5 expert portfolio tips for 2024

I don’t tend to meddle with my investments much throughout the year (I’ve learnt the hard way not to react in the moment). But a lot can happen in twelve months. And, like many investors, I see the new year as a chance to reset and review my portfolio.

In the past, I’ve done it ‘my way’. But this year, I thought I’d ask one of our friendly wealth relationship managers* to see if they’d be willing to share some of their top tips. And thanks to Maria Gaita, I now have an expert’s view on what to look at when reviewing my portfolio. Here’s what she has to say, I hope you find it as useful as I have.

1. Revisit your goals

“Before you do a deeper dive into your portfolio ask yourself some questions. What are your short, medium and long-term financial goals? Think about what’s important to you. Perhaps you’d like to invest more sustainably. Or maybe something’s happened in your life that’s making you reassess the level of risk you’re willing to take.

“Think about where you are in relation to your goals and where you want to be. Then see if your portfolio is still constructed in a way that will help you achieve your goals.”

We have lots of planning tools to help you make informed decisions, such as our ISA calculator tool and retirement calculators.

2. Take stock of your accounts

“Many of my clients open a number of accounts with different providers over the years. And they don’t always keep track of them (it’s more common than you might think). Do you know where all your pension pots are and the benefits associated with them? And what about your ISAs? Have you got more than one? Do you know what the associated costs are? It can get quite admin heavy to keep track if you’ve got a number of accounts scattered around. You might like to think about bringing them all into one place to manage them more easily.”

You can learn more about transferring your accounts here.

3. Put your investments under the microscope

“I talk to my clients about looking under the bonnet of their portfolio and I can’t stress how important this is. I have clients who think they hold a mix of investments. And yet, in reality, they don’t. They might have a good geographical spread of investments. They might have invested in different sectors. Or, they might have selected different kinds of assets (like equities - fund and shares, bonds and cash). But rarely do they do all three well. And it’s vital to have a good mix as investments perform differently during different market, economic and geopolitical conditions. If you log in to your Fidelity account, you can look at your annual holdings report within your account summary screen to see how well-diversified your portfolio is, or not as the case may be.”

You can learn more about managing risk and why diversification is important here.

4. Check you’re being tax efficient

“There are lots of ways you can be tax efficient. There are the tax efficient accounts such as a workplace pension or Self-Invested Personal Pension, Stocks and Shares ISA and, if you’ve saving for a child, a Junior ISA and Junior SIPP. There are also tax-efficient allowances. Some of these are linked to these tax-efficient accounts - like your annual pension allowance (which you can carry forward for three years) or your ISA allowance. But some aren’t - like the Capital Gains Tax allowance (which goes down from £6,000 to £3,000 on 6 April 2024 by the way) or gifting friends and family money, which can help with inheritance tax for example.

“At retirement, some of my clients think the first thing they should do is take their 25% tax-free lump sum from their pension. When, actually, it might be more tax efficient to take an income from other investments. Of course, it’s all down to your personal circumstances. And sometimes my clients like to take financial advice - a paid-for service - well in advance of retirement, to get a personal financial recommendation which helps to give them peace of mind.”

You can learn more about financial advice here.

5. Factor in upcoming milestones

“Is there anything coming up in the year ahead that you need to think about - such as a big holiday, a wedding, or perhaps even divorce. These are all events that can throw your savings plans off course. And some clients can be quite casual when this happens, assuming they’ll just take money from this pot or that. But actually, it’s good to think about what the impact of taking money from their portfolio at a certain time might have on their overall strategy.

“If you’re forced to sell when markets are low, you will lock in losses. Certainly, if you’re about to retire, the ‘when’ is even more important. The technical term for this is called sequencing risk and you can read more about this here.”

Need more support?

There’s plenty of online guidance on our website to help you make better investing decisions. But if you’ve got over £250k to invest (which can include your pension), you automatically qualify for our Wealth Management service and will be assigned a wealth relationship manager, like Maria Gaita. You can learn more about the additional exclusive benefits our Wealth Management service here.

If you’ve got more than £100k to invest, our financial advisers can give you a personal recommendation. Learn more about financial advice here.

And if you’re starting to think about your retirement, the government’s Pension Wise service offers free, impartial guidance to help you understand your options at retirement. You can access the guidance online at www.moneyhelper.org.uk or over the telephone on 0800 138 3944.

Fidelity’s Retirement Service also has a team of specialists who can provide you with free guidance to help you with your decisions. They can also provide advice and help you select products though this will have a charge.

* To qualify for our Wealth Management service you need to invest over £250k, which can include your pension.

Important information - investors should note that the views expressed may no longer be current and may have already been acted upon. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. Withdrawals from a pension product will not be possible until you reach age 55 (57 from 2028). Junior ISAs are long term tax-efficient savings accounts for children. Withdrawals will not be possible until the child reaches age 18. A Junior ISA is only available to children under the age of 18 who are resident in the UK. It is not possible to hold both a Junior ISA and a Child Trust Fund (CTF). If your child was born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 the Government would have automatically opened a CTF on your child’s behalf. If your child holds a CTF they can transfer the investment into a Junior ISA. It’s important to understand that pension transfers are a complex area and may not be suitable for everyone. Before going ahead with a pension transfer, we strongly recommend that you undertake a full comparison of the benefits, charges and features offered. To find out what else you should consider before transferring, please read our transfer factsheet. If you are in any doubt whether or not a pension transfer is suitable for your circumstances we strongly recommend that you seek advice from one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice. Please note that Fidelity does not allow for CTF transfers into a Junior ISA. Parents or guardians can open the Junior ISA and manage the account but the money belongs to the child and the investment is locked away until the child reaches 18 years old. This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice.