The year to 30 June 2021 was one where we experienced the full impact of COVID and the consequent responses across fiscal & monetary policy, corporates, households and financial markets. As private investment managers for over 25 years, we are seasoned at interpreting and managing short-term events through a long-term capital prism.

As we have noted variously over the last 15 months, in a significant way we view COVID as having quickened trends and processes that were already on-foot; some positive (technology, communication, productivity, maybe fiscal stimulus), others less positive (wholesale government intervention, property price inflation, more people in less developed nations slip back into poverty, nationalism, China 'wolf warrior' diplomacy & economic actions). Importantly, where investors stopped looking through the long term prism, either by ill-timed market exit or chasing the tail of short term trends, they invariably underperformed, and by a significant margin. This also has implications for investors current asset class positioning moving forward.

The performance of our multi-asset strategy over the last 12 months is illustrated in Figure 1. This shows Cameron Harrison's Core Dynamic Strategy ranking at No 1 when compared with the Chant West Survey of the Top 10 Performing Balanced Funds to 30 June 2021. That said, our investment thinking and hence returns will sometimes encounter periods of headwinds brought about by short term shifts, trends or fads. It is the experience of looking through a long term capital prism that provides the analytical fortitude and strength of process which provides the strong base for long term returns.

Another way to see an investors experience investing in our investment managers Core Strategy is in Figure 2. This shows the accumulation of $1,000,000 invested at 1 July 2000. As at 30 June 2021, some 21 years later, it would have quadrupled to $4,330,000 and be 40% higher than median benchmark comparatives.

The pursuit of wealth accumulation should therefore not overlook the benefits of compound returns over time. This powerful compounding benefit can evaporate when investors chop-and-change investment course when on proper analysis, their objectives remain the same and less risk with compound returns would achieve their end goal.

The returns of all our asset allocation strategies over the last five years are summarised below.

At Cameron Harrison, we are a team of investment managers who have been delivering investment and asset allocation solutions to clients for over 25 years; a period spanning the early 1990’s recession, dot-com boom, GFC, COVID and now COVID recovery and its repercussions.

As private investment managers, we have been helping families, business owners and non-profit institutions. Cameron Harrison manages and provides a suite of asset allocation solutions addressing the full spectrum of risk and individual bespoke requirements. Together with client planning, asset allocation strategy is central to arriving at the optimum wealth management settings for a client. Asset allocation strategy, combined with our portfolio construction risk management, is the single biggest contributor to risk-adjusted returns.

Our spectrum of asset class strategies is shown below.
Click on this figure to open our interactive tool, which will take you through each strategy in detail.

Cameron Harrison have been advising business owners and their families on asset allocation and intergenerational wealth management for over 50 years. We have demonstrated over a long period our ability to manage investments through both the good times and bad by keeping the client at the centre of our business.

For more information on our approach to investment strategy or any other inquiries, please contact us on +61 3 9655 5000.