"Knowledge and vision are key to our success"
Miles Moseley tells LINDA GREEN about the launch of Balkerne Asset Management.
10th August 2009 saw the launch of "Balkerne Asset Management", a new name in Colchester. Formerly an integral part of Capel Court plc, Balkerne Asset Management is now an independent entity, operating from its own offices at 1 Balkerne Hill, Colchester.
Balkerne Asset Management offers discretionary portfolio management services for clients of independent financial advisers (IFAs) and wealth managers. With a team of experienced and qualified investment professionals, who constantly monitor and manage portfolios in all market conditions, it is the partner of choice for financial professionals who require full-time, cost-effective and compliant discretionary portfolio management.
"Our clients know they are getting a specialist team who will work with and for them." Balkerne Asset Management Investment Director Miles Moseley tells me. "We keep clients informed. Whenever we make a change to their portfolios, we explain what we have done and why we have done it. We also publish a regular resource called Market Outlook, in which we outline our thoughts on the economy, and give our view on what's happening in the financial world."
I put Miles to the test and ask what he does see happening next. "We see further upside in world stock markets, as economic activity continues to pick up and cash comes back into the market" he happily informs me. "In the UK it's going to surprise people because consumer spending will surprise on the upside."
Balkerne Asset Management owes much of its success to its formal planning process. "We start by interpreting economic conditions and compare our results with what others involved in the markets are saying" explains Miles. "From that we create an asset allocation strategy, which we aim to follow over the next six to eighteen months, and construct portfolios around that strategy according to risk. However, because flexibility and adaptability are essential, we also review and adjust these plans month by month."
Balkerne Asset Management offers three main types of portfolios: Individual Savings Accounts, a Managed (collective) Funds Service and the "Rolls-Royce" Managed Stockbroking Service.
All of Balkerne Asset Management's portfolios are risk-graded and compliance-tested. Portfolios range in size from Individual Savings Accounts of £7,200 to Managed Stockbroking Service portfolios from £50,000, with no upper limit.
Clients include individuals, pension funds, charities, trusts and corporations, all of whom can rely on a great team, with complementary skills and over 60 years' combined stock market experience. "I tend to look at the upside" says Miles, "and that's balanced by Andrew Phillips, our Head of Research, who looks at the downside risks first. We've also got a talented technical analyst, Stephen Copeland, who came to us fresh from college with new ideas, plus Patrick Galvin who's known affectionately as our "wise old owl" for his many years of experience, including a spell as Property Editor of the Investors Chronicle. Together, the team's job is to find stocks that will do well in the market conditions that we have identified, and then shape them into client portfolios. Our successes tell us that we do this very well."
While the foundation of the business is traditional customer service, Balkerne Asset Management takes care to innovate. "In February 2009 we launched a new income-producing service to assist people who had money on deposit, and suddenly found they had little or no income. This has been extremely successful. Most clients of this new service are currently enjoying an income stream of 7.2 per cent and some have made a capital gain of 15 per cent since launch. Anyone will tell you this is an incredible performance in such a short period of time."
Success like this relies not only on Balkerne Asset Management's expertise, but on the team's attention to detail. They analyse up to ten stocks or funds per day, whilst also continuously monitoring the prices of all portfolio holdings. For a share to obtain a buy recommendation the upside potential must be at least three times the downside risk.
Miles concludes: "Knowledge and vision are key to our success. A great day for the team at Balkerne Asset Management is when client portfolios outperform the market as a whole, but our main satisfaction comes from providing a service for our clients which is second-to-none."
