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About the team…

The LGT Charities team has been working in partnership with charities by supporting trustees and building investment portfolios around their individual needs for over 20 years.

 

LGT Wealth Management is one of the leading wealth managers in the UK, focused on providing an exceptional and transparent service to private clients, companies, charities, trusts and financial intermediaries.

 

As part of a family-owned private bank and asset manager, we are thoughtful, sustainable, and deliberate: in how we invest; how we operate as a business; and to how we approach our relationships with our charity clients. With offices in London, Jersey, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester, we can service our charity clients across the UK.

 

The LGT Group is growing and currently manages circa CHF 316 bn (as at 31st December 2023) which provides our team with the stability and the resources to continually invest in the services we offer our clients. Like many of the charities we work with, our owners have a perpetual time horizon, and this means we are a stable, long-term partner in an industry that is undergoing significant change. Our managers are personally involved with charities, we invest on behalf of charities, and our business has its own award-winning charitable foundation, LGT Venture Philanthropy, which receives 10% of the group’s dividend. This gives us a broad and unique perspective on many of the issues that are top-of-mind for trustees and investment committees.

 

We believe that our most important assets are the relationships we build with our clients and our greatest strength is the people who work on our charity investment team. The team is comprised of 12 charity investment managers, many of whom are trustees and investment committee members, who have experience of sitting on both sides of the table. On average, our managers have 20 years’ experience in investment markets, are based across the UK, and manage approximately £1.5bn (as at 31st March 2024) on behalf of our charity clients. The team and our charity clients are further enabled and supported by our Technical Director of Charities and Philanthropy, Julie Hutchison, who ensures our business and our clients are always on the front foot with respect to governance, policy and regulatory change.

 

Charities value our consistent investment approach, which is transparent, global and direct. We have a 20 year investment track record of delivering profit with purpose, in portfolios that are built around each charity’s unique needs. In 2022, we entered a strategic relationship with the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) to launch a range of Charity ESG Funds that we manage, which allows charities of all sizes to benefit from our capabilities and support.

 

We are keen to meet and talk to charities who value having a relationship with an experienced team and an investment portfolio that supports their mission and aligns with their values.

 

The problems we want to help charities solve…

There is a huge amount of complexity and financial jargon used in the investment management industry today, which can create a barrier in trustee decision making. Our team are passionate about helping boards of trustees build confidence with their investments, so they can become more engaged with their portfolios and have the tools to meet their financial objectives in an efficient way.

 

Our team work to make sure our communication is straightforward, investments are clearly understood in the context of a charities’ total assets, and trustees have both the information and levers to pull to ensure their investments always meet their objectives.  

 

What we do…
We offer our charity clients a broader perspective in the way we support them, which starts with understanding that each charity has a unique purpose and is governed by individuals with a broad range of experiences that they bring to their trustee roles. The services we offer charities range from governance and investment policy support, to cash management, investment management, lending and access to private assets and impact investments. They are designed to incorporate best practice for charity investors and can be accessed through straightforward investment vehicles and more tailored approaches when needed.

 

Our core service in investment management provides our clients with access to our global direct investment capabilities through pooled and segregated portfolios, as well as the CAF ESG Fund range. By investing directly, we can tailor portfolios to our charity clients’ values, either through our Core Responsible Investment screens or on a more bespoke basis to meet specific requirements – whilst also minimising the investment costs for charities.

 

Why we partner with Charity Intelligence…

We have known Charity Intelligence for many years, and they share our view that making it easier to connect charities with experienced partners who can help them, benefits the sector and the public good that charities promote.

 

Following LGT’s acquisition of the charity team in September 2023 and the exciting growth of the CAF ESG funds, Charity Intelligence and their broad reach were the obvious partner to help us continue to build our conversation with the charity sector.

 

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