Here we are at session number 74, and we’re going to be beginning an occasional series called How I Invest where I talk to investment experts about, erm, how they invest. Today, I’ll be chatting to Abraham Okusanya, and investment analyst and researcher with his own praraplanning firm, Finalytiq.
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I’m still on holiday so I won’t be reading the reviews this week, but I will announce the next session topic.
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But first…
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Introduction
OK, I am still on holiday so this podcast is being published in advance. Today I’m chatting with Abraham Okusanya, a paraplanner and investment analyst who works with many different financial planning firms in setting up their investment propositions. He explains all about that in the interview.
I want to begin interviewing people far more knowledgable than I am so that they can broaden our horizons a little bit on this stuff. So this is the first of these ‘How I Invest’ interviews. I hope you find it helpful:
Interview
I tend not to transcribe the interviews, but the questions I asked Abraham are below, with some key points and links inline. You'll have to listen to the call for hte full info!
Q. Can you tell us who you are and what you do?
Abraham is a paraplanner and investment analyst. He works with financial advice and financial planning practices to help them hone their investment propositions.
Q. I know you have done a lot of work on Centralised Investment Propositions, can you tell us what a CIP is?
A CIP is a standardised investment process that all clients of a financial adviser will go through.
Q. Do you believe there is an optimum way to invest for most people, or are there many ways that are of equal merit?
Abraham believes that there is an optimal way for most people to invest. We (the financial services interest) like to add complexity and fees into the process to the detriment of the investor. Abraham believes very similarly to me: risk-based, multi-asset, long-term investing is the way to go.
Q. Active, Passive or a blend of the two – which is your personal preference?
Abraham would tend towards the passive side of the active/passive debate. He has arrived at this conclusion after digging deep into the research on asset allocation and investing theory and practice. He calls his preferred method evidence based investing.
Q. What are the most important considerations when planning an investment strategy?
- Set goals
- Determine risk tolerance
- Set your asset allocation in light of the previous two
Not a lot of tools for consumers to help with this – gap in the market?
Q. Platform or off-platform? For investors without an adviser, do you believe that there is merit in using a platform to build a portfolio?
Yes, definitely. Convenient and flexible. For most people it is inefficient to invest off-platform. Beware of costs though…
Q. Is there anyone in the investing world you particularly admire? Why?
- Jack Bogle of Vanguard
- Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway
Q. Are there any funds or investment houses whose approach you think is worthy of note?
Q. Can you share some Do's for investors
- Set goals, risk and asset allocation
- Pay close attention to cost.
- Abraham mentions some Morningstar Research on costs
- Also, he has summarised his findings on costs in this blog post
Q.And some Don'ts?
- Ignore ‘investment pornography' – try to sift through the industry guff on performance etc.
Q. How can listeners find out more about what you do?
Twitter: @AbrahamOnMoney
Summary
Hope you enjoyed that. We’ll be returning to this series now and again, talking to other knowledgeable people about their views on investing.
This week’s reviews
No reviews this week as I'm still on annual leave. No news either, for the same reason.
If you like what you hear on this podcast, please leave a rating or review on iTunes by going to meaningfulmoney.tv/iTunes or by hitting the big red button below. This helps others to hear about the show and to subscribe, because it keeps me near the top of the rankings.
Next Session Announcement
Next time we'll be talking to Mark Polson, who runs a consultancy to the finance industry called the lang cat. He’s an authority on platforms and has released a guide for investors who want to use a platform, but not one controlled by an IFA. I'll be talking to him about that and where he sees the trends for investing going. Mark is one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met, so I can’t wait to talk to him. I know it’ll be a blast and he’ll have lots of great things to say.
If you have a question on this subject, or any other financial query that you want answering here on the show, then the best way to do that is to leave me a voicemail at meaningfulmoney.tv/askpete
Outro
That's it for this session of the MM podcast, I hope it was helpful. If I missed anything or if you have any questions, please leave them comments section below
I hope you enjoyed this session. Thanks for listening – I'll talk to you next time.
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