Discover IAM

All of our investment professionals have significant practical experience of both investment advice and direct management.

IAM Advisory was established in 1987 by Michael Strachan, who used his experience helping to set up the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the State General Reserve Fund in the Sultanate of Oman. He pioneered the active management of large sovereign wealth fund portfolios, using a combination of direct investments in major asset classes and segregated portfolios managed by leading external managers on specialist mandates, an approach that was then unique. These central disciplines have been developed over the years and apply to anyone with direct ownership of, or fiduciary responsibility for, pools of investment assets. The principles remain the same, but the nature of the approach is bespoke to the size and character of each client.

Depth of experience

Our team’s expertise is reflected in a considerable breadth of knowledge across asset classes, funds and discretionary managers and how these are combined and managed within a total client investment portfolio. The team's expertise extends from the theory of investment process and research to the practical problems of managing investments whether through direct assets, funds and/or ‘managing managers’.

Our goal is to ensure your assets work for you within an active management framework, in which all material risks are identified at the outset and then closely monitored and controlled to provide peace of mind.

We provide an established, proven, leading-edge service, which goes well beyond the conventional and limited provision of asset allocation, manager selection and performance measurement - increasingly the norm for such services.

Our in-house technology platform assists in the process of structuring your investment portfolio and, unusually, the same software monitors risk and return on your portfolios, identifying problems at an early stage.

Our informative regular communications and monthly reports are simple, intuitive, accessible, whilst being bespoke to each client. The information provided is designed to fully support trustees' regulatory requirements.

Our highly qualified staff are known for their approachable, knowledgeable manner, and are ready to work on any investment related issues. When problems do occur, either within the portfolios or as part of the overall financial goals of the client, their investment experience means they are able to grasp the issues and support early and often innovative solutions. All clients have a client Director overseeing their account, giving you access to our most senior staff, and as part of a team committed to your account reflecting one of the lowest clients to staff ratios in the industry. We encourage active interface between ourselves and our clients as part of our skill transfer process with regular reviews on all aspects of the markets and the accounts.

As a completely independent advisory company, IAM is aligned with your interests. We have absolutely no conflicts, as typically occur when an advisor undertakes other services. In putting our clients' interests first, we will only choose fund managers, funds and investments based on their ability to meet specific client requirements.

Discover our Services

Our objective is to be value added and to maximise investment returns, net of all costs, at a carefully controlled level of risk that is directly appropriate to the client.

• Bespoke client set up – Our initial step is to understand the client’s unique investment objectives and risk appetite leading to an objective process of setting bespoke investment guidelines. These total fund guidelines are then delegated down to managers and funds in a way that maintains dynamic investment flexibility, to access specialist skills – beyond mere asset allocation. Risk is assessed over 10 categories, many of which are not normally covered.
• Dynamic investment process - a proprietary in-house investment system, AMps, drives the creation of a dynamic investment structure, which creates an environment in which active fund management can work.
• Sophisticated analytics - Our proprietary monitoring process, for risk and return, unusually uses the same process as portfolio construction and aims, through contribution and attribution analysis, to learn from the past to inform the future. It enables a manager's risk adjusted returns to be graded every month.
• Working in partnership - we put the fiduciary and/or owner in control, providing an ability to challenge fund managers properly and ensure risks are managed in a way which fully meets increasingly rigorous regulatory and governance standards.
• Skill and knowledge transfer to clients through regular review meetings and training seminars is regarded as important – evolution rather than revolution.
• Comprehensive range of detailed support services, including reduced management fees, negotiation of management agreements, assistance with transitions, loan financing, priority fund access, responses to fund managers, etc.

The result is a history of good risk-adjusted real returns, net of all costs, backed up with high quality research, comprehensive monthly reports and regular client interface as part of a proactive approach that we believe clearly sets us apart from other providers of investment advisory services.

Discover our Innovative Approach to investments