Horizon Q1│2025 - Berenberg Insights

You are head of the Multi Asset Internal Advisory team. What does that mean to you? What is your day like?

Our team is responsible for selecting securities for investment advice. We cover the entire process of recommending securities – from the initial idea to the detailed elaboration.

Our day’s work begins with the daily market and product call for Berenberg’s sales units. This provides us with valuable insights and impetus for the rest of the day. As the team is spread across the Frankfurt and Hamburg offices, we organise a daily team meeting to strengthen cooperation, coordinate tasks efficiently and react quickly to new market developments. Depending on the market situation, the focus may be on analysing and developing new ideas, monitoring current recommendations or commenting on quarterly results and price-driving news. We are also responsible for responding to specific client enquiries about the recommendations, as well as regulatory and technical enquiries.

Which clients are suitable for investment advice?

Investment advice is aimed at clients who want to play an active role in managing their portfolio and who want regular dialogue with their adviser. These clients should have a strong interest in learning about markets and investment ideas and in continually reviewing their investment strategy. Equally important is a willingness to make informed decisions within a reasonable timeframe in order to respond flexibly to changing market conditions.

Our client advisors incorporate the recommendations made by our team into an ongoing dialogue to identify new investment opportunities for our clients. This dialogue ensures that the recommended investments are best suited to our clients’ specific circumstances and individual goals. The needs and concerns of our clients, as conveyed to us by their advisors, are crucial in shaping our investment advice.

What kind of asset classes do you cover?

Although our focus is on equities, it is important to have a balanced portfolio approach. We recommend that our clients maintain a diversified portfolio across asset classes. In addition to stock selection, fund solutions and certificates play a key role, as they are particularly suitable for thematic and tactical investments to take advantage of trends. Another important aspect is the careful analysis and selection of bond issuers to ensure stable returns. We recommend targeted commodity investments as an optimal complement to the portfolio. This holistic approach allows our clients not only to benefit from the opportunities offered by equity markets, but also to reduce volatility and achieve sustainable performance.

That sounds like a lot of topics. How do you manage that with your compact team?

We are a well-established team with regular dialogue and a structured approach. In addition, many of our tasks, such as reviewing changes in our advisory universe, are partially or fully automated. This allows us to focus more on the qualitative analysis of markets and investments, while at the same time meeting stringent regulatory requirements.

A key aspect of our work is the ongoing dialogue with many teams, in particular from our wealth and asset management, as this is the only way to cover such a wide range of asset classes and issues.

Which teams at Berenberg do you work with in particular?

We liaise regularly with the Multi Asset Strategy & Research team on asset allocation and tactical investment ideas. We also work closely with the Portfolio Management and Fund Selection teams.

At the same time, we work closely with the Professional Client Advisory team, which acts as a sparring partner for active investment advice to professional clients. Our team acts as a central interface between investment professionals and client advisors at our company. This means that our clients benefit not only from the expertise of the Berenberg Investment Platform, but also from a fast and effective exchange of knowledge. In particular, Berenberg’s dynamism and short decision-making channels enable ideas to be developed quickly and turned into recommendations.

The market situation can change rapidly at any time. How do you deal with such volatility in your investment advice?

Our investment strategy is long term, with an average investment horizon of three to five years. This perspective forms the basis of our recommendations and enables us to bridge short-term market fluctuations and volatility. We also seek to diversify both sectorally and regionally in order to make our recommendations as stable as possible.

Despite this long-term focus, we recognise that there are always market events that can lead to unpredictable volatility – be they geopolitical crises, economic upheavals or other unforeseen developments. At such times, it is important to keep a cool head.

Together with the Multi Asset Strategy & Research team, we will prepare a communication to our clients if necessary, analyse the impact of the event on our existing recommendations and identify possible tactical opportunities.