Jackie Lockie blog: Christmas round-up 2013

The AIC’s Head of Training looks back at this year’s training activity.

Dear Santa, five gold rings please...

Well, it’s definitely been a busy year. We’ve seen much more interest in investment companies and VCTs over the past twelve months as a result of RDR. Ten online training sessions, four autumn seminars, numerous conference workshops and bespoke training sessions – it’s starting to sound like the Twelve Days of Christmas song. It’s been really rewarding travelling the country, and I’ve had the privilege of meeting many enthusiastic and knowledgeable advisers along the way. What have I learnt?

  • You can’t please all of the people all of the time. Feedback was mostly very positive, but some advisers would prefer more detail, and others wanted less.
  • Prepare to be surprised.  I was asked during a face-to-session why I wasn’t covering where investment trusts fit into portfolios – having just completed two live online sessions on portfolio construction! Luckily, all the online training sessions on the details of investment companies and portfolio construction are available to download from our website.
  • Don’t go it alone. Talking about ETFs with Vanguard and learning how Bestinvest do their asset allocation made our regional sessions much more interesting for all of us.
  • Driving is tiring but trains drive you dotty! Next year will be no different, with more summer and autumn sessions in the pipeline. I’m hoping to include more on asset allocation and portfolio construction too. Hopefully I shall see you there.

The Twelve Days of Christmas then, what would I go for? Probably the five gold rings, or the ten lords a leaping. How would they fit into my asset allocation I wonder? Well, gold is gold. Over time the price should rise but it’s rather an undiversified risk. The lords a leaping is interesting – people would pay good money to see that so I’d have a regular income stream, but the lords would require looking after. On balance then, given I already have two men in my house, I think I’d go with the five gold rings. But I would probably sell a couple of them pretty quickly and reinvest in a diversified pooled investment, such as an investment company!

Merry Christmas to you all.