Danny Cox of Hargreaves Lansdown and Chris Spear of Spear Financial came up with the following key points:
- Check individual holdings regularly
- Use your ISA allowance
- Hold a diverse spread of investments
- Set out clear objectives
- Hold sufficient cash
- Take enough risk
Chris Spear (pictured), managing director of Spear Financial
"Generally I like an approach across the product system."
"A major part of managing your investment portfolio is keeping a check on the individual funds you hold to make sure they are still appropriate for you investment objective."
"For instance, I am currently reviewing a client’s portfolio and they hold a cautious total return fund that isn’t doing the job it is supposed to, so they will be dropping it."
"You have to go through each of your holdings individually and check their performance because when you are looking at your investment portfolio in its totality it is quite easy to miss that one underperforming fund."
"So I urge investors to keep a close eye on things in that respect."
"Another area is that you should be using your ISA allowance, I can’t stress that enough. Investors should be making the most of them; they help your future income and help you avoid measures like capital gains tax."
"To fulfil your ISA allowance, it might mean you have to move money from traditional OEICs or investment bonds but it is certainly worth it."
"Also, make sure you have a good product spread in your investment portfolio and you have sufficient cash. There could be new taxation measures so you need to make sure there is a decent spread across the spectrum."
"For investors I like cash, I like national savings, I like venture capital trusts and more traditional vehicles; just make sure you have a good mix."
"This is the case even if stock markets rise – which a lot of people think they have the ability to do now – just make sure you are well covered."
Danny Cox (pictured), head of advice at Hargreaves Lansdown
"Firstly, make sure you have enough cash in case of emergencies."
"However, a major part of managing your portfolio is making sure that you have a purpose for your investments, so set out a clear investment objective."
"Investors can tend to be too vague with their investment purpose, so say they want capital growth or to save; but they are not clear when they want their money back or what is a successful return on their investments."
"Just set out proper and reasonable objectives."
"That being the case, make sure that you diversify and you take enough risk in your portfolio."
"If you know you want to grow your capital, say double your investment over 10 years, your holdings need to be growing at around 7 per cent per annum. So if you hold too much cash you are never going to get there."
"When it comes to diversification, this is not just the case of asset and sector allocation but also the fund provider. So for instance, equity income is very popular at the moment but you want to find out exactly how they make their yield."
"An example of this is that JOHCM UK Equity Income and Artemis Income are managed in very different ways."
"Investors should be tax efficient as well, so use your ISA allowance as your rate of income will not be as heavily affected by capital gains tax."
"Finally, investors should regularly review their portfolio."