He sees opportunities with the Trump presidency, at least on the investment side. He says: “The key thing is we still do not know much about the Trump presidency. He gave us an awful lot of policy ideas in his speeches running up to the election, but there was limited detail, so it was difficult to say X or Y is a policy.”
His proposals on tax cuts, for which he is likely to get backing from the Republican-dominated Congress, would be good for consumers and will build inflation in the system, which will in turn prompt interest rates to rise.
Mr Herberts says: “One of the issues the banks have had in a really low interest rate environment is [that] it is difficult to make a margin on your loans. [Trump’s changes] might start that moving back in the right direction.”
But over the longer term, this may not be so good for the American balance sheet. The US Federal Reserve has to get its timing right on when to make any interest rate move so that it is not behind the curve.
The main change is less reliance on what had been regarded as completely safe bets, such as government debt. As more uncertainty moves into the political space, so its investment expression has become more volatile.
Melanie Tringham is features editor of Financial Adviser
Key points
Investors are nervous after a volatile year.
Experienced professionals are falling back on old rules about investing.
Some professionals are quite optimistic, in an economic sense, about a Donald Trump presidency.
