Both existing and prospective new clients will be acutely aware of the global disruption that has been caused by the Coronavirus both in terms of the world’s economies and to our ordinary way of life. AMR’s directors and staff have continuously monitored and considered the virus’s impact in order that we can react appropriately as the course of the pandemic has unfolded.  As of today, so as to reduce the chances of our advisers either contracting the virus themselves - or spreading it to others - we are continuing to restrict face-to-face client meetings to those that are essential and/or urgent. Telephone conversations, email or discussions via one of the web-based conferencing systems can, of course, take place without restriction. We hope that face-tp-face meetings will be possible again in the not too distant future.

Investors will appreciate that during 2020 markets were more volatile than usual and some holdings (travel companies. airlines and the leisure sector, for example) fell in value very significantly. On the other hand, some holdings performed well as peoples’ spending patterns changed. Towards the end of 2020, as COVID vaccines started to come on stream, values improved somewhat with some additional upward impetus to UK stocks coming from the announcement of a trade agreement with the EU. As at the start of May 2021 global stock markets had largely recovered to their pre-pandemic levels, although it is reasonable to expect volatility to continue to be a feature of investment markets for the foreseeable future.  In terms of overall outlook, we continue to believe that investors may take some reassurance from the unprecedented support measures that have been and are being taken by the central banks and governments of the world’s major economies.