Thursday 6 September 2012

Richard Cayne Meyer Asset Management Ltd – Common Investments and Correlation in The Markets

According to Richard Cayne Meyer Asset Management Ltd, having a well balanced portfolio with investments which compliment each other is quite important. So many investors end up buying assets or investments that are highly correlated and end up performing about the same. Of course this can be good in a rising market but offers no downside protection should the markets experience a severe correction. This article discusses some of the most common types of investments and how they may be correlated with each other.

Stocks

Preferred stockholders have a greater claim to a company’s assets and earnings. This is true during the good times when the company has excess cash and decides to distribute money in the form of dividends to its investors. In these instances when distributions are made, preferred stockholders must be paid before common stockholders. However, this claim is most important during times of insolvency when common stockholders are last in line for the company’s assets. This means that when the company must liquidate and pay all creditors and bondholders, common stockholders will not receive any money until after the preferred shareholders are paid out. That said most people invest in common stock.

Shares & Debentures

Richard Cayne Meyer Asset Management Ltd in Thailand says the differences are that; SHARES- A Share holder is the real owner of the company and does not have not fixed dividend rate and no maturity period, shares are not redeemable but can be sold. Shares are more volatile and imply a higher degree of risk. A share holder can have high return and share holders have rights on residual income.
A debenture holder is the creditor of a company, they have fixed rate of interest and they have a maturity period but they don’t have any right to vote. Debentures are redeemed, they are not volatile and they have a lower risk and a lower return. Unfortunately over the past few years we have seen a higher correlation of performance tied to both stocks and bonds.

Mutual funds

Mutual funds are also known as open-end-company. These are one of the most popular kinds of investments and provide the investors the opportunity to invest in securities. Though mutual funds involve risks but they also offer two things, that is, the ready diversification and opportunity for the fund manager to outperform the market.

Real Estate Investment

In the opinion of Richard Cayne, Real Estate Investment Trusts are corporations that sell shares for investments in real estate which can be in either residential, commercial or both. This type of REIT (Real Estate Investments Trust involves the buying, management, ownership, sale or rental of real estate properties and mortgages. Again as we had seen during the financial collapse property having taken a nosedive and the equity and bond market went down along with it.

Commodities

According to Richard Cayne Meyer International in Bangkok Thailand a commodity is a product, which is of uniform quality and traded across various markets. There are generally two types of commodities, “hard commodities” and “soft commodities”. Hard commodities include crude oil, iron ore, gold, and silver and have a long shelf life. Agricultural products such as soybean, rice or wheat, are considered ‘soft commodities’ since they have a limited shelf life. These commodities have to be similar and interchangeable or ‘fungible’. Gold as an example had provided an uncorrelated performance throughout the financial crisis up until 2012 and had been a good compliment to any portfolio as it had outperformed most other investments. Now in 2012 Gold seems to be gaining popularity as a mainstream investment pushing up demand for it and as such we are seeing a higher degree of correlation with the equity markets than we used to.

Richard Cayne having lived in Tokyo Japan for over 15 years and at Meyer Asset Management Ltd has ties with over 200 global financial services firms. Richard is Managing Director of Meyer International Ltd based in Bangkok Thailand and is the Asian based marketing arm for the Meyer Group which is owned by Asia Wealth Group Holdings Ltd listed in London UK

Article source:- http://richardcaynes.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/richard-cayne-meyer-asset-management-ltd-common-investments-and-correlation-in-the-markets/

Significance of Asset Allocation by Richard Cayne Meyer International Ltd

In the opinion of Richard Cayne at Meyer International Ltd in Bangkok Thailand, the right asset allocation is the key to a portfolio which outperforms. Asset allocation lets you spread your investment into different asset classes and therefore helps in reducing the risk of the portfolio. Asset allocation is not only about choosing investments in different asset classes but also those that are in different geographical regions.

In fact, the concept of asset allocation emerged with the fact that every investment has a different kind of cycle and associated risks and therefore, investing in different securities will not only reduce the risk but will also increase the opportunities of profit for an investor.

According to Richard Cayne Meyer Asset Management Ltd in Thailand, deciding an asset allocation strategy is a very crucial and important decision for every investor. The right kind of asset allocation strategy will help you balance reduce the risks in your portfolio. During asset allocation, the investor needs to allocate his assets into different asset classes. Some of the most common but important asset classes include stocks, bonds and alternative investments such as hedge funds. Each asset class contains its own advantages. For example, stocks are often considered as the investments that can bring maximum profit to the investors but at the same time has highest volatility and downside risk as well.

