioned well below those of typical, traditional active managers. Their patient and price-conscious buy and hold approach to trading is designed to minimise costs.
Their broad array of global investment strategies offers carefully calibrated exposures to the full spectrum of key asset classes across dimensions of size, value, and geography, and is designed to maximise returns for a desired risk level. They impose strict adherence to specific parameters that help maintain reliable asset class exposures.
The importance of trust
Trust is the foundation of the relationship between Index Wealth Management as financial advisers and our clients. It often starts with a personal recommendation from some else that the client trusts, and then builds to a long term relationship developed over time.
When we make investment recommendations, it's often the case that clients like us to stay with key concepts and avoid the minutiae of specific products. This again is a demonstration of the trust that many clients have in us and our advice.
But trust in individuals is rarely enough. We believe that our clients should also place their faith in science, markets and capitalism. And this brings us back to what really sets Dimensional apart.
A special combination
So what is this key and distinctive thing about Dimensional? We believe that it's a rare combination of art and science that adds value through flexibility. Here's what we mean:
The scientific process
The science is the enduring bedrock that has cemented our shared belief in market efficiency and equilibrium. It has enabled Dimensional to manage frictional costs, and strengthened their knowledge of market dynamics such as liquidity and momentum effects.
The art of investing
The art, on the other hand, is about the judgement and skill needed to implement the science. Securities returns often produce noisy estimates, so cool judgement is needed to balance the tradeoffs that arise. This expertise is continually evolving. It's shown in how Dimensional engineer portfolios that consistently capture asset class returns while implementing patient trading practices, thoughtful security exclusion rules, prudent country selection criteria, and productive securities lending.
Flexibility - the bridge
The bridge between the science of capital markets and the art of investing at Dimensional is flexibility. Their experience in the field of risk dimensions means they can engineer portfolios with measured and efficient exposure to tangible risk factors. Trading flexibility mitigates the observed effects of momentum in stock prices, reduces trading costs through a patient approach that emphasises price over time of execution, and avoids the costly liquidity premiums paid by traditional index fund managers.
An impressive and consistent track record
Index managers often claim some elements of science - but they lack a component of investment art because of their inflexibility in slavishly structuring and trading portfolios with a singular focus on minimising tracking error.
Managers who actively pick stocks or time markets, on the other hand, can't legitimately call their approach scientific because they rely on prophecy and forecasts. Their process may be exclusively art with unconstrained flexibility, but it isn't the kind of productive flexibility that leads to the difference between securities with similar characteristics that's necessary to trade in a patient manner.
Too much flexibility can be reckless and destructive. But when it's bound by structure and broad diversification, it's empowering.
The end result of the approach that Dimensional takes is an impressive and consistent track record of results. And that improves the odds of a successful investment experience for our clients.
Improving the odds
Dimensional's focus on investing rather than forecasting, combined with a clearly defined approach and transparent process, has generated reliable asset class exposure, with virtually no style drift, that's more consistent over time than the approach taken either by traditional active or index managers.
In a product-driven industry that's based on the conventional classifications of active or passive, Dimensional has chosen a different path for nearly three decades.
This can seem risky to people who are overly sensitive to short-term results. But Dimensional have stayed true to their principles, and their belief that the science of capital markets and the evolving application of the art of investing, coupled with the value of flexibility, is in the client's best long-term interest.
We believe that too - and that's why we partner with them.
For further information please visit www.dfaeurope.com - Lombard
Index Wealth Management recommend Lombard International as one of the most appropriate Offshore Investment Bond manager for our clients' objectives.
Our clients have a clear long term growth strategy for their investments, and it is unlikely that this could be met by investing in funds from just one fund manager. Crucially, the Lombard International Private Client Portfolio Investment Bond offers clients access to funds from virtually any of the world's leading fund managers, so portfolios can be individually tailored across a range of geographic and economic sectors, and differing investment themes. This is important as we recommend that our clients invest in a diverse portfolio of institutional grade asset class funds, in line with their Investment Plan.
Clients are free to change the investment funds within their Lombard Investment Bond at any time with tax efficiency and administrative simplicity.
Index Wealth Management believe that the charges payable under the Lombard Investment Bond are competitive in the offshore market, and offer good value for money in view of the administration service and investor protection provided by Lombard and the flexibility that clients are able to exercise over their portfolio.
Investor Protection
For clients investing large amounts, this is one of the most important aspects and is one of the main reasons for Luxembourg's success. Luxembourg offers the following.
- A very stable political environment
- The wealthiest country per head in the world
- It properly met the Maastricht criteria for entry into the Euro
- An economy based on financial services - the fund industry now ranks second only to the US in terms of mutual funds
- A highly regulated environment
Each insurance company must enter an agreement with the state and a custodian bank. All assets are held by the custodian bank (which must be based in the EU and so is highly regulated) in separate custodian accounts. This structure is then monitored by the Luxembourg state. In the unlikely event that a life company cannot meet its liabilities, the Luxembourg Government will have control over 100% of clients' assets. Also they agree to keep the policies in force for the rest of their terms - preventing the need to surrender at an inconvenient time for tax planning purposes.
For these reasons we believe Luxembourg offers the strongest level of protection. Please see the Luxembourg triangle for further information: Luxembourg Triangle
- Royal Skandia
Index Wealth Management recommend Royal Skandia as one of the most appropriate Offshore Investment Bond manager for our clients' objectives.
Royal Skandia is part of Skandia Insurance Company Limited, the world's second largest unit-linked assurance company. Skandia was set up in Sweden in 1855 and is the largest company on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Skandia has worldwide assets under their financial management of over £60 billion. Royal Skandia has over £3 billion of assets under management.
Royal Skandia works from the tax-efficient location of the Isle of Man. The offshore investments they offer grow tax-efficiently, as offshore-based life-assurance companies are not currently liable to any form of income tax or capital gains tax on policyholders' funds. This means more of your money will stay in the fund and you will get higher capital growth.
The Isle of Man is an established offshore investment centre with a stable and independent legal, political and regulatory framework. The Isle of Man Government Insurance and Pensions Authority regulates all life assurance companies based on the island, controls the type of business carried on there, and imposes detailed requirements for reporting.
In recognition of the Isle of Man's status as the leading offshore base, in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 the readers of International Money Marketing voted the island Best Offshore Financial Services Centre.
People who have policies issued by Royal Skandia are not protected by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme. However, the Isle of Man has a compensation scheme for offshore life-assurance companies, so you will benefit from a high level of protection. The compensation scheme has resulted from the Life Assurance (Compensation of Policyholders) Regulations 1991, which protect all investors who took out their policies on or after 1 February 1991.
People investing in policies issued by Isle of Man life assurance companies are protected worldwide. If Royal Standia cannot meet its liabilities, this compensation scheme will protect you. The scheme offers compensation of up to 90% of the value of your policies and there is no upper limit.
For further information please visit www.skandiainternational.com