How We Invest

How We Invest​

Investing well is about building and protecting wealth through different market conditions. Our investment team is broad enough to blend multiple complementary styles into a multi-asset framework designed to compound steadily through cycles, preserve capital in downturns, and deliver consistent, risk-adjusted returns over time. 

We use a combination of fundamental research, data analytics, and disciplined portfolio construction. Every position we hold must earn its place — either as a growth driver, a diversifier, a source of income, or a portfolio ballast. The result: resilient, well-balanced portfolios that make clever investing look easy. 

Glossary

A managed fund pools investors’ money into one professionally managed portfolio, giving you access to opportunities you might not reach on your own—locally and globally. You’ll receive units that represent your share of the fund, making it a simple way to benefit from expert management and diversification. 

The benefits: 

  • Access to a wide range of investments 
  • Professional management and research 
  • Diversification without needing a large starting amount

Things to consider: 

  • Less control over specific investment choices 
  • Sometimes less transparency compared to holding shares directly 
  • Returns may be impacted by fund fees 

A managed account is a portfolio of individual investments managed on your behalf by a professional investment manager. Unlike a managed fund, the assets sit in your own account (often on a super or investment platform), giving you greater control, transparency, and potential tax benefits. 

Managed accounts can be tailored to your risk profile and wealth goals. Because you typically directly hold the underlying assets, you can see exactly what you own—and even request exclusions if certain investments don’t suit you. 

An SMA is a managed account available to both retail and wholesale investors. Your portfolio is based on a model designed by the investment manager, and all investors in the SMA hold the same set of securities in line with that model. 

  • Best for: Investors who want professional management, transparency, and diversification without needing to manage each investment themselves. 
  • Considerations: You can’t customise the portfolio beyond broad model selection. 

An MDA is a managed account where an adviser or manager has the discretion to make day-to-day investment decisions on your behalf, within agreed limits and strategy. This means you don’t need to approve each trade. 

  • Best for: Investors who want to delegate investment decisions while staying aligned to a broader strategy. 
  • Considerations: Customising your portfolio may make it harder to benchmark performance and while some MDAs are available to retail investors Clime MDAs are only for wholesale or sophisticated clients.  

An IMA is available only to wholesale investors and is fully tailored to individual circumstances, objectives, and preferences. It provides the highest level of flexibility and control while still benefiting from professional investment expertise. 

  • Best for: High-net-worth or wholesale investors seeking a customised portfolio solution. 
  • Considerations: Typically higher minimum investment amounts and costs than SMAs. 

Our Investment Styles

Value & Quality Investing

Our team focuses on finding companies with strong balance sheets, robust cash flows, and clear value creation strategies - avoiding those that over-promise, are highly leveraged, or rely too heavily on external factors.

How we apply it

This philosophy underpins our Australian and global equity portfolios, where we aim to buy quality at the right price and avoid permanent capital loss. 

High Alpha / Tactical Strategies

For clients who want to pursue a more active and dynamic approach, we offer a high-alpha style that adjusts exposure based on prevailing macro trends and risk signals.

This model is highly active - it shifts in and out of holdings as risk appetite changes, aiming to protect capital in periods of stress and capture upside when conditions improve. 

Key Features

Macro-driven

Allocations are guided by leading indicators, market cycles, and economic data. 

Dynamic risk management

Can quickly reduce exposure to risky assets when conditions deteriorate. 

High-conviction opportunities

Concentrated positions taken when the odds are favourable. 

This style isn’t for everyone. It suits investors comfortable with a more active approach, who want a strategy designed to manage risk and generate outsized returns over time - even if it means higher turnover and variability along the way. 

Income-Focused Strategies

We target sustainable, high-quality income by trading listed bonds and high yielding companies with  high franking, and strong governance.

Where appropriate, some of our investment options use conservative option strategies to enhance yield and reduce volatility, constructing portfolios of 20–40 stocks designed to deliver reliable income, low beta, and measured capital growth.

Unlisted Private Credit & Real Assets

Our private credit team originates and manages senior-secured, asset-backed opportunities in Australian real estate and private markets. 

What we target: 

  • Hard-asset security and downside protection 
  • Diversification across property sectors and geographies 
  • Rigorous underwriting, structuring, and monitoring 
  • Attractive yield premiums over listed alternatives 

Active management and governance are central to our approach, with our team deeply engaged at every stage of each investment’s life cycle. 

Responsible & Sustainable Investing

We believe that well-governed, well-managed businesses create sustainable value – and that is where we invest. 

We do not follow ideological checklists or shifting ESG benchmarks. What is considered “responsible” or “green” is constantly changing – and often subjective. Is nuclear energy sustainable? Are defence companies inherently bad if they protect national security? These are social and political questions, not investment ones. 

Our view is simple: 

  • Governance matters. Companies with strong boards, transparent reporting, and aligned management teams are more likely to deliver lasting shareholder value. 
  • Capital efficiency matters. We invest in businesses that use capital wisely and create genuine shareholder wealth not just growth for growth’s sake. 
  • Sustainability matters. We consider the long-term viability of business models, balance sheet strength, and exposure to material environmental and social risks as part of our fundamental research. 

We believe it is the role of consumers and policymakers to decide what is acceptable in society. Our role is to allocate capital to companies that are sustainable, well-run, and capable of compounding value over time regardless of shifting ideological trends. 

Multi-Asset Portfolio Construction

Our multi-asset team blends equities, fixed income, alternatives, and cash to build portfolios matched to specific objectives and risk profiles. 

Compounding focus

Stay invested, let time do the work. 

Transparency and communication

Clients always know what drives returns.

Tax-efficient structures

including SMAs, MDAs, and wholesale funds.

Institutional-grade discipline

with the agility of a boutique manager.

What you can expect

Consistent performance

By blending Clime strategies and asset class management into a diversified portfolio we can help smooth out investment returns and build wealth over time.

Transparency and communication

Our advisers and investment specialists can directly access our portfolio management expertise and specific holdings at any time.

Flexible investment structures

Our SMA, MDA, IMA and Fund structures make it easy for investors of all types and circumstances to access our portfolio management services.

A reliable partner

With nearly 30 years of experience, offices in major cities and a strong team, we are with you long term.

Connect with our team

Even the most sophisticated investors benefit from guidance. Our private wealth and financial planning teams exist to connect Clever Investors with easy solutions. 

Our investment specialists focus on portfolio construction and administration, direct investing and transaction advice. This service is available to wholesale investors only.

Meet Our Specialists

Our Private Client advisers are qualified financial advisers with significant experience in the complex family, estate and investment requirements that often follows our most successful Australians.

Meet Our Advisers