2023 – Reset, re-focus and remind

6 min read

12 Jan 2023

Happy New Year!

2022 was a challenging year to say the least – we’ve had war, inflation hitting 40+ year highs, rising interest rates and tumbling markets to name a few of the challenges we have had to contend with. So, it’s not surprising people have felt bouts of panic at some point over this period – we are human after all!

However, it’s when the headlines are filled with ‘bad news’ and emotions are running high that the true value of wealth management and financial planning really comes into its own (in fact, we have seen significant uptake of our Wealth Management Service in recent months). Through all this noise, our job as financial professionals is to protect clients from making irrational financial decisions which could damage their long-term wealth and ensure their money works hard for them. We continue to achieve this through our disciplined investment approach, and I'm extremely pleased that our investment performance has been remarkably robust in the face of the challenging conditions we find ourselves in.

I remain confident that by continuing to consistently apply our rigorous investment process we will continue to deliver strong returns to clients, and while there will be fluctuations along the way (things outside of our control) our investment approach is designed to make this journey as smooth as possible.

An opportunity to reflect and re-focus:

Whilst some of the events mentioned above will be with us for some time yet, it’s important not to get too distracted by them and instead to focus on and reassess your own financial journey. What are you trying to achieve? How will you get there? What are your financial goals? Are you on track to achieve them? And may I add, this isn’t purely down to investment performance (although it does of course help).

Working alongside your dedicated Private Client and Financial Planning Directors to ensure your tailored plan is able to withstand these rocky periods is the key driver to success. Often a simple conversation or revisiting your cash flow plan (which would’ve incorporated such turbulent market events) can be enough to calm the nerves and re-focus on the period ahead.

This means emotional reactions to shorter-term market events are less likely and should help bring the focus back to your longer-term financial plan, which is key. This is exactly what our clients continued to say was most important to them throughout 2022: a steady ship in a rocky sea.

We continue to pride ourselves on our service – meeting our clients regularly, so there are no shocks and surprises should there be a change to ‘the plan’.

People, premises, and products:

Having excellent investment performance and a solid plan, while clearly important, are only two components in delivering a service that you would expect from us. You also need great people. After all, it’s our people who our clients entrust their investments and their plans with. I’m therefore pleased to say that we have continued to invest in and develop our team, with several members of the team gaining new professional qualifications over the past year. In addition, we have been busily bolstering our teams in our London and Edinburgh offices with senior hires across both locations.

Alongside people, I believe you need the right environment, and in Edinburgh I’m pleased to announce we are investing in refurbishing our existing premises to create a more modern environment for clients to interact with us.

And finally, we continue to enhance our range of solutions and services in response to client feedback. Most recently, we have enhanced our cash solution through a partnership with Insignis. We will also be expanding our retirement offering shortly, with the introduction of the 7IM Retirement Income Solution (RIS). RIS is an innovative and bespoke solution designed to help you manage your income in retirement in a flexible yet robust way that gives you the confidence that should last the distance.

Our promise to you – and this is NOT a New Year’s resolution

At this time of year, it’s common practice to start making resolutions. Instead of doing that, I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you of our key values. You will always come first. Looking after your wealth remains a privilege – and it’s this belief that forms the foundation of the 7IM service charter:

We will always put you, our client, first

We have grown from seven people starting up a company in a basement to become the firm we are today. And while we will continue to steadily evolve, there’s one thing that won’t change and that’s us shaping what we do around you. You can always count on us to put you and your best interests first.

We will keep things simple

Life is complicated enough. That’s why we like to keep things as simple as possible. So whether it’s how we manage money or the language we use to communicate with you, we promise to keep it straightforward and transparent so you can easily understand what we are doing.

We will listen and respond

It’s no secret that communication is the key to any strong relationship, so we will try to make sure you have all of the information you need, any time you need it. And this goes both ways; we will always listen to any feedback you have. In fact, we need it - we can only improve by learning what we’re not doing so well.

We will value our people

It’s our people that you put your trust in so that’s why we promise to look after our colleagues. After all, the better we look after our people, the better they will look after you.

We will do the right thing

We understand that from time to time, we won’t get everything right. We are only human after all. But when things don’t go according to plan you can trust us to put things right as soon as we can.

We will succeed together

We wouldn’t be where we are today without you. Our success has been and always will be dependent on yours. That’s why we believe in forming long-term and collaborative partnership with you so we can succeed together.

We will demand excellence

We’ve always believed it’s a privilege to look after our clients’ and customers’ money so we don’t ever wish to become complacent about it. You can rely on us to always challenge ourselves to do better and keep innovating as we chase our vision of delivering an unrivalled experience.

As ever, if you have any questions or feedback, I would be delighted to hear from you. You can email me at colin.rowe@7im.co.uk. In the meantime, I would like to close by wishing you and your family a very happy 2023.