JM Finn

Not-for-profit organisations and charities make an essential contribution to public life and their investments are often the cornerstones of the success of the organisation. This is why many such clients want an investment approach that is both robust and repeatable; one that is tailored to meet specific requirements.

Our investment management services appeal to charities of all sizes, and we are resolute in our focus on providing a personal service to all, no matter how large or small. Expanding on our private client heritage, we adopt a comprehensive, but flexible, approach to managing not-for profit / charitable assets via a highly consultative process.

At JM Finn we typically combine a top-down, macroeconomic view of the world with bottom-up stock selection based on fundamental analysis. Whilst many of our clients may typically have similar objectives for their investment portfolios, many have specific circumstances which require a tailored approach.

At JM Finn, we understand the importance of ensuring your charity does not invest in any way that conflicts with its objectives. We therefore integrate Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) into our process through three distinct channels:

Negative screening
- Ability to recognise the importance of avoiding the reputational risk of holding an investment that is contrary to a client’s aims.
- Encourages discussion to ensure the client’s needs are correctly interpreted and met.

Reporting and Engagement
- We have partnered with Federated Hermes, one of the largest global stewardship providers to engage and report (quarterly) on all our discretionary holdings. The report outlines some of the more significant engagements undertaken over the period, any engagement progress made on issues previously highlighted and on individual company alignment with the 17 sustainable development goals.
- Federated Hermes also advise us on how to vote and we have partnered with a company, ISS, who provide proxy voting services.

Assessment and Monitoring
- We have partnered with Sustainalytics (part of Morningstar), the leading independent global provider of ESG and corporate governance research provider, to provide us with non-financial ESG data. This will be used to assess non-financial risk in current portfolios as well as in new potential investments.

In addition, high quality pooled funds with responsible investment policies may be appropriate to complement direct holdings. These are monitored by an experienced ESG fund specialist.

Our parent company is signatory of the UN PRI.

The investment process will typically start by establishing an agreed asset allocation in response to your brief, which is then populated by appropriate equity and bond investments, and supplemented with other funds and trusts to provide exposure to more specialist areas, and to diversify the portfolio.

Many factors will be considered at the outset and during the ongoing management of the portfolio, including, amongst others:

- Investment objectives
- Risk tolerance
- Capital requirements
- Income requirements
- Time horizon
- An appropriate benchmark

The Charities Team will be your primary point of contact.

In general, we start with a strategic/neutral asset allocation, developed using long-term historical data or, and/or in conjunction with your Investment Policy Statement, before drawing on the output from our asset allocation committee to derive our tactical asset allocation.

We typically invest in 3 core asset classes: fixed income (sovereign, corporate and index linked), equities (global) and diversifiers (infrastructure, gold and property).

We do not invest in hedge funds or structured products, use options or derivatives, and we do not invest in any unregulated collective investment schemes or unlisted equities. We aim to be able to liquidate a portfolio in 5 business days.

We take an active approach to investment management believing both asset allocation and stock selection can drive superior long-term returns. JM Finn continues to believe that the right investment manager can out-perform their benchmark and so the majority of our investment in collectives is through actively managed funds. This is why we have a large resource dedicated to researching both active and passive funds. However, some markets are notoriously difficult to out-perform and in these instances, we are very happy to invest in an index-tracking fund for low-cost access to that market.

A strong relationship between our investment managers and the trustees leads to better outcomes for the charity. With JM Finn’s strong pedigree and experience in UK equity investing we are well placed to access this market directly with our in-house research team providing support. We meet with dozens of UK and International companies, funds and trusts every year to better understand each business model and question management on strategy, giving us a real edge in this market.

Managing investment risk is of course part and parcel of looking after client investment portfolios. We classify each stock and bond with a risk rating so that we can can review the level of risk within your portfolios.

As of the end of 2025. All figures are in Total Return, net of fees, in GBP.

Progressive (80% Equity)
1 Year Net Return: +14.2%
3 Year Net Return: +34.3%
5 Year Net Return: +32.1%

Moderate (60% Equity)
1 Year Net Return: +12.1%
3 Year Net Return: +28.0%
5 Year Net Return: +25.8%

Conservative (40% Equity)
1 Year Net Return: +9.5%
3 Year Net Return: +19.6%
5 Year Net Return: +19.5%

Yes. Bundled and included as part of the service at no extra cost.