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.

The AIOFP (Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals) was established in 1998 to 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.

PPM’s 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.

On questioning the current economic situation Mr. MacNally replied: “We are going through a period where there’s concern about rising interest rates, inflation etc. That’s 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’s not the key element for client’s overall strategy. The key is focussing on the sorts of investments they’ve got and whether they can survive difficult times.”

“Clients 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’s like weather forecasting. Outside a short period of time, it’s useless. If you look at the chart of equities markets over the past 100 years, it’s bottom left-top right. All you’ve got to do is survive the downturns and that’s essentially the job of the Investment Manager – Make sure the client’s assets survive.”

For further details on how PPM works with Financial Planners contact: Warren Jones at wj@ppmfunds.com or 0422 819 116