Happy New Year to you and your families; wishing you much good health and prosperity in the year ahead!
I’d like to start off by introducing you to Francis Gates - Med-Ex’s latest new recruit and the first time we’ve appointed another financial planner. Francis joined us in December to support the business as it grows and transitions. He will shadow me during most of my annual reviews for the next few months as he accustoms himself to our processes and culture, most of which are client centric. His main skill is working with clients directly, but he is technically equipped to deal with the majority of client situations presented to us and able to offer effective investment/pension planning solutions. You can read more about him inside, and on our website, which has his full bio, including his love of theatre: https://www.med-ex.co.uk/us. We are also looking to strengthen our administration team over the coming months with a new full-time appointment.
Over the next 12 months, I will be looking forward to finding out how your plans are developing and about all those new experiences many of you have been enjoying. We are keen to publish in this newsletter positive experiences you can report on, whether it is the accomplishment of a lifelong ambition, or the decision to embark upon one. There are so many people out there who will benefit from reading about your experience, so please do let us know what you have done or what you are about to do. Pictures say 1,000 words too!
So, for an update on where investment positions lie. While most economists have come to terms with the reasons why we are where we are (the need to tackle and effectively deal with high inflation whilst not killing off the shoots of growth), the camp seems split on whether we are ‘still’ headed for a recession and therefore continued global stockmarket volatility. There are all sorts of reasons and
justifications why markets may remain unsettled for the next year, but on the other side of the coin, there are those who believe that talk of a recession has been round for long enough recently for markets to have already priced that in. While interest rate hikes are seen as an effective way of dampening inflationary ardour (if considered a little agricultural), in the UK we await the impact of the new tax year when lots of public sector final salary pensions (including the State Pension) increase by around 10%. This is likely to increase spending.
Nick Miles DipPFS
Director