As well as researching where to invest your money in order to get the best return, we believe it’s also important to spend time understanding who will be managing it on your behalf.That’s why we’ve taken the time to explain our history and expertise, and provide you with an overview of how we put together our investment strategy.
Please remember the value of investments and any income can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest.
Our history of looking after your financial requirements
In 2016, we celebrated our 175th birthday.Our head office is in Birmingham, where we were originally founded to help people overcome the financial problems brought on by the first industrial revolution.
Today, we provide financial advice and solutions for the specific needs of doctors, dentists, teachers and lawyers.We specialise in understanding how these professions (and their associated working environments, related legislation and regulations), impact on the financial requirements of those who work within them.This means we can provide you with the right services and products for your needs.
We’re one of the
UK’s financially strongest mutuals. In 2017 we have £7 billion of assets under our management.
We want to reassure you that we are in a strong position to weather volatility in the investment markets. As a mutual, with no shareholders to consider, we can focus on making the right long-term decisions on behalf of our members. In recent times we have been through several periods of market weakness and have proven procedures in place to protect our financial strength and your investments.
Meet our investment team
Our investment management team consists of six fund managers, and is headed up by Robert Vaudry. The fund managers are supported by a team of investment analysts. We also have a dedicated commercial property investment team.
When it comes to deciding where to invest, we concentrate on our strengths and reinforce this with additional external expertise where appropriate.
Robert Vaudry
Robert Vaudry joined Wesleyan in 2017 to oversee its in house investments team, which manages more than £7 billion of funds.
He had previously managed two multi-award winning global funds as a partner of Quotidian Investments and prior to that worked in global roles for HSBC and Morgan Stanley. Robert has an MBA from London Business School, and has also worked as political secretary to former Prime Minister Edward Heath.
Martin Lawrence
Martin Lawrence has been a Fund Manager since 2001 and is lead Fund Manager of the Wesleyan With Profits Fund.He joined the Society as an Investment Analyst in 1995 and is a fully qualified Associate of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society of the UK. In addition, Martin is Head of Investment Research at Wesleyan and is backed by a team of Fund Managers and Analysts who are market sector specialists.
Paul Burton
Paul Burton has been the Fund Manager of the Low Risk funds since launch in January 2012.He has also managed the assets of the Wesleyan Staff Pension Scheme since 1998 and the Society’s Non Profit fund since 2012. He joined the Society in 1990 qualifying as an actuary in 1998, working as an Investment Analyst in the preceding five years.
Marc O'Sullivan
Marc O'Sullivan has been a Fund Manager since 2012, managing investments across a number of asset classes.Marc joined the Society as an Investment Analyst in 2003 having graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Economics. Marc has been a CFA charterholder since 2008.
James Hubbard
James Hubbard joined Wesleyan as an Investment Analyst in January 2011.After graduating with an MA in Economics and Business from the University of Manchester he initially worked for a Corporate Bank in London. James is a CFA charterholder and has been a Fund Manager since 2016.
Lucas Howarth
Lucas Howarth joined Wesleyan as an Investment Analyst in 2007 having attained a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Birmingham. Lucas has been a CFA charterholder since 2011 and became a Fund Manager in 2016. Lucas is responsible for selecting and monitoring the external funds held within the life and pension product range.
Joe Curlett
Joe Curlett is responsible for all aspects of the Society’s commercial property investment holdings, maintaining a portfolio located throughout the whole of the UK with support from a team of Asset and Property Managers.Joe is a Chartered Surveyor by profession and holds a degree in Estate Management and has previously worked as an Asset Manager for a UK property company and for several property consultants, providing advice to landlords.
How we develop our investment strategy
Long term investing
We have a long term approach to investing and use market turbulence to our advantage, buying equities (stocks and shares) that are temporarily out of favour to further strengthen our financial position.
Our portfolio turnover is extremely low by industry standards and we generally ignore the latest investment ‘fads’.
We have a long held preference for equities, one of the more volatile asset class. Market fluctuations may have some short-term impact on the value of policies, but we firmly believe that over the longer term they are designed to withstand the ups and downs of the markets. We have a nationwide team of specialist financial consultants that can help customers with any questions they might have.
We have a managed approach to risk, maintaining diverse portfolios both across and within asset classes (cash, property, equities, bonds and gilts).
We believe income is an important component of investment return and that for 'real' assets growth in income will ultimately lead to capital appreciation. We expect to outperform the average return of our peers and deliver meaningful real returns over a typical five to ten year holding period.
We have a strong investment strategy which we feel benefits our customers in having a consistent management style whatever fund(s) you invest in. An overview of the range of activities our investment team undertake is shown below.
These activities are underpinned by strong ongoing governance at fund and team level from both internal and external parties.
Your local Financial Consultant
Now that you understand more about us and our approach to managing investments, why not arrange a face to face meeting with one of our Financial Consultants?
The Financial Consultant who contacts you will be local to your area, and will have specialist training in understanding the financial considerations specific to your occupation.