ABN AMRO Craigs investment philosophy combines the best elements of investment theory with our clients’ needs and goals.
Safety First
- We believe in ‘protecting capital’ first and ‘building capital’ second.
This is about balancing investment diversification and risk management. Having a balanced portfolio is the only prudent and proven way of maintaining real value and protecting against unforeseen risks. We also recommend investment in companies with strong financial positions (who do not carry high levels of debt).
Minimise Costs
- We believe in cost-efficient solutions to maximise returns.
Some investments available have hidden layers of cost. Costs affect long-term returns. The solution is to invest directly in the markets or where appropriate, in cost-efficient investment funds to ensure that your returns are maximised. We are careful not to overpay for investments – and choose to invest in attractively-priced securities rather than following trends and potentially overpaying for a market favourite.
Quality Thresholds
- We believe in high quality and impose rigorous quality tests.
Across fixed interest, property and equities, our guiding principle is quality. Every security considered must measure up to our quality tests. This allows us to filter out the vast majority of investments on offer around the world and research only the very best available. High-quality bonds and shares provide investors with a higher degree of comfort and ultimately, higher returns.
Fixed Interest
- Strong consideration is given to the credit quality of the issuer.
This ensures security of payment of both interest and principal upon maturity and the liquidity of the security. We prefer to invest in negotiable debt securities as this meets our criteria for liquidity, enabling exit should we believe the security no longer meets your needs or is no longer attractive under our ‘buy-and-monitor' approach.
Equities
- We focus on the track record of the company or fund, specifically:
- Past returns for investors
- Their dividend record
- Their corporate standing
- Quality of their management
- Defensiveness of the company’s or fund’s investment strategy
Our clients’ portfolios are tailored to their specific needs so that their investments best suit their circumstances.
Maximise Cash Flow
- We believe in seeking investments that generate high levels of free cash flow as in our view a portfolio is only as good as the cash flow it generates.
Dividends
Dividends are therefore especially important within share portfolios.
They provide transparency, a margin of safety and over the longer term, income growth.
Bonds
Bonds are also an important component within a portfolio, providing increased stability of returns and income. Within bonds we protect income in two ways:
- Firstly by selecting fixed interest instruments with good credit quality; and
- Secondly by investing in a laddered portfolio.
This involves investing across bonds with a range of maturity dates to provide surety of income, irrespective of interest rate movements.
Buy and Monitor Approach
- We believe in building and preserving wealth through long-term investment portfolios.
We aim to keep buy and sell decisions to a minimum as we believe excessive trading can be detrimental to the interests of investors, as it raises costs and increases the risk of under-performing the market. We therefore advocate a buy-and-monitor approach.
We believe markets are efficient most of the time. Therefore a buy-and-monitor approach will maximise returns over the long term. There are however, occasions when markets become extremely mis-priced. In monitoring this we can both reduce risk or maximise opportunities within portfolios.
Our quality and value approach ensures we avoid ‘flavour of the moment’ investments, which can be unpredictable and often result in under-performance.
The fact that you are reading this web page tells us you have a sense of direction and goals you would like to reach. These circumstances are unique to you. A one-size-fits-all approach to investing just doesn’t get the best results.
Our philosophy is therefore to work in partnership with you to make the future YOU want. Together we will make a difference to your life.