By Business & Finance For the first time, Ireland’s largest and longest established gold broker, GoldCore has divulged information regarding their clients extensive gold holdings.
The broker has over 3,600 clients, with over $205m in assets under management and storage. Gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion storage services in London, Zurich, Perth, Hong Kong and Singapore are offered to investors, pension owners and other institutional investors in over 40 countries.
GoldCore have $80.1m of Irish, UK and international client’s bullion stored in the Perth Mint of Western Australia and another $50.2m in GoldCore Secure Storage which is coins and bars stored in secure vaults in Zurich, Hong Kong and Singapore. The balance of the assets are diversified investment and pension portfolios worth $75.9m that are managed for Irish clients by GoldCore Wealth Management.
The figures show that contrary to the popular perception, Irish people did not flock to gold in recent years and gold remains the preserve of a minority. Allocations to gold remain low versus allocations to other assets and compared to international norms.
GoldCore has since 2003 consistently advocated having eggs in different baskets and diversification. New research being released this week by GoldCore shows the importance of owning gold in a pension in Ireland. The research GoldCore looks at the important role that gold can play as a diversification in pension portfolios in Ireland.
Professor of Finance in Trinity College Dublin, Dr Brian Lucey concurs and warned about the lack of diversification in Irish pension funds. “Pensions need balance. Irish pension funds have been slow to embrace gold and this imbalance has cost pension holders dearly,” said Dr Lucey.
“Small allocations to gold balance and stabilise pensions in the long term and gold should be an essential part of every Irish pension fund. This guide should be read by people involved in pensions in Ireland today,” said Dr Lucey.
Independent economic consultant, Jim Power agrees. “A sensible pension’s manager should include gold as part of the investment suite. It has a very long track record, and possesses valuable investment attributes. In my view, gold should clearly form part of a diversified pension investment.”
For those approaching retirement careful consideration needs to be given to saving, investment and pension decisions – particularly with regard to their exposure to equities, bonds and property and their overall asset allocations.
It has been shown that protecting and growing wealth can be achieved if investors and pension owners focus on asset allocation and diversification. The fundamental tenet of investment theory is diversification – whether that be allocations to stock, bond or property markets or even on deposit in a bank. One should not have all the proverbial eggs in the one basket – be that one asset class like cash or property or one country like Ireland.
“Conservative wealth management and asset diversification naturally grow in importance as people get older. Prudent asset diversification will enable Irish people to preserve and grow their pension savings,” according to Mark O’Byrne, head of Research in GoldCore.
Ireland’s financial and economic outlook remains uncertain. O’Byrne adds that: “today’s uncertain world makes the investment and pensions landscape a more challenging place for pension owners and again underlines the importance of being properly diversified and not having all your eggs in certain assets.”
