Investment performance - any advice?

[peacelil]

Hi there, just looking for some advice - I'm early 40s, and have inherited investments which are currently being managed by the same financial advisor that my relatives used. They don't seem to be doing that well and have been pretty much stagnating since I inherited - just before Covid hit. I know this has been a rough few years for this kind of thing but not sure if my funds should be doing better than they are. I am investing for the long term - for my retirement pot, and just not sure if this is the best strategy to make the most of this money. My financial advisor is well trusted by extended family, and has been fairly active in moving things around/keeping an eye on things etc but having had no experience of this kind of thing previously sometimes I don't know what questions to ask/what to look out for. I am currently mortgage free, self employed so no workplace pension at the moment, and so am keen to make this money work as hard as possible, but not sure whether I need to take a bit more of an active role in managing things or find another way of investing?
Any advice, ideas, questions welcomed - thank you.

Edited to add - higher risk means the potential for higher returns but also more volatility / ups and downs in values. It’s really important you invest at a level of risk you are comfortable with and can afford. Eg you may like the idea of very high risk but you need to have the capacity to take this level of risk and consider what would happen if you needed access to the money at a point values are low.

There are 2 options - do it yourself / self manage or let an advisor look after it for you.

which option suits best is how involved you want to be, how much knowledge you have and how much confidence you have in self managing.

i assume you are paying an advisor an ongoing fee? For this they should be reviewing the investments regularly (once a year is normal) and making any changes they feel are appropriate.

you say you have inherited investments, have these been reviewed since then? Your objectives, timescale for investment and attitude to risk will be different from the relative you inherited from so what was most suitable for them may not be most suitable for you. Eg they may have wanted to take a low level of risk which means the investments won’t have grown as much as a higher risk investment.

a decent advisor would go through all this with you but in general you need to consider:

objective for the investment - what do you actually want or need to do with it, do you need it for retirement, leave it to the kids, for luxury spending etc. do you need a capital sum or an income?

timescale until you need access - a longer investment term means you can take higher risk. Shorter timescales generally mean lower risk.

your attitude to risk - what level of risk are you comfortable taking / want to take / are able to take. You can complete a questionnaire to find this out.

Do you have any ethical preferences for investment - no arms or tobacco or would like to invest in companies which have a positive social or governance impact.

active or passive investing - active costs more but aims to outperform the market. Passive is cheaper but will track an index like the ftse100 so will not outperform it. or you can have a bit of both.

tax - depending on what the investment is, there may be tax consequences or selling or changing it.

the first step would be to speak to the advisor and see what you think of them and if you comfortable with them and what their fees are. If you would prefer not to use the. You could look for another advisor or self manage.

(I’m a Chartered Financial Planner with over 25 years experience).