Author: Matthew Carson

We all want the best possible results from our investments. At BRB, we believe that there are FIVE important principles that need to be considered in order to make suitable and effective investment decisions; 1) Portfolio Structure. The key to long term investment success is identifying the risks that are actually worth taking and to combine them in order to create a robust and effective investment portfolio. 2) Diversified Portfolios. By spreading an investment across a range of different funds, … Read More

All financial advice firms have basic investment beliefs which act as a framework when making investment decisions for clients. Our investment philosophy has been developed through a clear view of how we perceive that capital markets work. Listing all of our investment beliefs would make for a lot of reading, however there are some concepts that we consider to be particularly important: Capitalism Works. Through capitalism, investors are rewarded for either owning companies (equities) or lending money (bonds). As an … Read More

It is inevitable that world issues will affect your investments. Examples in the world today are the Syrian& Ukrainian conflicts which could potentially have a negative effect on your investment performance. Is it time to come out of the market and wait for the storm to pass before re-investing? Our answer to this question is no. If you were to withdraw all the money out of your investments when ‘experts’ stated that the markets were ‘about to fall’, this would … Read More

Financial Planning is an on-going process that helps you to make sensible decisions when it comes to money. These decisions consequently help you to achieve your financial goals in life. Take the typical new BRB client. They are in their 50’s and looking to retire sometime in the next decade. They have a collection of pensions/investments which they are aware of – but they do not really understand how they can properly benefit from the policies both leading up to … Read More

“Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to make something simple.”– Richard Branson With the amount of financial decisions we make throughout our lives, as well as the vast amount of financial products there are in the UK, it is easy to see why many people feel overwhelmed when faced with the idea of “sorting out” their financial situation. Many factors make financial planning seem more complicated than it is. In the first instance … Read More

At BRB, we cannot stress the importance of planning enough – especially in the world of finance. We often meet people who have investments in place that aren’t really suitable for their needs. One of the main reasons for this is that they haven’t properly identified what their financial goals are. As the old saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know when you’ve got there?” It’s important to understand that no two financial plans … Read More

Although we would argue that Financial Planning is relevant to everybody, we find that many of the couples we meet have one person who deals with the finances. If this person was to pass away, the survivor would have to deal with the financial affairs of the household, causing additional worry and distress at exactly the wrong time. A major part of our ‘value added’ is that partners of our clients have someone they can trust if the other person … Read More

At BRB, we want all of our clients to reach a ripe old age without any regrets. We don’t want our clients to be in the latter years of their life and worrying whether or not they should have spent more when they were younger, whether they should have gifted more money to their children or whether they could have afforded that special holiday ten years ago. This is why we believe in financial planning. Our advisers can help you … Read More

The autumn season has served up some of the most dramatic market events in history. Black Monday, when global stock markets began a 20 per cent decline, was on October 19th 1987. Black Wednesday, when the pound crashed out of the ERM, was September 16th 1992. Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and triggered the most acute phase of the recent financial crisis on the 15th September 2008. At times, this autumn has felt like those dark days. US shares slipped … Read More

How we invest isn’t too exciting. So it’s good that we don’t want it to be! If you want your kicks in life, it’s better to look elsewhere. Hurtling to the ground whilst doing a bungee jump is an adrenaline rush, but you can be sure that you won’t get the same rush as your investment values hurtle towards zero because you have followed the latest ‘hot investment tip’. Investing done right should be like watching paint dry or watching … Read More