Investing

Discretionary investment management
for all Montgomery clients

We are active managers with our own in-house investment committee

We are unrestricted in our choice of the best funds the market has to offer

Our forward-thinking philosophy has served clients for over 50 years

‹ Clients

Our investment philosophy

Our disciplined investment process combines independent research and active fund selection to help clients to grow and preserve their wealth.

Clients’ portfolios are overseen by our in-house Investment Committee with more than 140 years of combined financial services experience from careers spanning private banking and asset management. We invest in a broad range funds across multiple sectors, geographies and asset classes, spreading risk to achieve a diversified portfolio of investments.

Read about our approach to investing and how we have managed risk to achieve steady long-term performance for our clients for over 50 years.

“A disciplined process of independent research and active management”

Montgomery Investment Committee

Our investment process

01 Research

We search global markets, meet with leading asset managers and analyse economic trends to identify attractive investment opportunities.

02 Portfolio Construction

Our investment committee filters through thousands of investments to select funds from a range of styles, regions, and asset classes, building diversified portfolios that adapt to changing markets.

03 Investment Committee

Every quarter our Investment Committee meets to review the global economic outlook, debate new opportunities and challenge existing holdings.

04 Continuous Monitoring

We actively monitor investments and the wider economic environment, meeting fund managers regularly and adjust portfolios appropriately.

05 Portfolio Management

Portfolios are designed to match clients’ objectives, risk profile and circumstances. Our goal is simple: to help build and preserve clients’ wealth for themselves and their family.

ESG is integrated throughout

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors are considered alongside traditional financial analysis, leading leads to informed decisions and stronger long-term outcomes for clients.

Learn more ↓

FAQs

  • We invest predominantly in carefully selected funds, including unit trusts, investment trusts, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and passive tracker funds where appropriate. By combining different fund types and investment styles, we build globally diversified portfolios which include equity, bonds and alternative investments, designed to balance risk and long-term returns, while retaining the flexibility to adapt as markets evolve.

  • Your portfolio is overseen by our six-member Investment Committee, which has more than 140 years of combined financial services experience. The team’s careers include Coutts, Barclays Wealth, Prudential, Brewin Dolphin, Merrill Lynch amongst others. The committee meets quarterly to review long-term investment strategy and risk, while also making tactical changes to portfolios throughout the year when market conditions or opportunities warrant. Read more about the Team.

  • We use a combination of both. Passive investments can provide low-cost, efficient exposure to markets, while active funds are used where we believe skilled investment managers have the potential to add value. Our focus is on selecting the most appropriate approach for each part of a portfolio.

  • With discretionary investment management, your investment manager makes day-to-day investment decisions on your behalf within an agreed strategy and risk profile, allowing your portfolio to be managed efficiently as markets change. With advisory investment management, your adviser provides recommendations, but every investment decision requires your approval before any action is taken.

    Montgomery portfolios are only available under a discretionary mandate.

  • The costs of investing with Montgomery are highly competitive with annual management fees ranging form 0.5% to 1.0% depending on the sum invested. Learn more about our fees.

Risk vs Reward

No one can predict how stock markets will behave, which is why investing can feel uncertain. While all investments carry some degree of risk - the value of a portfolio can rise as well as fall - investing has historically been one of the most effective ways to build wealth, far outpacing returns from cash and bonds as well as inflation over the long term.

Investing is ultimately about balancing risk and reward: the more volatility an investor is prepared to tolerate, the greater the potential for long-term growth. For example, although past performance is no guarantee of future returns, even a steady return of 6% per year has the power to grow a £1million portfolio to £2million in little over a decade.

  • Our portfolios are carefully diversified across asset classes, regions and investment styles to help manage risk and remain resilient through a range of market conditions. Over the years, we have guided clients through significant events such as the Global Financial Crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine and periods of significant geopolitical uncertainty.

    Experience has shown that successful investing is rarely about trying to predict the next market move, or rushing to sell in times of crisis. Instead, we believe that remaining invested, maintaining a disciplined approach and focusing on the longer-term gives clients the best opportunity to achieve their financial goals. As the saying goes, it is time in the market, rather than timing the market, that has historically delivered the greatest rewards.

    Try our compound interest calculator.

Choosing your portfolio

Every successful investment strategy begins with understanding you. Before we make any investment recommendations, we take the time to understand your financial situation, experience, time horizon, attitude to risk and capacity for loss.

As part of this process, we ask you to complete a risk questionnaire which helps us determine the most appropriate portfolio. This assessment is reviewed periodically, ensuring the portfolio reflects any changes to circumstances.

Learn more below about how we allocate weightings to different asset classes depending on your risk appetite.

Sample asset allocation

  • We manage three core portfolios: Cautious, Moderate and Growth. Each is designed with a different balance of risk and return. As the level of risk increases, portfolios hold a greater allocation to equities, offering higher long-term growth potential but with increased short-term volatility.

    Lower-risk portfolios place greater emphasis on bonds (known as fixed income) and alternative assets (such as gold) helping to reduce volatility and provide greater stability through difficult market conditions.

Diversification

We believe diversification is about more than simply holding a large number of investments. It is about ensuring that portfolios are exposed to a range of investment themes and styles, so that they are not overly reliant on any one area of the market.

This balance becomes particularly clear when market conditions change, allowing one fund to support another when it comes under pressure.

ESG

Environmental, Social and Governance

The responsibility that goes with investing can weigh heavily for both new and experienced clients. By investing in an underlying company, you are contributing to the that firm’s overall financial strength which, of course, can result in both positive and negative outcomes.

Today, companies and the funds that invest in them are subject to strict reporting and disclosure laws. We use our own rigorous testing process alongside industry ratings agencies to identify and select suitable investments for our clients.

  • To help investors to understand an investment’s ESG credentials, ratings agencies are on hand to provide scoring systems which allow us to measure how a particular company or fund is adhering to the rules, specifically under the headings of the environment, their social impact, and how companies are governed.

    However, not all ratings agencies agree with each other. ESG ratings can vary significantly between agencies, with different providers often reaching conflicting conclusions about the same investment. Thankfully we have devised our own ESG Scorecard to cut through the noise and reach dependable conclusions.

More frequent heatwaves across the globe have ignited debate about the environmental cost of our growing dependence on air conditioning.

Our solution: the Montgomery ESG Scorecard

We take a pragmatic and holistic approach to responsible investing. We integrate environmental, social, and governance issues as part of our broader active management philosophy, using our proprietary Montgomery ESG Scorecard to assess and rate funds before they are considered for inclusion in our portfolios.

  • We have developed our ESG Scorecard by bringing together insights from independent data providers, regulatory classifications and industry standards, alongside our own research and traditional financial metrics.

    The scorecard assesses both the fund manager's commitment to responsible investing - such as participation in collective investor initiatives and alignment with recognised frameworks - and the ESG characteristics of the individual fund. This blended approach means we can evaluate funds consistently and identify those that best align with our investment philosophy, without compromising performance.

    The result is that poorly-rated investments are filtered out with conviction, satisfying our own balanced assessment that every fund we choose must pass before being admitted into a client’s portfolio.

Renewables can have positive and negative Environmental impacts

Working conditions and fair pay are key Social metrics

Transparency and accountability are key Governance principles

Would you like to meet?

Message us to arrange an introductory call or an appointment at one of our offices in Wiltshire.