An experienced investor knows that information is key to being able to make calculated decisions and financial consultancy firms can be a wealth of information to them. For less experienced investors a financial advisor can help the individual in choosing the right kind of allocation for his assets as well as helping to define the investor’s goals. Contacting a financial consultant is advantageous because he takes complete care of the investor’s portfolio by checking the investor’s risk tolerance level, investment capacity and by choosing the appropriate asset classes for an investor. An experienced and accomplished financial advisor very well understands that every investor expects profit within a certain time frame and so a proper investment strategy should be planned along with an asset allocation strategy. One of the most important tasks for financial advisors is that they help the investors in building a balance between the involved risks and expected profit returns.

Richard Cayne Meyer International in Thailand says that the situation and capacity of every individual investor is different from others and therefore, a different financial investment strategy having its own defined asset allocation strategy may be need.  Markets and asset classes do not move in tandem, what’s hot today may be cold tomorrow. Spreading your investment dollars among different types of asset classes and markets; stocks and bonds, domestic and foreign markets lets you position yourself to seize opportunities as the performance cycle shifts from one market or asset class to another.
Richard Cayne having lived in Tokyo Japan for over 15 years and at Meyer Asset Management Ltd has ties with over 200 global financial services firms. Richard is Managing Director of Meyer International Ltd based in Bangkok Thailand and is the Asian based marketing arm for the Meyer Group which is owned by Asia Wealth Group Holdings Ltd listed in London UK.

Article Source:- http://richardcaynes.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/significance-of-asset-allocation-by-richard-cayne-meyer-international-ltd/

Meyer International Richard Cayne – Life Insurance Simplified

Richard Cayne Meyer Asset Management Ltd says; In its simplest form, life insurance is financial leverage.  A small pool of money creates a large pool of money, guaranteed and risks free, for the purpose of funding an identified goal or objective.  Term life insurance is what most people think of when they think of life insurance.  Term life insurance provides a guarantee of a pool of money for a specific number of years, at a guaranteed (never to increase) annual cost, as long as the premiums are paid; usually for 10, 15, 20 or 30 years. The expectation is that at the end of the term, the protection will no longer be necessary, and the policy may be allowed to lapse (you may lapse a term policy at any time by ceasing to pay for it).

Replacement of Income

We use term insurance frequently to provide for replacement of income to a family who is dependent on a “breadwinner’s” income for living expenses, college funding, retirement funding etc.  If we plan correctly, we will accumulate assets during the earning years such that at retirement, the client will be able to produce his or her own income from assets when there is no longer income from employment.  Term life insurance guarantees that the “gap” between today and retirement will be filled if income ceases due to death of the income earner prior to fulfillment of planning.  The downside says Richard Cayne at Meyer International Ltd based in Bangkok Thailand is that Term life insurance is inexpensive, has no internal cash value, and may be exchanged for other types of life insurance which do.

Planning for Certainties in Life

The other most often used type of life insurance is Universal Life.  Universal Life is permanent death benefit life insurance. Universal Life has myriad applications in financial planning, as the death benefit cannot be outlived. Using this financial leverage usually makes fiscal sense when there is a need to create permanent liquidity. Many of my clients use Universal Life to create an estate or to protect an estate.  In case you don’t think you have an estate; you do.  Your estate is all of your “things”, including your financial assets, property, hard assets like art, sculpture and collectibles, your furniture, cars etc… All of it.  Death eventually produces financial liability to the beneficiaries, one way or the other.  Even small estates have expenses, and providing for the extinguishing of these expenses helps to ensure order and facilitate the completion of your plans and aspirations for your beneficiaries.

Richard Cayne Meyer Asset management Ltd having lived in Tokyo Japan for over 15 years can certainly say that Japanese  like other nationalities with larger estates can be devastated by taxes and expenses if advance planning is not good, and I don’t know a single case where the client found it preferable to force the sale of estate assets to pay taxes and expenses rather than have the expenses paid from the proceeds of a life insurance policy which bought those dollars at a deep discount; often a fraction on the dollar. I’m safe in saying that everybody understands that they will have to pay for these inevitable expenses with discounted dollars as opposed to paying for them dollar for dollar.  Some clients want to leave a financial legacy to children, grandchildren, or a charity.  Universal Life allows them to leave a guaranteed, tax free financial legacy which was secured at a deep discount.  Richard Cayne having consulted on many larger Japanese estates says Japanese like other nationalities particularly Asian ones do not like talking about death although inevitable but planning for this earlier rather than later will ensure that your wealth can be passed on in the most cost efficient manner to those you care about.

