Update: Britain votes to leave the European Union

In a historic referendum, Britain has voted to leave the European Union. The result of the vote has already triggered a tidal wave of political and fiscal changes, the most headline-grabbing of which is the commitment by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, to resign and have new leadership in place by the Conservative party conference in October.

We were already in the process of preparing a full post-vote briefing document for all of our clients, which will present a summary of what has happened and how this decision may impact investments, pensions and the wider economy. The work on this document will continue and we envisage sending it out to you early next week.

In the immediate short term, stock market volatility was to be expected, particularly in the case of Britain voting to leave and, indeed, we have already seen reactions from markets across the globe. In such major economic and political events as this, established fundamental investing wisdom always favours the ‘hold’ approach.

Investments and financial plans are for the long-term and are made with due consideration of volatility, something guarded against by, amongst other strategies, proper diversification and asset allocation. Financial plans are also intensely personal, intended to work to your goals. Unless these have changed very recently, your financial plan is still aligned to work for you. In the coming days, the route map for Britain’s future will become clearer and more policies designed to prepare and reassure markets will be made public. Already today the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, has revealed that £250 billion of support is available.

However, there are also likely to be continuing headlines about the impact ‘Brexit’ will have on each of us personally, on the companies we invest in and on the wider world economy. We would like to reassure clients that we are here and available to you if you wish to discuss your financial plan, investments or anything else related to your financial well-being or, indeed, the result of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

Please feel free to call or email us, ahead of our briefing document being available next week, as we continue to closely monitor the situation over the coming days.

Sources

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36615028