JM Finn

About JM Finn

Our Philosophy

Not-for-profit organisations and charities make an essential contribution to public life and their investments are often the cornerstones of the success of the organisation. This is why many such clients want an investment approach that is both robust and repeatable; one that is tailored to meet specific requirements.

Our investment management services appeal to charities of all sizes, and we are resolute in our focus on providing a personal service to all, no matter how large or small. Expanding on our private client heritage, we adopt a comprehensive, but flexible, approach to managing not-for profit / charitable assets via a highly consultative process.

At JM Finn we typically combine a top-down, macroeconomic view of the world with bottom-up stock selection based on fundamental analysis. Whilst many of our clients may typically have similar objectives for their investment portfolios, many have specific circumstances which require a tailored approach.

The Firm sets about managing investment portfolios by allowing individual investment managers the freedom to construct portfolios that meet their clients’ individual investment needs, as opposed to providing centralised model portfolios for investment managers to follow. Whilst our investment process, driven by our own in house Research Team, might be centralised, its implementation is not. Investment managers are given the tools with which to successfully allocate and invest capital, within a central risk framework, that is appropriate for each individual client. Your investment manager is therefore responsible for all aspect of the relationship which we feel promotes accountability, transparency and ultimately better client outcomes. This flexibility ensures our actions are aligned with your specific expectations.

At JM Finn, we understand the importance of ensuring your charity does not invest in any way that conflicts with its objectives. We therefore integrate Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) into our process through three distinct channels:

Negative screening
- Ability to recognise the importance of avoiding the reputational risk of holding an investment that is contrary to a client’s aims.
- Encourages discussion to ensure the client’s needs are correctly interpreted and met.

Reporting and Engagement
- We have partnered with Federated Hermes, one of the largest global stewardship providers to engage and report (quarterly) on all our discretionary holdings. The report outlines some of the more significant engagements undertaken over the period, any engagement progress made on issues previously highlighted and on individual company alignment with the 17 sustainable development goals.
- Federated Hermes also advise us on how to vote and we have partnered with a company, ISS, who provide proxy voting services.

Assessment and Monitoring
- We have partnered with Sustainalytics (part of Morningstar), the leading independent global provider of ESG and corporate governance research provider, to provide us with non-financial ESG data. This will be used to assess non-financial risk in current portfolios as well as in new potential investments.

In addition, high quality pooled funds with responsible investment policies may be appropriate to complement direct holdings. These are monitored by an experienced ESG fund specialist.

Our parent company is signatory of the UN PRI.

We can accommodate ethical criteria on an individual basis because we tailor portfolios to meet the individual requirements of our clients.

The investment process will typically start by establishing an agreed asset allocation in response to your brief, which is then populated by appropriate equity and bond investments, and supplemented with other funds and trusts to provide exposure to more specialist areas, and to diversify the portfolio.

Many factors will be considered at the outset and during the ongoing management of the portfolio, including, amongst others:

- Investment objectives
- Risk tolerance
- Capital requirements
- Income requirements
- Time horizon
- An appropriate benchmark
- Any specific instructions
- ESG requirements

Your investment management team will be your primary point of contact.

To find out how our dedicated team of charity experts could help you, please do not hesitate to contact us.