Finance Monthly Global Awards 2018 Edition

ASSET MANAGEMENT ADVISORY FIRM OF THE YEAR Tell us more about the services that Cobens offers? Cobens Wealth management operate 3 groups of portfolios • Active • Passive • Income Each have multiple risk rated portfolios, ranging from: • Cautious • Moderately Cautious • Balanced • Moderately Adventurous • Adventurous In addition, we have both an Ethical portfolio and a Shariah compliant option. Some of our portfolios have been around now for more than 15 years and as with all of our portfolios, our clients have enjoyed consistently above benchmark performance throughout. Our investment philosophy is built upon some very simple cornerstones, for example, • Looking after the downside risk rather than chasing the upside • Looking for sustainable performance rather than boom and bust • Protecting asset allocation as an ongoing principle whilst maintaining flexibility • Regular and constant reviews and testing • Not being frightened to look at where others see the markets • Not being afraid to deviate from the benchmark where the rationale is strong • We do not add trading costs • One size does NOT fit all Our investment committee meet quarterly (or more frequent if required) and their focus is long term gains with both strategic and tactical changes reviewed on each occasion. This should (and has) filtered through to longer term performance which consistently outperforms benchmark. These services are offered to all our clients, whether they are members of a group scheme or individual wealth management clients and, of course a very important factor in looking after our clients is the ability to tailor such portfolios specific to their individual needs. Chris Poole is the Founder and Managing Director of Cobens. He joined the industry in 1987 and, after a very short period soon realised that there was need for radical changes within the way that we looked after clients and their money. Cobens was then born. Whilst remaining fully independent, they focused on the corporate sector which was soon followed by creating a specialist team to look after individual client wealth which we all know now as Wealth Management. Here, Chris tells us more about Cobens. Firm Profile Cobens was founded in 1987 and is a leading industry specialist in em- ployee benefits, delivering consist- ent, successful results. In 2012 we bought another fully inde- pendent company, Astute Financial Management UK Limited and today, the group is a multi-disciplined inde- pendent financial advisory firm that is roughly split into 4 sectors • Cobens Wealth Management • Cobens Employee benefits • Cobens Direct • Cobens Australia Now, a team over 42 people, Cobens look after over 100,000 clients and in excess of £300,000,000. At the heart of all of this is our service and the management of client money. Q Finance Monthly Global Awards 2018 www.finance-monthly.com 36 UNITED KINGDOM