If you choose Discretionary Investment Management, your Investment Manager will take charge of selecting appropriate investments and monitoring them. Together, you agree a strategy at the outset based on your attitude to risk, capacity for loss and investment requirements. This will include whether you require regular income, selecting an appropriate benchmark and the sort of asset classes you may wish to be invested in.

Discretionary Investment Management works for:

• Investors wanting someone else to take full responsibility for their investment decisions.
• Those who, perhaps, do not have the time or knowledge to run their own portfolio or are unsure how to create a balanced spread of investments and review them regularly.

Other advantages of choosing this route include:

With Discretionary Investment Management, not only are your investments looked after for you, but the administration is too. Examples of this include the collection of dividends, calculating right issues, capital gains tax reports, annual subscriptions to an ISA for you every year etc. In addition you will receive an annual tax pack to help you (or your accountant) with your tax return.

Your Investment Manager will have high speed news feeds from Bloomberg and other market sources. He/she will be able to act on news, such as company financial results, as it is released.

At Albert E Sharp, each client is treated individually and so the amount of involvement you have is very much up to you. Some clients choose to have relatively little involvement other than a yearly update from their Investment Manager and regular written reports. Other clients adopt a more active approach and have more regular contact. It is important that you inform your Investment Manager of any material changes in your circumstances that might lead to change in investment strategy.

Advisory stockbroking: Your Investment Manager will provide you with investment advice and you will make decisions about how to invest, or at least approve each recommended transaction. Due to the intensive resources involved, a minimum account size of around £1million will often be required for this service.

This service is suitable for sophisticated investors with experience in financial markets.

Yes, we have an on-line valuation service which is easy to use. Your Investment Manager will be able to issue you with instructions and a security password.

Your Investment Manager will discuss the portfolio construction process with you. Once you have decided upon the appropriate investment strategy together, your portfolio will be assembled. Your Investment Manager will be mindful of market conditions at that particular time and will run through the options available.

Yes, we work with many professional advisors and seek to build strong working relationships with them.

At Albert E Sharp, we use an independent custodian called Platform Services LLP. Platform Securities is wholly owned by FIS Global which is the world’s largest global provider dedicated to banking and payments technologies. Both companies are regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and comply with stringent financial and operating procedures.

Your investments are held by our regulated custodian and your money/investments are never mixed with the finances of Albert E Sharp. Your investment portfolio is fully ring-fenced.

Yes, your Investment Manager will manage the entire transfer process for you including the transfer of investments in specie. We will oversee that relevant tax data is brought across too.

Yes, you can transfer your existing cash or stocks and shares ISAs to Albert E Sharp and continue within the tax-efficient ISA wrapper. Your Investment Manager will discuss the details with you before going ahead. The ISA may be transferred as cash or with its investments, but the tax-efficient status of the contents remains unaffected. Your Investment Manager will manage the transfer process for you.

Yes, we can transfer the shares from certificated form to electronic form, held in our nominee name.

Some clients choose to meet their Investment Manager once a year and rely on regular written reports. Other clients have more regular contact. It is very important that you inform your Investment Manager of any material changes in your circumstances that might lead to change in investment strategy.

The simple answer to this question is “yes”. There are several ways to set up regular payments to your bank account. In the interests of security for our clients, we will only make payments to pre-designated banks accounts. A fixed amount can be paid to your bank or dividends and interest income can be paid out as they are collected within your portfolio on a regular basis. Ad hoc payments can also be made.

Albert E Sharp LLP is an independently-owned partnership. It is owned by its partners.

“Collectives” in this context refer to Unit Trusts, OEICs and Investment Trusts ie: funds which pool investors’ money in order to buy a range of investments.

• They provide diversification to a portfolio because they hold a number of investments.
• They provide exposure to some sectors which might be unreachable in direct equity form, for example, some overseas markets.
• They draw on the expertise of a specialist team of managers and researchers.

Shares provide direct exposure to the fortunes of individual companies. They may be deemed suitable for larger portfolios.

• They can offer access to one-off situations such as take overs, new listings and government privatisations.
• Buying individual shares can provide focus to a portfolio, for example by buying shares in companies with low debt profiles or high dividend payments.

In this context, a “benchmark” is the standard by which the performance of a portfolio can be measured. In the financial world there are dozens of indices or combinations of indices against which performance of a portfolio can be compared. At Albert E Sharp, we use the industry standard wealth management private investor series for sterling investors.

This provides investors with an objective benchmark against which to measure their investment portfolios. The index series represents the performance for growth orientated, income, balanced and conservative investors.

Our investment process is detailed here.

By choosing the DFM route, an advisor can gain access to a huge range of investment options for his/her clients. A DFM should be able to offer investment solutions for any sized portfolio.

A DFM has the ability and software to access detailed research for numerous asset classes. The value to this approach is demonstrated particularly when markets are volatile and where careful asset allocation and stock selection can have a positive impact on performance.

Another advantage of the DFM route is the buying power the fund managers have that is not available to retail customers. They can access investment structures and funds that individuals and financial advisors simply cannot.

The use of a DFM also brings benefit to the administration of an advisor’s business as it introduces an element of formality to the way clients' assets are managed and, importantly, provides an audit trail. It ensures consistency of approach and, from a compliance perspective, offers a repeatable, robust process.

Financial advisors use Albert E Sharp as a DFM because:

• We work with financial advisors and foster long-term relationships based on trust and results.
• We can translate and implement the investment management component of the overall financial planning strategy.

For further information please see the Financial Advisor section of our website.

The Bespoke Portfolio Service can accommodate unique client requirements (such as irregular income payments) and more complex portfolio structures. The tax implications of changes within the portfolio can be considered when making investment decisions.

For further information, please see the Financial Advisor section and Bespoke Portfolio Service.