Strategic Asset Allocation and Portfolio Management

Course description

This programme is available on in-company only basis and can be delivered virtually. Contact us to discuss your requirements.

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This practical 2 day course will review developments and best practices within the investment management industry focusing on asset allocation and portfolio construction. Conducted by a trainer with many years of practical experience from the sector the workshop is designed to be interactive drawing on the knowledge and experiences of the trainer and participants.

You will have a chance to explore the best practices across the industry using current industry research, reports, analysis and case studies. You will be also encouraged to apply the best practices from your own market and business.

The program is designed for delegates with a knowledge of the fundamentals of modern portfolio theory, asset allocation theory, equity analysis and portfolio construction techniques.

What will you learn

By the end of this course you will:

  • Understand how to design asset allocation models for different client types and market conditions
  • Build and maintain optimal portfolio’s based on investor needs
  • Recognise the key features, advantages and risks of the key asset classes and their role in portfolio construction
  • Recognise how to identify and capture alpha
  • Appreciate the significance of behavioural biases and how to manage them when designing investment strategies for different client type

You may be also interested in some of the following public courses:

Register for any 2 public courses at the same time and save £100 + VAT (in total, not per course).


Main topics covered during this training

  • The nature of the Investment Management market
  • Market tends and product evolution
  • The theoretical tools and concepts
  • Risk / return relationship
  • Diversification and correlation
  • Constructing the framework
  • Rebalancing and reallocation
  • The process of asset allocation and portfolio construction in practice
  • The search for ‘alpha’ and the importance of information ratios
  • Performance Measurement and attribution
  • The importance of Behavioural Finance
  • Asset class characteristics

Who should attend

  • Private Bankers and Wealth Managers
  • Family Office Executives
  • High Net Worth Investors and their advisors
  • Investment Managers, Strategists & Analysts
  • Risk managers
  • Trustees
  • Accountants / Lawyers
  • Pension Fund Professionals
  • Regulatory bodies and Policy makers

 

Strategic Asset Allocation and Portfolio Management - A 2 Day Course

Introduction

Overview of the Investment Management industry

  • The players
  • The key clients
  • The core products
  • Market trends
  • Key Performance Indicators and Profit dynamics
  • Investment “themes” and “styles”
  • Market trends and Product evolution

– The passive vs. active debate – ‘redefining active management’

– Separation of alpha and beta

– ETF’s

– Smart Beta

– Open architecture

– Multi Manager approaches

– Liability driven strategies

– Outcome funds

The “building blocks” 

  • Asset allocation – Art or Science?
  • The relevance of Modern Portfolio theory and “efficient markets” today
  • Risk

– The risk / return relationship

– The “efficient frontier” concept

– Asset and portfolio risk and returns

– Different types of risk and perception of risk

– Risk measures

– Risk premium

  • Diversification and Correlation

The asset allocation process

  • Overview
  • The Investment Policy Statement
  • Types of asset allocation
  • Principal protection and principal growth assets
  • Constructing the Framework
  • Matching asset classes with wealth levels and income needs
  • Asset and portfolio risk
  • Risk adjusted returns
  • Case study: Building and maintaining optimal portfolio solutions

Rebalancing and reallocation

  • Principles and Scope
  • Approaches to rebalancing
  • Advantages and disadvantages
  • Managing ‘drift’ in the portfolio and ‘maverick’ risk
  • Relative performance
  • Critical success factors
  • Special considerations when dealing with concentrated positions

Asset allocation and other portfolio construction disciplines

  • Strategic principles
  • Style and sector selection
  • Region and country selection
  • Industry and Security selection
  • Manager selection
  • Information ratios for different investment styles
  • Currency selection and currency overlay
  • Market timing
  • Decision points in implementation strategy

The search for ‘alpha’ and the importance of information ratios

  • Defining alpha
  • Sources of alpha
  • Portable alpha
  • Alpha generation and manager skill
  • The information ratio and coefficient
  • The fundamental law of active management

The emergence of SMART Beta

Performance Measurement and Atribution

Individual investor behaviour

  • Introduction – What is behavioural finance?
  • Decision theory
  • Factors impacting individual asset allocation decisions
  • The significance of ‘asset locations’
  • Goal based asset allocation
  • Comparison of expected utility, prospect theory and mean variance analysis
  • Individual investor behaviour characteristics
  • What can we learn from ‘market history’?
  • The cycle of ’emotion’
  • Identifying patterns of irrationality
  • Risk profiling – dealing with behavioural bias
  • Reacting to client irrationality
  • Moderate or adapt the asset allocation?
  • Summary of implications for portfolio design
  • Case study: The practical application of Behavioural Finance concepts

