A 24-minute listen.

Andrew Summers, head of fund research at Investec Wealth & Investments, is the latest guest in our ongoing remote podcast series. He spoke to me about the importance of capital markets and where he sees the most risk in the asset mix.

Andrew explains how he remains comfortable with his fund choices: “There’s a reason why we spend so long on thinking about the funds that we are going to invest in and why we do so much in-depth due diligence before we actually invest.

“It’s exactly for times like this when the proverbial hits the fan and we can actually let our fund managers get on with the job without constantly second guessing them and calling them to find out what they are doing.”

Continuing members’ ongoing debate about property, Andrew explains how he still sees most risk in closed-ended property funds; geared, illiquid vehicles with bank covenants used to support balance sheets. Conversely, he is much more comfortable with infrastructure funds.

While there has been some outcry over investors talking up opportunities in times of crisis, Andrew is happy to explain the importance of capital markets in the wellbeing of society.

“Fundamentally, good businesses on 19 February are still fundamentally good businesses today but are probably 10-15% or so cheaper,” he says.

“There will be a lot of money to be made out of this crisis. That sounds like an incredibly crass thing to say but our clients are normal, moderately affluent people that have pensions and savings and aspirations, and children and grandchildren that they want to look after.

“If we can make money for them in this scenario, that’s an honourable objective that we shouldn’t be ashamed of stating”.