The risks advisers are watching right now — Middle East tensions, oil prices, inflation, cost of living pressure landing on clients — are live, and they are testing portfolios. We built our mandates for exactly this kind of environment. April showed what that means in practice.
Most advisers I know didn’t get into this industry to spend their mornings checking portfolio positions. But somewhere along the way, that’s what a volatile week becomes. April was a good reminder of how quickly the calendar fills with the wrong things.
Markets aren’t just reacting to data anymore — they’re reacting to events. In this kind of environment, static portfolios start to show their limits.
One of the most important shifts in markets right now isn’t about whether investors are “risk on” or “risk off”.
For years, financial advisers have managed portfolios through the familiar ups and downs of the market cycle - corrections, recoveries, recessions, and rallies. But the environment we’re in now is different. This isn’t just another market phase; it reflects a structural shift in how economies and markets are behaving.
As we move into 2026, the investment world looks materially different from the environment in which Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) became the dominant portfolio framework.
For the past few years, we’ve been saying that traditional strategic asset allocation (SAA) is going to stuggle going forward, and therefore no longer fit for purpose in a world defined by geopolitics, deglobalisation, sticky inflation, and unsustainable debt levels.
While typically considered benign, passive index investing can come with unintended consequences.
With the end of the financial year, it’s a good time to take a deep breath and refocus on everything else you need to do in an advice business and plan for how you want to manage things in the year ahead.
Financial advisers come in many shapes and sizes with various approaches and value propositions to suit their clients and business goals. Yet, all share typical dynamics. Beyond the need to be profitable enough to survive, they need to:
