• Fees
  • Risk
  • Return
  • Tax
  • Liquidity

If you’ve assessed your investments across these 5 spheres and you’ve got a good understanding of where each of them sits across each factor, then I’d say you are 90% of the way there. I’ve included fees at number 1 as I believe this is where the bulk of the ambiguity lies, with most clients not really knowing the different layers of fees and costs being charged between the various parties involved in a transaction. I won’t go into each of the potential underlying costs but if you request an EAC (effective annual cost) table from your advisor it will give you a good indication of what you are paying on an annual basis.

The other factors are all unique from client to client depending on their specific goals and objectives and you can create a bespoke solution that ticks all the boxes depending on what they are trying to achieve.