Welcome to our November update, reviewing the performance of the markets and our suggested portfolio’s and keeping you informed of progress.

We have some immediate alterations planned for the cautious diversified portfolio and we will be writing out, where appropriate, next week for your consent to make some changes. Some investors have shown an interest in our alternative investment portfolios. We will be in touch during the early part of the New Year to re-establish your attitude to risk and ensure that you remain comfortable with the current positioning of your money.

For more information on our current services and investment opportunities, you can visit our website or contact your advisor.

Healthy increases from most major markets were achieved during November, with returns from overseas investments exaggerated by stronger overseas currencies. The FTSE 100 reached a 12 month high just short of 5,400, but towards the end of the month markets wobbled with the news that a Dubai owned conglomerate required refinancing and that ‘secret loans’ had been provided to HBOS and the Royal Bank of Scotland during the financial crises from the Bank of England.

To a lesser extend, UK Commercial Property investments were also on the increase as were corporate bond holdings. Our investment team remain comfortable that a ‘double dip’ recession is unlikely, but equally feel that increasing risk following one of the sharpest stock market rallies in history is a little unwise. We remain wary of conditions generally, and feel that less risky assets will produce healthy results during the next 12 months

Overall we are comfortable that our portfolios are well placed from a risk and strategic standpoint, but we would like to include some exposure to the commercial property market during 2010. Two managers have failed to meet with our expectations during the course of 2009 and will not play a part in the portfolios during 2010.

It was inevitable that some managers would produce less attractive results, which is why we never suggest just a singular approach to investment. We will be writing to you shortly requesting your consent to make a change. The JPM Cautious Target Return and the Barmac Castleton Fund have disappointed during 2009. Each has failed to produce adequate results and have all failed to reassure us that we can expect an upturn in their performance moving forward. In fairness, these funds were all selected due to their cautious nature, but they continued to behave ‘over’ cautiously in what has been one of the sharpest upturn in equity prices in history. We will be writing to you with our ideas next week.

Of course you are not obliged to switch from these managers, but we are certain that better value can be found from alternative management groups. Finally, the Octopus Fund had another bad month, but nevertheless, this fund represents our most successful selection of the year. The investment team felt that we should give the manager more time to put things right. We had correctly decided not to increase our exposure to this investment, mainly due to its huge popularity during the second part of the year. Nevertheless, we are comfortable with the manager and his team and feel confident that 2010 will provide plenty more opportunities for this style of investment.