Wealth Management
A wealth management approach rooted in the belief that decades of academic research and evidence should guide how we build and manage portfolios.
No predictions, no forecasts, nor market timing. Instead designed to capture the returns that markets offer efficiently.
What is Evidence-Based Investing?
Evidence-based investing is grounded in a simple but powerful idea: markets work, and the collective wisdom of millions of participants is reflected in prices almost instantly. Rather than attempting to outguess the market, we rely on rigorous, peer reviewed academic research to identify the dimensions of return that matter and build portfolios designed to capture them efficiently.
This approach is neither passive nor static. It is an active commitment to discipline, data, and the science of capital markets.
The Three Pillars
1: Markets Are Effective
Asset prices reflect the expectations of all market participants. Rather than betting against this collective intelligence, we embrace it.
New information is rapidly incorporated into prices, making it extraordinarily difficult to consistently identify mispriced securities.
2: Dimensions Drive Returns
Academic research has identified specific, persistent sources of expected return. For Equity markets there are size, value, and profitability. In fixed income they are term and credit.
We structure portfolios to target these dimensions systematically, rather than relying on stock picking intuition.
3: Discipline Preserves Wealth
The greatest threat to investor returns is often the investor themselves.
Evidence based investing replaces emotional reactions with a structured, rules based framework designed to keep you invested through market cycles, re-balance strategically, and maintain focus on long-term objectives.
Key Investment Philosophy
Principles are not opinions, they are conclusions drawn from decades of peer reviewed financial science.
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Spreading investments across thousands of securities worldwide reduces risk without proportionally reducing expected return.
By diversifying broadly across asset classes, sectors, and geographies, you capture global market returns while minimizing the impact of any single company or region's performance.
This disciplined, systematic approach removes speculation and emotion from investing, allowing markets to work for you over the long term.
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Higher expected returns come with greater risk, but not all risks are rewarded.
Calibrate your portfolio to take only the risks worth taking: those with a proven expected payoff.
Eliminate unpredictable risks through diversification and discipline, ensuring the risk you take is in service to your long-term plan.
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Every basis point of expense permanently reduces your compounded return over time.
A seemingly small difference in fees can mean significant differences in returns across a lifetime of investing.
Be relentless about minimising unnecessary costs from fund expense ratios and advisory fees to transaction costs and tax implications. These drag on performance silently but steadily.
Smart investing means hunting for cost-effective solutions without sacrificing quality or long-term outcomes.
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Missing the best days in the market can devastate returns. Studies show that being absent for just the ten best trading days over a twenty-year period can cut your total returns nearly in half.
The irony? Those best days almost always occur during periods of fear and uncertainty, precisely when pulling out feels safest.
Staying invested through volatility is one of the most powerful, rewarding, and hardest things an investor can do.
Discipline, not timing, builds lasting wealth.
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A manager's hot streak is rarely evidence of genuine skill.
Past outperformance attracts attention and capital, yet study after study shows that yesterday's winners frequently become tomorrow's laggards.
Chasing prior success seduces investors into buying high and selling low, the opposite of a sound strategy.
Rely on structural evidence and enduring academic principles, not rear-view mirror optimism. Markets reward patience and discipline far more reliably than the pursuit of recent headlines. In the long term, evidence wins.
Our Process of Building a Portfolio
Using academic research on expected returns, we construct a diversified portfolio targeting the dimensions most appropriate for your profile.
Asset allocation, not security selection, drives the majority of long-term returns.
1. Discovery
We begin by understanding your complete financial picture.
Your goals, time horizon, risk tolerance, liquidity needs, tax position, and existing arrangements across all jurisdictions.
2. Design
Markets drift. Portfolios that begin aligned can become unbalanced over time.
We monitor continuously and re-balance strategically, restoring target allocations, harvesting tax losses where appropriate, and keeping costs low throughout.
3. Implement
Portfolios are built using daily dealing instruments, broadly diversified, low-cost, and engineered for precise market exposure.
We favour systematic funds over actively managed ones where the evidence supports it.
4. Monitor
Life happens. Things change both for the positive and sometimes other things do wrong.
Planning goals shift. So, regular reviews ensure your investment strategy is updated and remains aligned with your circumstances.
5. Review
Use the below calculator as a guide to how you savings and investment could grow over time.
FAQs
Is evidence-based investing the same as passive investing?
Not quite. Passive investing typically means tracking a standard index like the S&P 500. Evidence-based investing goes further. It uses academic research to identify which dimensions of the market offer higher expected returns, then constructs portfolios that systematically target those dimensions.
Does this approach mean you never adjust my portfolio?
Regular rebalancing is essential. As markets move, your portfolio's allocation drifts from its targets. We monitor and rebalance to maintain your intended risk profile, but we do not attempt to time market entry and exit based on predictions.
How do you handle international investments?
Comprehensive global diversification is a cornerstone of the approach. We allocate across assets, developed and emerging markets, and their sectors to ensure broad exposure and reduce concentration risk.
What about ESG or ethical investing preferences?
Evidence-based principles can be applied alongside responsible investing preferences. We can incorporate ‘Ethical’ screens and values-based exclusions while maintaining portfolio integrity and diversification standards.
What evidence supports this approach?
Decades of research from institutions including the University of Chicago, Dartmouth, MIT, and others underpin this methodology. Ongoing studies continue to validate and refine the framework. This is a living discipline, not a fixed dogma.
Ready to invest with Evidence on your side?
Schedule a consultation to discuss how evidence-based investing can serve your goals with transparency, discipline, and the weight of academic research behind every decision.
No pressure, no product pitches. Just an honest conversation about where you are, where you want to go, and what it would take to get there.