Richard Cayne is Managing Director of the Meyer Group of companies and based in Bangkok Thailand at Meyer International Ltd.  The Meyer Group has ties with over 200 global financial institutions and is part of Asia Wealth Group Holdings a UK Listed company.

Article Source: - http://richardcaynes.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/meyer-international-richard-cayne-life-insurance-simplified/

Tuesday 28 August 2012

Financial Freedom - A Happier Life Richard Cayne Meyer International Ltd

It is no secret that saving money is essential for a happy and prosperous life. In such a catastrophic and vulnerable global economy where anything can happen anytime and the prices of basic needs are rocketing high every day, all of us need to save some amount of money as per our ability, suggests Richard Cayne at Meyer International Ltd in Bangkok Thailand. Saving money is a store of value for the times when we need to exchange that value for other goods or services.  We must ensure that we are getting the best store of value in our savings or investments by looking at how they will grow our value in line with the global growth and inflation trends and any extra value creation over and above this is the real return.

Reduces Stress and Live a Happier Life


According to Richard Cayne Meyer Asset Management Ltd in Thailand, most of our stress problems arise from financial worries. Therefore, one way if we wish to reduce our stress, is that we ought to save money whenever possible.  Knowing that you are financially secure or at least have a plan and a path to take so that you will be one day in a financially secure state can bring great peace of mind and comfort to individuals.  According to statistics over 50% of people anxiety and worries derive from financial insecurity in one form or another.  Therefore at the very least create a plan to word towards being financially secure.

Richard Cayne Meyer Asset Management Ltd and having lived in Tokyo Japan for over fifteen years can say that Japanese who are thought to be amongst the most conservative and pragmatic people are not that conservative when it comes to their own financial security in the sense that most do not have a proper financial plan nor do they know how they will be financially secure one day. Most Japanese still believe their company or their government pension scheme will be a backstop for them and take care of them.  However Richard Cayne at Meyer makes it a point to explain how company lifetime employments has changed and is no longer the case as is the financial stability of the Japanese pension system.  Richard advocates that if Japanese want to truly be conservative and plan for their own financial security in a responsible way they would be advised to get planning sooner.  Japanese aren’t the only ones who don’t plan as well as they should though and we should all make it our business to be responsible to ourselves and our families to ensure we are on the right path to financial security so we can all rest easy.

According to Richard Cayne Meyer International in Bangkok, we can all lead healthier and happier lives by doing forward planning and putting a plan of action in place of how we intend to be financially secure or to grow and protect our store of value.  We should share this plan with our family members so that they too can take comfort in knowing how the family can send little Johnny and siblings through schooling, buy that house they have always wanted or plan for their retirement or any other important life events.

With the price of commodities and good seeming to continually escalate its is ever important to keep pace with this inflation rate which arguably is approximately 3-4% per year.  So every year your portfolio earns 1% means that the real earning or store of value in your portfolio had just eroded by 2-3%.  This is an unsettling feeling and applies to everyone both to those who are building their financial security and those who are there many times over.  Nobody is immune to this and in fact those with vast sums of money gives them even greater stress as they don’t want to see their billions erode to a store of value in the millions.

Wealthy individuals and families do understand the need to plan to protect and preserve their wealth and therefore even if your goals may differ you should be planning too.  If you have a plan of action to preserve and grow your wealth you will have one less worry in life. So get planning and sleep well.Richard Cayne is Managing Director of the Meyer Group of companies.  He is based in Bangkok Thailand and has been involved in financial services for over 17 years in Asia. The Meyer Group is wholly owned by Asia Wealth Group Holdings Ltd a London, UK listed company.

Article Source:
http://richardcaynes.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/financial-freedom-a-happier-life-richard-cayne-meyer-international-ltd/

Richard Cayne Meyer International on Investment Principles

An investor can put his money into different types of investments including buying a bond, stock, fund, deposit certificate, real estate or various other financial products that is available for investment. Investing is the procedure in which the investor allocates money in form of purchasing any of the financial products with the expectation of gaining a return in form of financial profit after a certain time. Richard Cayne believes that every individual may benefit by making some investments at the right time and in the right manner.

