As the sultry days of summer fade from our memory, the arrival of the chill autumn winds sees financial advice professionals focused on the usual challenges. Making sound investment decisions is right up there on that list, especially in the face of today’s highly uncertain global markets and economy.
One sector finding real favour with many of the investment managers we’ve spoken to recently is fixed income. It’s quite a reversal of fortunes from where we were this time last year as we suffered the fall out from the disastrous Truss/Kwarteng mini-budget. It just reinforces how important it is to remember that all markets are cyclical and that timing is still important.
That’s why I was particularly pleased to catch up recently with PIMCO’s Ryan Blute and Terry Oh (this month’s cover stars) to hear their thoughts on current bond market conditions. As a global leader in active fixed income, the PIMCO team’s opinions are always worth listening to. You can find full details of our conversation on page 26, in which I found both Ryan and Terry to be in positive mood about the opportunities they’re seeing in the sector. Let’s hope they’re right!
To ESG or not to ESG?
That is indeed the question, but with so much focus on what actually constitutes ESG I was really interested to get the views of Mike Mount on this subject this month. As you’ll see for yourself on page 16, he’s keen to encourage advisers to reassess their thinking about ESG in a very different way and explains why in no uncertain terms. It’s well worth a read.
Better business
The business of advice is something that always gets a good response from IFA Magazine readers. So, I hope you’ll be glad to hear that there are many excellent articles focused on it this month. Whether it’s the use of technology, knowing the added value benefits of protection policies, ideas for using smoothed investment funds or a host of other topics, I hope you’ll find plenty over the following pages to get you thinking about what you do and how you do it in your business.
Mortgage and Property spotlight
Whether you advise on mortgages or not, there’s so much going on in the property market at the moment so do take a look at our special Mortgage and Property section on page 41.
And finally, as the nights draw in and the mornings get darker, we wonder how on earth we’ve got to Q4 2023 quite so soon. I don’t know about you, but I for one can’t quite believe how quickly this year is ticking by – despite Consumer Duty! As they say, time flies when you’re having fun. Let’s hope that concerns about the risk of recession, the ongoing cost of living crisis, the rising oil price as well as other macro variables don’t get in the way too much.
And of course, there’s always lots more great news, views and insight on www.IFAMagazine.com which is updated every day.
Sue Whitbread
Editor, IFA Magazine
