The investment advice and financial planning market is a difficult one to negotiate. There are banks, life offices, fund managers, investment houses, stockbrokers and super funds all ready to offer advice.

Pitcher Partners Investment Services looked at this market and listened to our clients carefully before deciding what we should offer. Eventually we designed a service based around what our clients wanted:

• Independent investment advice from experts with deep practical knowledge of the financial markets
• Full access to the complete universe of investment products - direct and managed
• Independent investment research
• To minimise fees and taxes
• A fee only advisor with no commissions

Our value proposition to our clients is to:

• Provide customised financial planning advice to meet your needs in areas including cash flow management, tax efficiency, asset protection, superannuation and retirement planning, insurance and risk management and estate planning
• Manage and administer individual investment portfolios according to individual client risk tolerances, preferences and directions
• Protect and grow clients' wealth by utilising the best available and independently researched investment opportunities
• Ensure no investment opportunities are missed, tax implications are addressed, and fees and costs are minimised
• Monitor investments closely on an ongoing basis
• Obtain investment returns comfortably above market (to at least cover management costs)
• Provide timely and accurate recording and reporting
• Deliver caring, attentive and personalised service

We are not owned by or associated with any provider of financial products. We are a fee only practice - we do not retain any commissions. Our focus remains exclusively on meeting your investment and financial planning needs.

Our core service for private clients is our Portfolio Management Service. This service comprises:

• Operating a bank account for the portfolio/s - receiving all contributions, sales proceeds, dividends, interest, distributions, etc and paying all purchases, transactions costs, taxes and fees, pensions etc. and undertaking regular reconciliations of the bank account
• Administration of the portfolio as the registered address for all investments and provision of safe custody of all investment holdings and records
• Accurate recording of all transactions (including tax impacts) in easy to follow reporting formats designed to meet both investor and accounting needs
• Comprehensive quarterly reporting - portfolio valuation, portfolio income and expense, portfolio purchases and sales, portfolio performance, asset allocation and full bank statements
• Read-only Internet access to monitor the portfolio/s
• Quarterly economic and financial markets commentary and outlook
• Quarterly reviews of the investment strategy to determine its continued relevance and appropriateness given changing circumstances
• Quarterly analysis of the portfolio against benchmarks as well as analysis of each individual investment held
• Priority allocations in new issues, floats and placements
• Pro-active advice on all corporate actions - mergers and acquisitions, capital reconstructions, buybacks, rights issues, entitlements, etc
• Pro-active advice between reports identifying investment opportunities and risks that may arise
• Unlimited access to advisors, together with regular meetings to facilitate the above in a disciplined fashion

You should note that the Portfolio Management Service is a non-discretionary service. We will never undertake any investment transaction or make any monetary transfer from a bank account without your prior authorisation.

You should also note that your portfolio/s will be totally portable should you wish to end your relationship with us. All investments are registered in your name/s and we typically do not use CHESS securities sponsorship or administrative platforms that lock you in to particular brokers or financial service providers.

To establish your needs, objectives and risk tolerance, we will ask you to complete the Client Questionnaire for an:

• overview of your assets and liabilities
• overview of your income and expenses
• understanding of your goals and objectives
• understanding of your income and growth needs
• consideration of ethical and related matters
• determine whether there are risks that need to be accounted for

We will also ask you to complete the Risk Profile Questionnaire for an understanding of your tolerance to investment losses and portfolio fluctuations.

We will recommend an overall asset allocation which proposes a split between growth and defensive assets and suggested exposures to shares, property, fixed interest and cash.

We will also undertake, pursuant to our Portfolio Construction Guidelines, the process of portfolio construction for you which involves consideration of the best way to get exposure to each asset class. This will in turn involve decisions on the allocation between:

• Wholesale and retail investing
• Active and passive/index investing
• Value and growth investing
• Brand and boutique investing
• Listed and managed investing
• Hedged and unhedged investing
• Small company and large company investing
• Relative return and absolute return investing

Within each asset class our preferred way of investing is likely to include:

International Shares

• Wholesale managers
• Index and active
• Region and sector-specific fund managers
• Bias towards value and small cap styles
• Active hedging

Australian Shares

• Top 200 companies held directly
• Exchange traded funds or listed investment companies
• Wholesale active fund managers in mid, small and micro caps
• Wholesale active absolute return fund managers

Property

• Large cap listed held directly
• Exchange traded funds
• Wholesale active and index managers
• Domestic and global property

International Fixed Interest

• Wholesale managers
• Index managers
• Fully hedged managers
• Credit and high yield managers

Australian Fixed Interest

• Direct hybrids and income securities
• Wholesale managers
• Inflation linked bond managers

Cash and Near-Cash

• No fee, high interest cash trading account
• High interest term deposits
• Mortgage funds

Alternatives

• Hedge/absolute return funds
• Private equity
• Emerging markets

Investment Selection

Investment selections are rigorously researched by a full-time three person in-house research team before they are considered for authorisation by our in-house independent Investment Committee.

Our investment selection process:

• Reviews the available pool of >10,000 managed funds and >1,700 ASX shares
• Researched by full-time three person in-house research team
• Uses specialist external research as required
• Investments are authorised by in-house Investment Committee
• Ensures over 200 authorised investments are available to our clients

Investment implementation is undertaken by our Advisory team on a daily basis and entails:

• Use of our five member Broker Panel
• Discounted brokerage of 0.10% - 0.70% for clients
• Access to deal flow - initial public offerings and placements
• Access to mergers/acquisitions, purchase plans, etc
• Staged implementation of strategy - entering the market slowly and systematically

Daily monitoring of the portfolio/s is made possible by the use of real time market data by our in-house team who access specialty external research as required and the resources of our five member Broker Panel. Investment monitoring entails:

• Real time market data
• Input from Broker Panel
• Risk Management Guidelines
• Daily, weekly and monthly reviews
• Exceptions reporting
• Face-to-face meetings with fund managers and market analysts
• Quarterly re-balancing

For our standard Portfolio Management Service all clients receive comprehensive quarterly reports including:

• Portfolio Valuation
• Portfolio Asset Allocation
• Portfolio Income and Expense
• Portfolio Purchase and Sale
• Portfolio Performance
• Bank Statements

At Pitcher Partners Investment Services, our qualified financial planners can provide comprehensive financial planning advice including:

• Cash flow management and budgeting to ensure you make the most of your money as your cash flow varies
• Investment structuring to make sure your wealth can grow as tax efficiently as possible including consideration of the role that borrowing to invest may have to play
• Asset protection to protect your current and future assets so that what you have worked hard to build is not lost
• Superannuation and retirement planning to make the most of the tax effectiveness of superannuation (both before and after retirement), the use of undeducted contributions and the use of pensions
• Insurance and risk management to help you fully understand the risks to your wealth and take appropriate steps to protect you and your family
• Estate planning to ensure that assets are transferred from one generation to another in the way you wish and in a cost effective manner
• Investment advice to build a wealth accumulation strategy that is appropriate for your objectives and risk tolerance

These financial planning services involve the contribution of many specialists - financial planners, tax specialists, superannuation specialists, risk specialists and estate planning specialists. We are a fee based practice. Prior to us commencing any financial planning engagement we will scope the work that is required and provide you with an estimate of the fees that would be involved.