Tie Your Investments to Your Time Horizon

In the opinion of Richard Cayne Meyer International in Bangkok, investment is one of the best uses of your earned after tax income. Particularly when time is on your side and you can invest over a long time horizon without having to worry about day to day or even year to year fluctuations in the values of the underlying assets. All of us save money so that we can use it at the right time and this ties directly into financial planning where one should try and identify the time durations they may be able to save or invest over.  By doing this you can better determine which financial products or roads to take on your path to financial security.  Saving money in the bank at near zero interest rate is a very slow road to take which will never get your money growing fast enough for you.  That said if you need certain money for a short term goal say six months away then the bank account would be appropriate.  If the goal is 10 years away then you potentially could have received higher gain in other investments and that would be your opportunity loss.

Regular Saving or Dollar Cost Averaging

As markets fluctuate but over time trend upwards a great way to take advantage of this is through regular investment or what’s called Dollar Cost Averaging.  Investing periodically such as every month or even every year if your time horizon is long enough allows one to buy more of the asset when the asset price drops and overall smooth out the volatility in your portfolio by buying in the good times and most importantly in the bad time too.  Richard Cayne having lived in Tokyo Japan as Investment advisor and at Meyer Asset Management Ltd Tokyo had helped thousands of Japanese plan their future and dollar cost averaging is always one of the tools that he highly recommends.  Now Richard Cayne in Bangkok Thailand consults many leading investment companies on how to structure such investment plans to meet the needs of Japanese living abroad as well as those in Japan.

Diversify For a Balanced Portfolio

For some investing into one or two areas may seem like a good idea but if those two investments take a drop then having some other non correlated investments in their portfolio could have balanced out or reduced the drop to their overall portfolio.  Though the same can be said on the upside two that the other investments may not perform as well.  For most people however who look to grow their portfolios with a lower level of volatility and potentially with higher return should look to have a balanced portfolio of investments that will compliment each other.  For example instead of having all ones money in US Equities having some in Chinese Equities would have dramatically increased the performance of their portfolio over the years.  Richard Cayne Meyer Asset Management Ltd’s Asian based servicing arm Meyer International Ltd in Bangkok Thailand has been servicing its clients and strongly advocates a balanced portfolio with investments that compliment each other.

Take Control of Your Portfolio Today

Instead of simply saving in the bank, bonds and dabbling in investments consult a professional who can help guide you through all the benefits of investments and which ones are suitable for you.  Employ the above techniques and you will be taking a very good step forward towards your financial security. Richard Cayne is current Managing Director of Meyer International based in Bangkok Thailand and like Meyer Asset Management Ltd forms part of Asia Wealth Group Holdings a London UK listed company.

Article Source: http://richardcaynes.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/richard-cayne-meyer-international-on-investment-principles/

Richard Cayne Meyer International Ltd Protect & Grow Your Wealth

As we have discussed in previous articles the importance of having a financial plan lets look at some reasons the wealthy are very interested in protecting and growing their wealth. Richard Cayne at Meyer International Ltd in Bangkok Thailand says many assume that the very wealthy don’t need to or have to think about their money or wealth but that is not true.  In fact most high net worth individuals defined as having investable assets over US$1million think about their portfolio more than those who don’t have any money saved up because they know that through inflation can erode their hard earned savings if they aren’t careful. They very much want to grow their assets and keep a watchful eye on preserving them as well. Those who are slightly higher up the food chain in the ultra high net worth class defined as having over US$50million are even more concerned about inflation and want very much to preserve the store of value and are less concerned about really growing it and more focused with just keeping up with inflation.

Richard Cayne having worked in Tokyo Japan Meyer Asset Management for over 15 years and servicing many high net worth individuals and even ultra high net worth individuals can certainly say that everyone regardless of the size of their portfolio should be concerned about inflation and keeping pace with it at the very least.  Inflation is certainly a form of wealth destruction and should be one of the most important considerations to any investor.

If it wasn’t for inflation then the need to grow your savings would not be as pronounced as it currently is.  Imagine for example if prices would never change and the cost of higher education currently around US$80,000 for four years ( see fastfacts ) would still be the same in 15 years.  That is a nice thought but is not the world we live in.  In our world we would need to target a sum closer to US$150,000 to get the same value in 15 years as now.  That is assuming of course inflation does not escalate further.
Loosing Your Store Of Value By Doing Nothing Or Achieving No Growth

Richard Cayne Meyer International Bangkok Thailand says that his wealthier clients actually look at it as if they are loosing money every year they don’t achieve growth same or greater than inflation. If for example their net worth is US$20,000,000 and they achieve only 2% growth on their portfolio they see their purchasing parity next year of only US$19,600,000 that they are down US$400,000 assuming a 4% inflation rate.  This is a very unsettling feeling for them and as such the main objective is to not loose their store of wealth and keep up with inflation.  Anything beyond the inflation rate is seen to be their real return.

