You could be forgiven for thinking that the world in general, and the UK specifically, is in a right old state. There’s certainly lots to be thinking about – Trump’s belligerence, China’s debt mountain, Putin’s malevolence, not forgetting Brexit and the prospect of a far-left leaning Labour Government. This inevitably leads to understandable concern for what this all means for investment portfolios. This note seeks to reassure you that well-structured portfolios are capable of riding out any storm.

It is an inevitable part of investing that at some point markets will fall by an alarming - if not unexpected - degree. We haven’t seen large market falls for a decade. We should expect that we will. When, and in what magnitude, no-one knows.

Modern life provides us - some would say swamps us - with so much news, information and punditry, which focuses on the here-and-now, that it is easy to be overwhelmed with the feeling of doom and gloom.