Each of the guides covers one of the five Model Portfolio’s that we run and includes information on the general state of the World Economy and Stock Markets, a brief comment on some of the funds within the Model Portfolios, a Terminology Guide and finally an analysis on the Model Portfolio.

The analysis includes a comment on how the portfolio is running, it’s performance against the sector average, the break down of the funds within the model portfolio and a view of what the major holdings are, along with a breakdown of the asset allocation.

The five portfolios are  -

Cautious Growth - 2012 First Edition – Cautious

Balanced Growth – 2012 First Edition – Balanced

Adventurous Growth – 2012 First Edition – Adventurous

Adventurous High Risk Growth – 2012 First Edition – Adventurous High Risk

Balanced Income – 2012 First Edition – Balanced Income

The documents are all Adobe PDF’s and should you require the reader, it can be downloaded from http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader for free.

Please have a read of the Guides which I hope you will enjoy and find both informative and useful.

If you have any queries or questions – please contact your usual Adviser or myself.

Paul Howard

Therefore if you are concerned about your own portfolio or think now is an ideal time for a review, please contact your consultant directly or call us on 01932 340710.

Damon George has joined to indirectly replace Christine, who has now gone on maturity leave.

Fiona Mackenzie replaces Ed Milner in working with Capital Management Solutions. We wish Ed all the best as he now embarks on the road to become a Teacher!

Elsewhere, we have promoted Matt Phillips to a Trainee Adviser, as he has now successfully completed his initial exams. Matt will therefore be working more closely with Julian and Stuart, to learn the required attributes and skills to become a successful Adviser.

We wish all the above, the best in their new roles.

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1.
The sixth would pay £3.
The seventh would pay £7.
The eighth would pay £12.
The ninth would pay £18.
And the tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.

So, that’s what they decide to do.The ten men drank in the bar every week and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until, one day, the owner caused them a little problem. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your weekly beer by £20.” Drinks for the ten men would now cost just £80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected, they would still drink for free but what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share? They realized that £20 divided by six is £3.33 but if they subtracted that from everybody’s share then not only would the first four men still be drinking for free but the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to drink beer.So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fairer to reduce each man’s bill by a higher percentage.They decided to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using and he proceeded to work out the amounts that each should now pay.

So, the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (a100% saving).
The sixth man now paid £2 instead of £3 (a 33% saving).
The seventh man now paid £5 instead of £7 (a 28% saving).
The eighth man now paid £9 instead of £12 (a 25% saving).
The ninth man now paid £14 instead of £18 (a 22% saving).
And the tenth man now paid £50 instead of £59 (a 15% saving).

Each of the last six was better off than before with the first four continuing to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings. “I only got £1 out of the £20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got £10!” “That’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a £1 too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!” “That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get £10 back, when I only got £2? The wealthy get all the breaks!” “Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn’t get anything at all. This tax system exploits the poor!” The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next week the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important – they didn’t have enough money between all of them to pay for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just might not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible

For the first time since it was introduced in 1961, Prime Ministers Question time was led by someone other than a Conservative or Labour politician – with Mr Clegg (as Deputy Prime Minister) temporarily taking it while Mr Cameron was overseas. Hopefully, with the UK’s third main party taking a much more active role in Parliament, the UK will benefit from being able to draw on a wider range of knowledge and experience.

Elsewhere, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has indicated that property values fell slightly in July, but is still up for the 12 month period. We believe this is will be a minor blip and the housing market will continue to recover in a stable manner.

On the financial markets, with the Gulf of Mexico BP Oil spill now permanently capped, BP should be able to start restoring their share value to a more normal level. Also in the headlines have been the part privatised Banks. With their market values recovering, it is now predicted, the Government share of the banks will turn them a tidy profit! Hopefully, any selling of the shares will be done in a gradual and steady fashion, to ensure the long term stability of the banks is maintained and built on.

Should you require a more accurate assessment of where we feel the markets will go, or want a general review, please contact us.

Well, the Chancellor of the Exchequer stood up and gave his first budget. What can we say – other than that we knew taxes would be going up – and we are all right. VAT to 20% and for higher rate tax payers, Capital Gains Tax to 28%.

A few tweaks here and a few tweaks there – but overall, hopefully, we can agree a reasonably fair budget, on the basis, it could have been worse for everyone.

The financial markets reacted fairly neutrally to the budget, although BP’s continued share price slide no doubt had a larger effect on the market, than Mr Osborne’s words.

With Murray still having a chance to win at Wimbledon, sport remains a popular event (and several people have commented that something major in the football world called the ‘World Cup’ is going on, but I can’t believe it’s that major, as if it was any good, the United Kingdom would have a team in it?), so more Strawberries and Cream please!

Should you want more information on the Budget, require financial advice or indeed if you have noticed something called the ‘World Cup’ going on, please let us know and contact us.

After the opening game against the USA, most English fans I think are happy with a draw – on the basis that’s the tough game out of the way!

Elsewhere, the new Coalition Government continues to make headway into their plans (more on that later) and hopefully, this new batch of MP’s will do the work they promised to do in their ‘Election Speeches’.

With Wimbledon about to start, no doubt the price of Strawberries will go up, and the price of BP shares will continue to go down. Hopefully the only additional spills over the next few weeks will be Pimms and Champagne at the Henley Regatta!

Turning more to what we do, once key recent announcement by the new Chancellor surrounds his plans for the Financial Services Authority. As expected, their regulatory banking mandate will be passed back over to the Bank of England….but more surprisingly, it appears he will be going through with his plans to dismantle the FSA, and break it up into more bite sized regulatory chunks. More on this will follow, as the small print has been read and further information is released.

Should you want more information on what is happening, or require a financial review, please contact us.

Here’s to England doing well at Football, Murray doing well at Tennis and sunshine for the summer!