Real Estate is another area which despite some downturns even though significant in size is still on the rise over time and needs to be considered,  particularly in Asia, where property prices have risen at an extremely fast pace.  Certainly property if bought at the right time can play a meaningful part in someone’s portfolio right along with equities, bonds and commodities says Cayne.

Choosing to invest in assets that will grow in value outpacing that of inflation is key.  Particularly in the US these days it is getting more and more obvious that the government is doing what it can to stimulate the economy and inflate asset prices of both equity markets and property markets.  This means keeping your cash in near zero interest bearing accounts will be the worst thing you can do for your financial plan.  It’s a guaranteed looser over time.

So whether you are just starting on your road to financial freedom or already there consider your options carefully as inflation is a force that affects us all.  Everyone needs to plan carefully and consulting with a firm that can help you define and stay on track of your financial plan would be a recommended and valuable decision to make.

Richard Cayne has been involved with offshore funds and structures in Asia for over 17 years.  He is currently Managing Director of the Meyer Group consisting of Meyer International Ltd and Meyer Asset Management Ltd. The Meyer Group is wholly owned by Asia Wealth Group Holdings a London, UK listed company with ties to over 200 global financial institutions.

Article Source: http://richardcaynes.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/richard-cayne-meyer-international-ltd-protect-grow-your-wealth/

Friday 3 August 2012

Richard Cayne & The Meyer Group On Offshore Investing

Offshore investing simply means that wherever the respective fund or investment is formed and registered is in a low tax area such as Ireland, Malta, Isle of Man, Hong Kong or Singapore to name a few.  This does not mean that investors have no tax obligation as they may dependant on where they reside but rather offshore investing can offer investors some significant tax planning opportunities to minimize their taxes.  In addition many clients who want a higher level of discretion and confidentiality can also make use of offshore investing not to hide assets but rather to shelter them from being public information and in turn a target to go after.  Many celebrities and public figures recognize this and is the number 1 reason they look to offshore investing using trust structures offshore.

Offshore domiciled investments also do not have the extra costs associated with certain registration requirements which certain countries may have.  For example registering a fund for sale in the US or Japan can be extremely costly and time consuming and as such many fund companies do not take the steps to register these funds in certain countries.  Though if they want to market their funds in a respective country they may need local registration.  Richard Cayne of Meyer Asset Management Ltd has been helping securities firms in Japan with information on offshore funds and fund registrations.  The time it may take to do a full blown registration for mass distribution in Japan can be up to a year and cost upwards of US$500,000 which is why many fund companies hesitated to jump into domestic registrations until there is sufficient demand by the local customers to merit such registration.

There are great funds out there managed by US and European based fund managers who have also chosen to set up an offshore feeder fund so that internationally based clients can invest cross border into their investment without the need to treat them as foreign investors and withhold tax as foreign investors would normally need pay.  Instead the offshore feeder fund would be able to on tax efficient basis aggregate money into the onshore fund.  Most of the largest fund companies in the world have offshore funds as well as their onshore ones.  Fidelity, Templeton, Blackrock to name a few all have offshore funds.  In fact these days if you don’t have an offshore fund as a fund management company then you aren’t a global player so instead of the exception it is now the rule to have offshore funds as a fund management company.  Clearly this is done out of demand and to be able to raise money internationally.  Most Japanese securities firms in Tokyo see the need to be more global and go offshore these days says Richard Cayne from Meyer International Ltd.

Still many have the preconceived idea that offshore investing is for those who want to hide from the tax man which is today a myth as any tax office can pretty much gain access to your information if they want to.

Richard Cayne at Meyer International Ltd in Bangkok Thailand has been consulting with clients around the world and most individuals that look for offshore investments simply are interested in diversification of their assets and are opportunistically looking for good investments.

Investing offshore for the right reasons can certainly offer many advantages and working with a financial professional who can advise you on the options and opportunities that exist offshore is a recommended first step.

Meyer Asset Management Ltd like Meyer International in Bangkok Thailand form part of the Meyer group which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Asia Wealth Group Holdings Ltd listed on the PLUS Stock exchange in London UK.