Trustnet Newsletter: New to Trustnet - Masterclasses; research updates

Trustnet Masterclasses

In a new feature on Trustnet, we are seeking out prominent investment professionals and tapping into their expertise to bring together a series of Masterclasses on major investment themes. The fund managers give extensive responses to a set of key questions, and the resulting features will offer investors and advisers alike profound insights into a range of different areas of investment. Presented interactively, the features can either be read through as a whole or browsed by individual topics of interest – there’s even a facility for readers to submit their own questions to the experts. As the series develops it will build into an unparalleled body of investment knowledge and insight. We launch the series with the theme of multi-manager investments, and the guidance of James Hughes of HSBC Investments. Click the link below and read about his views on strategies, investment approaches and the key aspects of the multi-manager proposition.

Masterclass: Multi-manager

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Research updates - Commodities

A batch of new articles is available to read in our research section, including a piece based on evidence that there are strong reasons to suggest that commodities investment is the story of the moment, and that it is poised to become even more prominent on the investor’s horizon. Read here about some of the defining factors of this type of investment – its cyclical nature, and the way it transcends domestic economic conditions. We also touch on the benefits it can bring to an investment portfolio for those with a pragmatic attitude to risk: not just the high returns of recent times, but also as an uncorrelated aid to diversification. Now regarded by many professionals as an asset class in its own right, commodities investment is only going to grow further, and will be difficult for investors to ignore.

Commodities article

Research updates - ASP

And the fallout from Gordon Brown’s onslaught on pensions continues, with a piece describing how the Chancellor has taken yet another chunk out of people’s options in saving for retirement. The tightening up of Alternatively Secured Pensions (ASP) in this year’s Budget has killed, by means of punitive regulation, the chance of transferring accrued funds to family members after death.

The changes include a new requirement to withdraw a minimum income of 55% each year from an ASP fund. Further, the Treasury has ignored advice from industry experts and consumers and has stuck with the crippling 82% tax charge that will be applied to remaining pension funds on death. To many, this is a nail in the coffin of what could have been an opportunity for the government to encourage greater savings through pensions. Read the full story, with expert comment on its implications, by clicking the link below.

ASP death knell

Trustnet Newsletter - 17 April 2007