Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – one directorship is still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. 

JPMorgan China Growth & Income (JCGI) aims to provide long-term capital growth from investment in ’Greater China’ companies which are quoted on the stock exchanges of Hong Kong, China and Taiwan or which derive a substantial part of their revenues or profits from these territories. The trust also aims to pay out a predictable quarterly income distribution, totalling at least 4% of the Company NAV on the last business day of the preceding financial year. JCGI is the first investment trust to focus purely on the greater China region, capitalising on our extensive local knowledge and experience to find attractive opportunities in the region.

Emily Whiting, managing director, is a Investment Specialist within the Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific (EMAP) Equities team, based in London. An employee since 2005, Emily previously worked in the London Request for Proposal Group, specialising in Far East and Emerging Markets equity products.  Emily obtained a B.Sc in Money, Banking and Finance from the University of Birmingham

Founded in 1889 Law Debenture is a unique combination of an award-winning UK Income Investment Trust underpinned by a leading Independent Professional Services (IPS) business.

The investment portfolio is managed by James Henderson and Laura Foll of Janus Henderson Investors. Their objective is to achieve long-term capital growth in real terms and steadily increasing income. The Company has grown or maintained its dividend for each of the last 46 years through a value driven, diversified investment portfolio.

Law Debenture has outperformed the FTSE Actuaries All-Share Index by 51.2% over 10 years (29.6% over five years and 6.1% over three years). The ongoing charges ratio is 0.51% compared to an industry average of 1.05.

 The IPS business provides governance and transaction services including corporate trusteeship and escrows, pensions trusteeship, corporate secretarial, entity management and service of process. Law Denture has offices in the UK, Ireland, USA and Hong Kong and a 300+ strong workforce.

Capital Gearing Trust is designed to preserve and grow investors’ real wealth across a range of market environments, delivering long term returns ahead of inflation with a strong focus on limiting capital losses. Managed by CG Asset Management, the Trust follows a cautious and actively managed multi asset approach, with an emphasis on capital preservation, disciplined asset allocation and downside protection.

The portfolio is actively managed across three core components:

(i) Specialist risk assets (comprising investment trusts, ETFs and property)

(ii) Inflation linked bonds

(iii) Managed liquidity reserve (cash and short dated bonds)

This diversified structure is intended to provide resilience during periods of market stress, while still enabling the Trust to participate in long term global growth opportunities. A key differentiator is the team’s expertise in specialist investment trusts and inflation linked bonds, areas where the managers believe they can add meaningful long term value through active allocation and security selection.

The Trust can be held either as a complete diversified portfolio solution or alongside other investments within a broader asset allocation framework. It also operates a discount control policy designed to ensure that, in normal market conditions, the shares trade consistently close to their underlying Net Asset Value per share. In addition, the Trust is recognised as one of the lowest cost options within the flexible investment sector.

Alastair Laing

Alastair is Chief Executive Officer of CG Asset Management, having joined the firm in 2011. He has co-managed CGAM’s funds since joining the business. Prior to CGAM, Alastair worked at HgCapital LLP, a pan-European private equity firm, and previously within the Mergers & Acquisitions team at Deloitte LLP. Alastair was educated at the University of Edinburgh and was an MBA Scholar at London Business School. He is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

Custodian Property Income REIT aims to be the Real Estate Investment Trust of choice for private and institutional investors seeking high and stable dividends from well-diversified UK real estate.
Custodian Property Income REIT plc was launched as a main-market-listed, property investment company on the London Stock Exchange on 26 March 2014.
The company seeks to deliver a higher level of fully covered dividend by pursing a smaller regional property strategy. We believe that through this strategy, it is possible to secure a marginal income advantage, without adding to property-specific risk or concentration risk.
Custodian Capital Limited, the investment manager, is a subsidiary of Mattioli Woods Limited and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Richard Shepherd-Cross

Richard qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1996 and until 2008 worked for JLL, latterly running its national portfolio investment team.
Since joining Mattioli Woods in 2009, Richard established Custodian Capital as the Property Fund Management subsidiary to Mattioli Woods
and in 2014 was instrumental in the establishment of Custodian Property Income REIT from the Mattioli Woods syndicated property portfolio and its
1,200 investors. Following the successful IPO of the Company, Richard has overseen the growth of the Company and has led the corporate acquisition
of one listed and three private property companies over the last 5 years to build a consolidated property portfolio of £0.7bn.