Close Wealth Management today made a seasonal pitch for more charitable fund management contracts by pointing out that UK charities have seen the value of their equity portfolios fall by 3.27 billion (or 11 per cent) over the past two years.
Not bad, you might think, given market conditions over the last three years. Indeed, Close itself points out that the recent rally has improved the position by nearly two thirds from the low at the beginning of the year. Between January 2002 and March 2003, when London share prices hit a seven year low, charities had lost up to 8.6 billion of their equity investments – a fall in value of around 29 per cent.
All of which serves only to remind the cynical that fund managers are as tied to the performance of the stock market as surely as anybody else. But this has not stopped Close Wealth Management “calling for charities to review their investment strategies to make sure that they are both realistic and in tune with their objectives. In addition to this, they should also review their investment managers as it believes some charities have received poor service and advice.”
The firm helpfully points out that the charity investment team at Close Wealth Management looks at the specific investment requirements for each charity; does not have its hands tied to in-house funds; and is headed by Nicholas Pearson OBE, who recently joined from Cazenovia, where in 1987 he set up the first ever specialist investment division dedicated to charities.