'Fixed income is one of our biggest challenges right now'

QUICKFIRE Q&A

Walker Crips' CIO Mark Rushton talks to Alasdair Pal about the group's key investment themes, the challenges for income investors, and how best to serve low-value clients.

How do you manage your portfolios compared to your peers? We are benchmarked against the Wealth Management Association sectors, but we will also always have less in equities than peers – we like to have well-diversified portfolios. For example, we have positions in the Norwegian krone and Australian dollar as a hedge, as well as some more esoteric trusts. The Tritax Big Box REIT is a good example: it invests in out-of-town storage units, and will benefit from the economy kick-starting. We also have holdings infrastructure trusts Bilfinger Berger and John Laing, which pay a decent inco...