INVESTMENT Opportunities

Nature of our service :
Our FOCUS is on strategic Investment planning for the medium and longer term .

We are not Stockbrokers and do not trade individual stocks

Investment is done through professional Investment Managers whose job it is to look after your money and maximise return from Investment

We get to understand your Investment OBJECTIVES and risk profile

We research Investment markets and identify funds that suit your risk profile as an Investor and that are performing well

We will make product recommendations that suit you and arrange the Investment on your behalf

Investment Term : typically 5 years .
For certain guaranteed funds the term may be 6 years for the Guarantee to apply
However you can exit most Investment funds early - but please see the comments below on possible early encashment penalties

There are a number of Investment classes to choose from. The main choices tend to be: -

Shares or Equities

Property

Government stocks or Gilts

Cash funds

EQUITIES or SHARES :
Shares have had a difficult 2 years to March 2009 but seem to have hit a bottom then , and indeed have risen sharply since the second week of March - with many markets up by more than 20%.
Sentiment has been poor - with the U.S. Sub prime crisis , serious banking problems and write offs among the big financial institutions as well as the fall off in the UK and Irish Property markets .
While cash has been king over the last year , there may be good opportunities to invest now for the medium to longer term as Shares are on historically Low Valuations

There are a huge variety of funds available to suit your needs including :

Guaranteed funds - which protect your Capital 100%

Tracker funds - which protect your Capital but also offer the potential to share in the growth by tracking an index or basket of shares

Protected funds - which offer an 80% to 85% guarantee on your Capital and lock in 80/85% of any growth within the fund

Consensus funds - middle of the road , designed to mirror average fund manager performance

Balanced funds - which offer a mix of Shares , Property and other Investment classes

Index funds - which track a market index such as Ireland , UK , Europe , Dow Jones (US) , Asia Pacific

Aggressively managed funds designed to out perform

Geared equity funds - which contain borrowing within the fund to increase your exposure to the equity market

Geographical funds - facilitates access to particular geographical markets

PROPERTY funds :
At present we favour funds which have exposure to markets other than Ireland and the UK and you can access those markets through a number of Property funds , some of which invest in Property directly and some of which invest in shares in Property management companies who own Property.
The advantage of Property funds include :

ease of access to the world of Property

competitive charges as these are spread over a large Investment base

better spread of risk as opposed to putting all your money in one Property

PROPERTY DIRECT :
If you wish to invest in Property in your own right, please read the attached Pages on Property - featuring opportunities in the UK and Germany .

Cost of Investing in funds :

Initial cost of investing is normally Nil - there are no up front costs applied to your Investment

Management fee : each Fund Manager will charge an annual management charge for managing the Investment and to recover their costs .
These fees are typically from 0.75% for Pension Investment , and between 1% and 2% for Investment funds - a small number of specialist funds may be slightly above 2%

Early encashment penalties : because there are no initial charges applied you to your Investment , there may be a penalty should you exit the fund within a 5 year period .

Penalties are typically 5% in year 1 , 4% in year 2 , 3% in year 3 , 2% in year 4 and 1% in year 5 - although it can vary by product.

Some funds offer an option to absorb an initial charge of 3% and have no encashment penalties

If you are interested in preparing an Investment strategy or in developing your existing strategy further, give us some details on what you want or call us on (01) 6674102 and take the first step towards securing a better future

WARNING : THE VALUE OF YOUR INVESTMENT MAY GO DOWN AS WELL AS UP. PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT A RELIABLE GUIDE TO FUTURE PERFORMANCE . WHERE PROJECTED RETURNS ARE PROVIDED , THESE ARE ESTIMATES ONLY. THEY ARE NOT A RELIABLE GUIDE TO THE FUTURE PERFORMANCE OF THE INVESTMENT