A hung parliament… What does it mean for you?

Last night’s result was a shock for those in politics. Theresa May and the Conservatives set out with the aim of increasing their number of seats from 330 into a much stronger majority. Instead they managed to reduce their number of seats to 318 which means they are now 8 seats short of the 326 seats they need for a majority.

As I write this, it looks like Theresa May will form a minority government with the support of the DUP. However, the problem isn’t solved by this. There is no party with a majority so any laws that are passed may be difficult to get through a vote in parliament.

If the news agencies are anything to go by, this will lead to chaos (but doesn’t it always).

My view is a little different. When I work with my clients we always look to the future. We don’t expect clear sailing. There will always be headwinds and problems to be overcome. The key is to expect them and prepare for them in the best way we can. But how do we do that?

With all of our clients we ensure they have an adequate cash buffer fund to ensure that we do not need to panic sell any investments. Portfolio’s will always go up and down, but a loss will only matter if you have to access the money on that day. By keeping a sufficient cash buffer we reduce the chances our client’s will need to access money at the wrong time.

When building and managing investment portfolio’s for our clients, we focus heavily on ensuring their portfolio’s are positioned to weather any storms. We do this in a number of ways including ensuring that our clients portfolio’s are heavily diversified in terms of the asset classes invested in, the number of different equities and bonds they hold and the number of different countries we spread the investments between.

So the message from me is, don’t panic. This period of uncertainty will pass. If you do have any concerns, feel free to contact me. Equally, if you know of someone who isn’t a client who is feeling nervous, I’d be happy to have a chat with them about how to reduce the risk they are exposed to.

Very best wishes,

Matthew

Matthew Aitchison
Chartered & Certified Financial Planner^TM
Managing Director