Our Story

Pigotts Investments, formerly Professional Portfolio Management, grew from Pigotts, Solicitors, Chichester, where Maurice Pigott acted for his investing clients for over forty years.  The business is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

We have been told that we are unique, and we are certainly unusual in today’s investment industry, providing a fee-based family personal service, in a niche investment universe of closed-end companies.

Your Adviser
James Pigott BSc MCSI

At Pigotts, we thrive in solving client’s personal investment issues. With over 30 years of investment experience, Pigotts is dedicated to providing clients with informed and effective investment advice.

James Pigott

1986 – 1994 Syndicate 662 C.W. Rome, Lloyd’s of London – Assistant Underwriter
1994 – 1998 Lloyd’s – Murray Lawrence Syndicate Research – Research Systems Executive
1996 – 2000 Birkbeck College, London University – BSc in Information Systems and Management

1998 – 2003 CLS Services Limited – Senior Business Analyst / Project Manager
2002 – APMP (Associate of UK Project Managers)
2003 – Joined Professional Portfolio Management Ltd. (renamed Pigotts Investments Limited)
2007 – Managing Director
2010 – Sole Adviser at Pigotts Investments

Our Investment Style

Growth vs Value

Planning for the medium (5 years) to long term, we are generally Contrarian Investors looking for value, and we do not follow the crowd. This method of investing generally provides better value over the long term rather than investing for growth over the short term. Investment Trusts are one of the few investment vehicles that can offer the chance to add value to your investment from Day One. Discounts and gearing (borrowing) are utilised, neither of which is possible with unit trusts. This is explained further in the glossary.

However, there are periodic shifts that affect the entire market, 2008 being the most recent. Since then Value investing has not faired well. Subsequently it was Growth, or Quality focused companies, that performed the best. Now that the bull run has lasted more than 10 years there are signs that Value is coming back in vogue as the Growth companies appear to run out of steam.

We have found over this timeframe that we are indifferent, but aware of, the underlying style of a trust and will use a mix of the two within the portfolios we design.

Active Investment

Pigotts’ high quality investment service employs active investing and focuses on its Model Portfolios of carefully chosen closed-end funds. We do not provide Passive Investment e.g. index trackers, absolute return funds, structured products and other allied investments. A Model Portfolio will be chosen that is matched to meet your requirements. Your portfolio should outperform any investment product or tracker fund over the medium to long term that was not invented with you specifically in mind.

As the long-term trend is upwards i.e. there are more ups than downs, we aim to add value in the well managed trusts which, over time, have a good record of outperforming their benchmark. There are not many of these well managed trusts.

This is why only about 10% of available trusts appear in our Model Portfolios. We are very particular with whom we invest our clients’, and our shareholders’, money.

Asset Allocation

This is of primary importance. Stock picking skills are secondary. We invest in equities and other asset classes on a global basis through closed-end funds to provide a diversified portfolio allied to the aims of each client.

Alternative theories of a single solution for all investment issues are a misconception.

Asset Allocation will involve investing:-

Mainly in equities, but also private equity, bonds, debt,
property and alternatives like infrastructure,
through closed-end funds & cash on rare occasions

Geographical spread
Large, medium & smaller companies

Why is Asset Allocation so important? Choosing the worst performing fund within the right Asset Allocation will produce a better return than having the best performing trust within the worst Asset Allocation. As to investment trusts, we invest in plain vanilla trusts (having just one class of share) and, rarely, Split Capital Trusts (Splits) (having more than one class of share).

Diversified Portfolio

This is another important factor in helping to spread risk in a portfolio. Real diversity is not easily achieved. In extreme adverse market conditions, diversity can seem to disappear but it returns when market conditions improve.

Investment Aim

We have model portfolios for capital growth and for income. The capital growth models are adjusted to meet your risk requirements and the high income is designed to be increased over time. At Pigotts we have no time for average performance as the aim is to outperform the FTSE All-Share over rolling 5-year periods.

Holistic Approach

Although taxes and charges are taken into consideration when investing we do not choose an investment mainly because it has some tax benefit. Tax relief handed out by any government, as an inducement to buy an investment, is generally not a gift. It is a debt that has to be repaid. The government makes sure it is, and how, in spades! Pensions are the classic example. Our focus and drive is to invest for investment’s sake to produce a good total return. If it can be tax efficient as well, so much the better. On buying any investment, performance is our first priority, then charges, then tax.

Transparent Charging Structure

Simple charges, fair and easy to understand. For details of both Pigotts’ and Transact’s charges and discounts please click here. Our charges were fee based long before RDR forced advisers to have a clear upfront fee and we didn’t have commission paid to us by fund managers.