Asset class characteristics

  • Asset class descriptions and distinguishing qualities
  • Evaluation of asset classes
  • Specific challenges with Fixed Income

– Duration

– Convexity

– Hedge ratio

– Yield components

– Skewness and Kurtosis

  • Case study: Thought leadership in Asset Allocation – The “Yale Model”

Course summary and close

 

Trainer

Our Course Director is currently working as a trainer and consultant focusing on the wealth management needs of high net worth private clients, their families and their businesses.

Prior to this Bill worked in the international private banking market for almost 20 years. His private banking career began with Royal Bank of Canada where he spent 15 years in a variety of senior roles covering all aspects of the international wealth management business both onshore (London) and offshore (Bermuda).

Bill has broad general wealth management experience but his particular area of expertise is developing financial planning solutions for international high net worth private clients and their businesses who have complex cross border planning issues. In addition to wealth structuring, tax and estate planning the practice also advises on the specific challenges in establishing and growing a successful family enterprise.

During his career Bill has had responsibility for designing and delivering financial education programmes for professional staff and wealthy families in the Middle East, Europe, USA, Canada, South America and Africa. Bill is currently developing and delivering training programmes for international banks, private banks, wealth managers, family offices, professional bodies and regulators covering a broad range of financial, investment and soft skills subjects.

Bill is a Chartered Accountant (FCA), Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) and Financial Planner (DipPFS).

 

FAQ

We offer banking and finance courses as well as soft skills and business management training. You can either attend an open public course in London or Dubai or arrange customised in-house training to be delivered in any of your offices worldwide.

Most of our public courses are run over 2 full days. Some programmes are offered as a 1 or 3 day training.

In-house training is tailored to client’s requirements and can be organised over 1 day, 2-3 weeks or longer.

Public courses are organised mainly in London and Dubai. Occasionally we organise courses in other centres like Paris or New York. Check our public course calendar for the current list of programmes. We use a range of training venues, all in the centre of the cities and with excellent transport links to the airports and train stations.

In London we use venues in the centre (near Oxford Circus station or in Mayfair) or in the City (near Liverpool Street or Moorgate stations).

In Dubai our courses are organised in one of 4-5* hotels in the Deira district. Once you register we will send you detailed information together with accommodation options if required.

Our in-house courses can be delivered anywhere in the world. We work with over 25 trainers worldwide. Contact us do discuss your requirements. Check our list of available programmes.

Our courses are run in central locations from 9 a.m until 5-5.30 p.m. There are 2 coffee breaks and a lunch break. Lunch is always provided in the venue.

Dress code is smart casual.

All our programmes are taught by senior specialists who have spent many years in their respective sectors, working as senior managers and head of departments, so they understand very well the market and the challenges you are facing.

The experience of our trainers allows us to create very practical programmes, focused on current market trends and challenges. You can be sure that you will gain the knowledge which can be instantly applied in your workplace after the course. You will be analysing real life case studies, take part in group exercises and discussions as well as role plays, whenever applicable.

We want our courses to be as practical and interactive as possible so we limit the number of participants in order to optimise your time with the trainer and allow you to ask questions which are important for you.

In order to understand your requirements and expectations, we will send you a pre-course questionnaire.

You will also receive post-course support so if you have any questions after you left the training, you are welcome to contact us.

There are 2 easy ways to register:

  1. Go to the course of your choice and click Register Now button to fill the registration page
  2. Email us to enquiry@eurekafinancial.com

After you register, we will send you registration confirmation and an invoice so you can arrange the payment. Please note that your place is not confirmed until we receive it.

If you register within Early Bird discount period, there’s limited time to arrange the payment in order to be eligible for the discount. You will find all the details on the invoice.

We don’t advise to make any travel and hotel arrangements until you receive full course confirmation from us.

We will send you venue and course details as soon as possible but most likely about 3-4 weeks prior to the course commencement.

You can pay by:

  • Making a bank transfer
  • Debit/credit card
  • Cheque payable to Eureka Financial Ltd. - only within UK

Just mark preferred paying option on the registration form. Whichever form of payment you choose we will always send you an invoice.

If you pay by card, a 2.2% processing fee will be added. We will send you authorisation form so you can give us your card details.

Included in the price of a public course are:

  • Course tutorial
  • Take away course materials
  • Course Certificate
  • Lunch on the days of the training as well as drinks and snacks throughout the course

The price doesn’t include accommodation, flights, transfers and any additional costs outside of the training venue.

Yes, we always offer Early Bird discount, so the sooner you register the more savings you can make. We also offer group discounts and if you register for 2 or more programmes at the same time.

If you are a full time student or unemployed, we offer a 25% discount of the full price of the training. Student ID or unemployment status confirmation is required to claim this discount.

If you attend one of our courses you will be entitled to a special discount for a year after the last course you attend with us. Also, if you have attended and recommended us to a friend, both you and your friend will receive a special discount. You will receive more information about it after you attend the course.

See our Customer Loyalty Discounts page for more details.

All our courses based in the UK are subject to the VAT charge of 20%. This fee is irrespective of the country of residence of the delegates.

You can, however, claim the VAT back by contacting UK tax office - HMRC, and filling the relevant form, as long as you comply with the following rules:

For Delegates coming from the EU countries

If you represent a registered business in another EU country, you can use the Refund Scheme to reclaim VAT you pay in the UK as long as all of the following apply:

  • You're not registered for VAT in the UK and don't have to, or can't be, registered here
  • You don't have a place of business or a residence in the UK
  • You don't make any supplies in the UK

You can find some more information here. In order to claim the VAT you have to fill Form 65.

For the Delegates from Non EU countries

If you represent a registered business in a non-EU country, you can use the Refund Scheme to reclaim VAT you pay in the UK as long as all of the following apply:

  • You're not registered for VAT in the UK and don't have to, or can't be, registered here
  • You don't have a place of business or a residence in the EU
  • You can only use the Refund Scheme if your own country operates a similar scheme and makes it available to UK businesses. If your country has its own Refund Scheme but doesn't let UK businesses use it, you can't claim under the UK Refund Scheme.
  • You don't make any supplies in the UK

If the following rules apply to you, please fill the 65A form and send it to HMRC.

Webinars

You can cancel your participation up to a month before the course and receive a refund minus 10% of the full course value. Between 2-4 weeks before the course you will be charged 50% cancellation fee and if you cancel less than 2 weeks before the course you can only offer your place to a colleague. Up to 2 weeks before the course you can reregister for another edition for 10% reregistration fee if there is another webinar offered or you can rebook for a course in London by paying the difference in price plus 10% reregistration fee.

Classroom Courses

If there is any official travel restriction or difficulty related to the COVID pandemic around the time of the course we will convert the training into a webinar or offer to attend the next classroom edition at no extra cost.

If you are unable to attend the course, you can either send a replacement at no extra charge or, up to 10 days before the training, you can transfer your booking to another edition within the next 6 months paying administrative fee of 20% of the full course price. For any cancellation requests received between 11 days and 4 weeks from the course we offer 50% refund or reregistration to another edition for 25% of the value of the booking. For any cancellation requests received more than 4 weeks before the course date we will offer a refund less an administration fee of 10% of the full course price.

Cancellations must be made in writing (letter or email) and reach our office four weeks prior to the course date. We regret that only limited refunds can be given after this period as per points above. Non-attendance without any notification will be charged at full rate. Your place on a course is not guaranteed until we receive the payment. All payments must be made in full before the course date.

All our trainers have been working for many years in their respective sectors before they begun to teach so they bring a wealth of practical experience to the classroom.

Most of them used to work for 15 or more years in the financial sector and corporate world, and were holding positions of Directors, VP and Senior Managers. Some of them have published books and have written articles for specialised magazines and newspapers including FT, The Independent, The Times etc. You can find detailed biography of each trainer on the page of the course you want to register for.

Yes, you will receive a Certificate of Attendance at the end of the course you attend.

If you have to apply for a Visa to attend a course in the UK, we will issue a letter to support your application. The letter will be issued only after the payment for the course has been made.

It is delegate’s responsibility to obtain a Visa and failure to do so will not make the participant exempt from the cancellation policy.

Anyone suspected of applying for a training course simply to gain a Visa letter will be reported to their embassy.

We will need the following information to issue an invitation letter:

  • Full name as it appears on your passport
  • Date of birth
  • Passport number
  • Passport issue date
  • Passport expiry date

This topic can be arranged on in-company basis. If you have a group of 4 or more we can customise it and deliver in any location worldwide. Contact us to discuss your requirements

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