Good investment advice requires experience and research. All our advisors are very experienced in financial markets and hold high level qualifications together with highest professional designation of Certified Financial Planner. In addition, at Pitcher Partners Investment Services, we have our own highly qualified in house researchers applying their technical and analytical skills to selecting and monitoring investments, finding the best options for our clients.

Our investment methodology is to assist you to maximise your wealth by adhering to three important principles:

• Minimising risk
• Optimising returns
• Minimising fees and taxes

We optimise returns by client-focused strategic asset allocation, considered portfolio construction, rigorous manager and security selection, quality 'deal flow', active rebalancing and ensuring that no opportunities are missed.

We minimise risk by the use of Portfolio Construction Guidelines which emphasise diversification (of asset classes, market sectors, securities, research, brokers and managers), the use of staged investing, the application of Risk Management Guidelines and active and real time daily market monitoring.

We minimise fees and taxes by using the appropriate investment structure, employing 'direct' investing wherever suitable, employing 'wholesale' investing, minimising platform fees, adopting a 'buy and hold' approach, targeting imputation credits where suitable, targeting tax deferred income where suitable and deferring realised capital gains.

At Pitcher Partners Investment Services, we have a disciplined approach to investment management. This approach begins with the rigorous application of our Portfolio Construction Guidelines to the design of each individual portfolio ensuring that risk, diversification, expected income and expected growth characteristics are appropriately reflected. The following guidelines generally apply to our portfolios:

• No single direct holding is to comprise more than 5% of any portfolio
• No one managed fund is to comprise more than 10% of any portfolio
• No one fund manager to comprise more than 25% of any portfolio

Then, on a day-to-day basis, we apply our Risk Management Guidelines to ensure that any security or fund price movements are adequately understood and continue to reflect our expected investment performance. We also review changes in investment liquidity, earnings and distribution revisions and changes to business structures and ownership. We are in regular contact with listed companies and fund managers on a face-to-face basis to monitor the investments in client portfolios.

Underlying both portfolio construction and investment monitoring are the principles of our Investment Philosophy which encapsulates our values and methodology in a way which prospective and existing clients can gain understanding and comfort from the approach being taken. Successful investment management has always been based on a core philosophy or set of beliefs that can be translated into investment methodology or actions. At Pitcher Partners Investment Service, we have distilled our philosophy into 10 core investment beliefs:

• Preservation of client capital is paramount
• Risk and return are related
• Returns will revert to long term averages
• Investing is for the long term
• Diversification reduces risk
• Financial market inefficiencies can create opportunities
• Liquidity and currency are important
• Fund managers can add value
• Monitoring is important and market returns matter
• Fees and taxes matter

Please refer to our Investment Philosophy section for more detail.

In relation to client contact our clients have unlimited access to advisors centred around our regular quarterly client meetings and our responsive advice on any matters requiring the investor to make a decision between quarters. Up-to-date internet access to the portfolio also gives clients the information needed on a day-to-day basis.