With lockdown restrictions continuing to ease and ministers urging a return to work, this month we’ve been looking at ways of getting the team back to Globe HQ in a Covid-secure way.
The office never officially closed but we’ve all been working remotely, rising to the unique challenges that has brought, whilst maintaining the level of service you expect.
As we shared with you last month, we have outdoor and indoor meeting spaces set up and ready to accommodate face-to-face meetings, so contact us if you’ve got anything you’d like to discuss, or if you’d like to arrange a visit.
We’ve continued to be very busy over the lockdown period and this month we’ll bring you recruitment news. You can also hear about our new partnership with a firm of solicitors and the will-writing service on offer through them.
Finally, read some more of our thoughts from lockdown, covering the fall and rise of the stock market and our thankfulness for the reopening of barbershops.
The expanding Globe team
First, some recruitment news.
After a very busy lockdown period in which the Globe IFA team worked tirelessly to deliver excellent service to you, we are now in the process of recruiting for a new Mortgage Advisor to join our ever-expanding team.
The process is ongoing, but we look forward to welcoming a new member of staff shortly.
Globe partners with will-writing firm
Elsewhere this month, we have finalised an agreement with will-writing company Penrose Wills.
The need to have a will in place can’t be understated and yet many of us still don’t have one. We hope that by partnering with Penrose Wills we can make your decision of whether or not to get a will – or to update it if you already have one – that much easier.
We will be working specifically with Consultant Solicitor, Kimberley Leigh, and she will be making herself available to visit you at your home, or at our offices if you prefer, to help you with the process of setting up your will.
If you’d like any more information on this arrangement, then please contact us.
Lockdown reflections
As barbershops and hair salons begin to reopen up and down the country, Director and IFA, John has this to say:
“My head of hair has had a lovely, peaceful time since lockdown began. It’s just gone on growing, undisturbed aside from the occasional combing. It has a mind of its own and turns out to be quite wavy.
“I’ve not dared to cut it myself or to set Mrs Pickles the task of doing it for me. But I do want to look tidy and business-like when carrying out Zoom meetings with clients. I always slick it down so that it looks OK from the front.
“At least, it’s not as bad as Boris’s hair. That’s what I tell myself, anyway.
“I’m working from my private office in the top room of our house (‘the attic’ in old-fashioned language, the ‘boys’ room’ in mine) but for Zoom meetings, the lighting in there isn’t great.
“Sunshine pours through the Velux windows behind me and at one Zoom meeting last Monday, I could see on the screen that my clients could make out only my silhouette against the bright background.
“I decided to draw down the blinds in the hope that darkening the room would enable my desk lamp to brighten up my face. That involved me leaving the desk, turning around, and pulling down three blinds before returning to the Zoom meeting again.
“Confident that my tactic had worked perfectly, I was disappointed to hear ‘My God John! Your hair is so long!’
“They’d seen the chaos at the back of my head!
“So, tomorrow a hairdresser is coming to our house to smarten me up. I shall have to wear a mask, I suppose.”
Here to offer his lockdown reflections is director and IFA Tom.
He has been dwelling on the volatility of the stock market in the first half of the year and has this to say:
“Speaking to clients this month, a number have expressed concern about the stock market – should they invest now or wait?
“If you are generally cautious, then don’t try and time the market. That’s for the casino! You will not get the timing right and no one on this planet can forecast what will happen tomorrow, let alone in a week, a month, or a year.
“The markets behave much like my favourite game of golf. The way to hit a perfect shot is counter-intuitive in most cases and the way the markets work is often counter-intuitive too!
“Just look at how much they have risen since April this year as proof.
“Why not reduce risk by allowing your investment to be automatically phased into your portfolio over a predefined timescale (for example, over three, six, or even twelve months)?
“This allows you to take advantage of pound/cost averaging. Sometimes you buy when markets are low, sometimes when they are high. But the actual price you pay over the period will be the average of that period.
If you think that this investment strategy aligns with your risk profile and you’d like to discuss it further, please email me at tom@globeifa.co.uk or call me on 07710 595649.”
Please note: This strategy won’t return the same result as an investment of the full amount on one day with a subsequent rise in the market. Please also remember that the value of investments will fluctuate. Prices can fall as well as rise and there are no guarantees.
