Investment Philosophy
What an investment mandate should actually say
A mandate is not paperwork completed before the interesting work begins. It is the document that determines whether later decisions can be judged at all.
6 min read
Investment management · Long-horizon capital
Capital managed to a written mandate.
Objectives, horizon, liquidity and tolerance for loss are established and recorded before a portfolio is built. Every decision afterwards is made, and reviewed, against that document.
- Mandate first
- Nothing is implemented before objectives and constraints are written down.
- Research led
- Positions carry documented reasoning and the conditions to revisit them.
- Risk governed
- Exposures are monitored against agreed tolerances, not against sentiment.
The firm
An investment firm is judged by how it behaves in the years nothing happens.
Aldermere manages capital for investors whose horizon is measured in decades rather than quarters. The work is unglamorous by design: define what the capital is for, size the risk deliberately, hold the structure through market cycles, and revisit it when circumstances change, not when headlines do.
We publish our reasoning rather than our conviction. Portfolio decisions are recorded with the analysis behind them so that later reviews test the original logic instead of reconstructing it from memory. Where evidence is thin, we say so.
Investment capabilities
Capabilities, expressed through a mandate
Each capability below states its purpose, the portfolio role it is intended to play, the client context it suits, and the risks it carries. We do not present a capability as appropriate for every investor.
- 01Investment ManagementDiscretionary management of a portfolio against an agreed investment policy, objectives and risk parameters.
- 02Portfolio ConstructionAssembling exposures into a coherent whole, with attention to correlation, concentration, liquidity and cost.
- 03Asset AllocationSetting and maintaining the strategic mix of exposures that carries the majority of long-term portfolio behaviour.
- 04Equity StrategiesOwnership of listed businesses, approached through fundamental research and valuation discipline.
- 05Fixed IncomeLending exposure structured around credit quality, duration, liquidity and the portfolio's income requirements.
- 06Multi-Asset StrategiesCombining asset classes within a single mandate where a blended risk profile is the objective.
- 07Private Markets & AlternativesLess-liquid exposures assessed on structure, terms, diligence and their fit with the portfolio's liquidity plan.
- 08Real AssetsPhysical and infrastructure-linked exposures considered for their income characteristics and inflation sensitivity.
- 09Risk ManagementIdentifying, measuring and governing the risks a portfolio is taking, including those it is taking unintentionally.
- 10Private Wealth & Multi-Generational CapitalCoordinating investment decisions with the wider circumstances of families holding capital across generations.
Investment philosophy
Six principles that constrain what we will do with capital.
- I
Horizon before opinion
The length of time capital can remain invested constrains every other decision. It is established first and revisited rarely.
- II
Risk is chosen, not accepted
A portfolio should take the risks it intends to take, in sizes that were decided in advance and can be explained afterwards.
- III
Valuation is a discipline
The price paid is one of the few variables an investor controls. It is treated as part of the decision, not a detail of execution.
- IV
Diversification with intent
Holdings are combined for what they contribute to the whole. Breadth without purpose is not diversification.
- V
Liquidity is planned
The ability to meet obligations without forced selling is sized before allocations are made, not after.
- VI
Written reasoning
Decisions are recorded with their rationale, so that later reviews test the original logic rather than reconstruct it.
Investment process
A sequence, followed in order
Ten steps, from understanding objectives to adjusting a portfolio when the reasoning behind it has changed. The first four are shown here.
- 01
Understand objectives
Establish what the capital is for, who it serves, and over what horizon. Nothing is proposed before this is clear.
- 02
Establish parameters
Document liquidity requirements, constraints, permitted exposures and the governance that will apply.
- 03
Define risk tolerance
Express tolerance for decline as a considered magnitude, tested against the obligations the portfolio must meet.
- 04
Develop allocation
Set strategic weights with ranges, and record the reasoning and the conditions for moving within them.
Who we are built to serve
Different obligations, different mandates.
The structure of a portfolio follows from what the capital is required to do and for whom. These are the client contexts the firm is organised around.
Individuals & Private Clients
Personal capital managed against objectives that usually combine growth, income and access to funds at defined points in time.
Families & Family Offices
Capital serving several people, often across generations, with differing horizons and distribution requirements.
Institutions & Corporations
Balance-sheet and reserve capital managed against policy constraints, reporting obligations and defined liabilities.
Foundations & Endowments
Perpetual or long-dated capital where a spending requirement runs alongside the objective of maintaining real value.
Advisers & Intermediaries
Professional firms seeking investment capability alongside their own client relationships and advice process.
Research & insights
Written for investors, not for markets
Notes on process, portfolio structure and risk. We publish explanations of how decisions are made rather than predictions about what markets will do next.
Portfolio Construction
Liquidity is an allocation decision, not a residual
Portfolios rarely fail because an individual holding disappoints. They fail when capital has to be raised at the wrong moment.
5 min read
Asset Allocation
Rebalancing is governance, not market timing
The value of a rebalancing policy lies less in the transactions it produces than in the discretion it removes.
4 min read
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Mandates begin with a discussion of objectives, horizon and constraints, before any portfolio is proposed.
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