The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has appointed Bath-based Epoch Wealth Management to be the UK charity’s investment adviser.
The firm, which has significant experience supporting trustees and board members of not-for-profit organisations, will advise the country’s leading animal welfare charity on its future investment strategy.
Epoch saw off strong competition from a number of other firms to secure the role and has carried out a comprehensive evaluation of the RSPCA’s overall financial strategy.
This involved a complete review of the charity’s objectives, risk profile, ethical policy and reserves policy.
Epoch will now ensure that the RSPCA continues to comply with a refreshed Statement of Investment Principles, covering the organisation’s high-level investment objectives, which the firm is drafting on behalf of the charity.
A reserves overflow fund is also being created following advice from Epoch which will sit between the charity’s cash reserves and long-term portfolio. This will reduce the need to hold excessive volumes of cash and the likelihood of the charity needing to access its long-term investments.
Helen Tracey, Chief Financial Officer of the RSPCA, said: “As one of the largest charities in the UK, the RSPCA constantly seeks efficiencies in its operational processes. We identified the need to reappraise our investment strategy to ensure it remained fit for purpose and competitive.
“Epoch’s appointment as investment adviser was due to a combination of factors but largely came down to the ability of the firm to quickly assess what we were looking to achieve, and communicate a process to achieve our goals in a well thought out and engaging manner.
“It was also apparent that they were already providing the very thing we needed to many other charities in the UK.”
She added: “The appointment of Epoch allows us to better understand the investment universe and to have a professional team who can interrogate performance more completely than was possible before.”
Epoch partner Jon Rolfe said: “We are proud to have been appointed investment advisers to the RSPCA, which is one of the UK’s biggest and best known charities.
“We will help to ensure that the organisation continues to make sound investment decisions so that it can meet its important charitable objectives in the future.”
