PPM Executive Chairman Hugh MacNally took to the stage at the AIOFP Conference in the Hunter Valley for a Q&A with AIOFP CEO Peter Johnston and spoke how Financial Planners can only benefit if they outsource the Investment Management needs of their clients.<\/p>\n
The AIOFP (Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals) was\u00a0established in 1998<\/strong>\u00a0to differentiate the independently owned practices from the institutionally owned practices in the marketplace. With institutions now owning an alarming 80% of Planning Practices, the AIOFP provides an important element to the financial services market as it gives consumers choice and maintain balance.<\/strong><\/p>\n PPM\u2019s Hugh MacNally spoke to delegates of the need to understand that the role of the Investment Manager is a full-time job, and that Planners cannot expect to do it part-time. He pointed out that the PPM investment team had not only been together for a long period of time but provided essential sounding boards for each other with regards to the various opinions that invariably come up. He also stressed the need to spend time going to see the companies and a lot of time analysing the data.<\/p>\n On questioning the current economic situation Mr. MacNally replied: \u201cWe are going through a period where there\u2019s concern about rising interest rates, inflation etc. That\u2019s not an unusual situation and we may well have a period of economic downturn. Whether we have a period of major downturn is very hard to predict but that\u2019s not the key element for client\u2019s overall strategy. The key is focussing on the sorts of investments they\u2019ve got and whether they can survive difficult times.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cClients are going to hold these investments for long periods of time and making predictions on economic conditions or the direction of the market over a short period of time is essentially futile. It\u2019s like weather forecasting. Outside a short period of time, it\u2019s useless. If you look at the chart of equities markets over the past 100 years, it\u2019s bottom left-top right. All you\u2019ve got to do is survive the downturns and that\u2019s essentially the job of the Investment Manager – Make sure the client\u2019s assets survive.\u201d<\/p>\n