About Principal
- What is Principal Investment Management's core business?
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Principal offers personalised portfolio management services to private investors, trusts, charities, corporate entities and professional advisers across the UK. We offer a discretionary investment service, meaning that our clients hand over the day-to-day running of their portfolios.
- What is the investment philosophy of Principal?
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Principal fundamentally believes no investing style is permanently superior, but instead understands that styles and philosophies cycle in and out of favour over time. As a result, Principal uses a variety of strategies in dynamically managing clients' assets over time. Our investment philosophy is quite simple: we believe that investment markets can be inefficient in the short-to-medium term, but that in the longer term they are efficient. To read more about our investment philosophy, please click here.
- What kind of service do its private clients receive?
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Principal prides itself in providing a proactive and personalised service for its clients. Principal provides regular communications - including six-monthly valuations, an Online Valuation service and research reports.
- Do you provide impartial advice for all aspects of financial planning?
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No. Principal specialises in discretionary portfolio management and we do not offer general financial advice. If you are in any doubt about the suitability of our investment services, we recommend that you seek advice from a professional intermediary. If you would like to make contact with an independent financial adviser, there are a number of websites that can help you select one local to you:
- What is Principal’s performance history?
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Please contact Principal for details of our performance record.
- My IFA has advised me to consolidate my pension investments into a SIPP. Would you be able to help manage the underlying investments?
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Yes. For more information on how you can invest your Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) or Small Self Administered Scheme (SSAS), please click here to read more about these services or contact us.
- How do I collect income/interest?
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As part of our administration service, we collect all dividends and interest payments due to your portfolio, and account to you periodically. Therefore, there is no need for you to retain individual dividend statements for tax purposes.
We also deal with corporate actions, other offers or capital re-organisations, as well as exercising conversion and subscription rights on your behalf. Investment income can be paid to your bank account monthly, quarterly or six-monthly, or reinvested into your portfolio.
As the frequency and amount of income received by us on your behalf depends on the underlying investments, we can provide a number of income ‘options’ to facilitate the smooth running of your finances. For example, you can opt to have all natural income monthly, quarterly or half-yearly. Bearing in mind that the amount of income may vary significantly from month to month and may be lower than anticipated in the early stages of the portfolio’s construction, you may wish to receive a consistent income level. If this is the case, you can specify a fixed amount that you wish to receive based upon your requirements and the portfolio's estimated current yield albeit it should be appreciated that if you take a higher level of income than the overall returns on the portfolio its capital value will fall.
- What happens if I have paper share certificates?
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These can be sent to us and we will arrange for the shareholdings to be transferred to our nominee account. As settlement periods continue to shorten, a nominee service is becoming essential to ensure prompt settlement. In addition, the nominee system allows us to take care of the administration on your behalf, reducing paperwork to a minimum. All securities held for clients are fully segregated from Principal’s own assets and naturally you, the client, remain the beneficial owner.
- How do I reduce risk?
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We believe that risk can be effectively managed through sensible diversification, in accordance with your investment requirements and overall attitude to risk.
Please contact one of our Investment Managers to discuss this in more detail.
Alternatively, please speak with your adviser.
- How do I withdraw funds?
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If you would like to withdraw monies from your account, please contact your Investment Manager or the administration department.
Please note that for pensions and offshore bond portfolios, the instructions will need to be issued to us by the relevant provider. In these circumstances, please contact your provider in the first instance.
- What are your charges?
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We charge an annual management fee, which is based on the total market value of the investments. In addition, clients will also incur transaction charges. By negotiating discounts in the marketplace, we keep these to a minimum. As the charges can depend upon the service required and sums being considered, please contact us or speak with your adviser for further information.
- Does Principal have a policy on Treating Customers Fairly (TCF)?
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Yes. Principal operates within the FSA’s requirements on Treating Customers Fairly and there is a detailed process for reviewing TCF management information. Staff receive TCF training and refresher training takes place regularly.
- Does Principal have a Conflicts of Interest Policy?
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Yes. Our policy can be found here.
- How do I invest in joint names?
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It is easy and simple to invest in joint names. Should you wish to make an investment or transfer your portfolio to joint names, please contact us or speak with your financial adviser.
- Can I lose money?
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Yes. The value of investments may fall as well as rise.
Equities can be more volatile than other asset classes, and should therefore be regarded as a medium to long term investment. You may not get back all that you originally invested, particularly if you withdraw in the first few years. Investments in managed funds may be subject to an initial change. The value of fixed interest investments (such as government gilts and corporate bonds) may fluctuate before maturity. In the case of corporate bonds, you may lose some or all of your capital if the issuer goes bankrupt and cannot repay its debts.
Some portfolios may include investment funds (such as property funds and hedge funds) that use gearing as part of their investment strategy. Such funds may be subject to sudden and large falls in value, and you may get back nothing on this part of your portfolio if the fall in value is sufficiently large. Investment in property funds and hedge funds should be viewed as a medium term investment, as in certain circumstances it may be difficult to liquidate such investments quickly. Some hedge funds are not regulated by the FSA. The value of investments in overseas securities may also rise and fall purely as a result of exchange rate fluctuations.
Capital on deposit with a bank or building society is generally regarded as secure and is immediately accessible. Any tax reliefs referred to are those currently available. Their value depends on the individual circumstances of the investor. Levels, bases of and reliefs from taxation may change. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
- How do I find out how my portfolio is performing?
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Clients of Principal have direct access to the managers who are responsible for looking after their portfolio. They ensure that we have a thorough and up-to-date knowledge of the client’s particular circumstances and investment requirements and that the portfolio is managed in accordance with these. As we work closely as a team, if the usual managers are unavailable for any reason, there is always someone else who is familiar with the portfolio to answer any queries.
In addition, clients and professional intermediaries can obtain access to their portfolios through our secure Online Valuation Service (OLV). In order to set up access to this service, please click here to download the OLV registration form.
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For clients of the WealthSpace wrap service, please contact your IFA, as this will be dependant on the wrap provider and its valauation service.
- What ethical investment services do you offer?
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We welcome clients who wish to invest ethically and can tailor portfolios according to specific restrictions if they are investing directly in equities. In addition, we also have an ‘Ethical’ managed funds portfolio, which invests in a range of managed funds which themselves have an ethical bias (although ethical constraints can increase the risk associated with a portfolio).
- What services are available for Professional Advisers?
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We offer a number of services for that help professional advisers and their clients.
Principal can support you by:
- Managing your clients’ investments tax efficiently (our Portfolio ISA enables us to manage ISA assets, including any former PEPs, alongside a taxable portfolio as part of a cohesive strategy)
- Providing Capital Gains Tax planning as part of our service and, where applicable, seeking to make use of your clients’ capital gains tax allowances each year when managing their portfolio
- Ensuring electronic settlements of most transactions, carried out by our highly experienced settlements team
- Providing six monthly reporting, detailing all transactions undertaken
- Giving you and your clients direct access to the portfolio’s Investment Manager to answer any queries that you may have
For more information on the above and other services we provide, please click on the link to be transferred to the Professional intermediary main page.
- Can you offer help and/or advice on simply buying and selling shares?
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We offer a discretionary service, and do not trade shares at a client’s request.
- How do I make a complaint?
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If you would like to make a complaint about any aspect of our service, please contact the Head of Compliance.
