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 normal way of life. AMR’s directors and staff continue to monitor and consider the virus’s impact in order that we can react appropriately as the course of the pandemic proceeds. At present, so as to reduce the chances of our advisers either contracting the virus themselves or spreading it to others, we are continuing to limit face-to-face client meetings to those that are necessary and/or difficult to conduct remotely. Telephone conversations, email or discussions via one of the web-based conferencing systems can, of course, take place without restriction. We hope that face-to-face meetings will become routine 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. Indeed, as at the time of writing, global stock markets had largely recovered to their pre-pandemic levels – albeit with some sectors lagging behind the majority. In terms of overall outlook, we believe that further improvements in asset values will be seen as international vaccination programmes continue to roll out.