Hello and welcome to this month's update from the management team at Empowered Wealth. 

As with all our updates, our primary objective is to help you build and protect your family's wealth. 

To that end, we will:

Please note that nothing included in this article, is not to be construed as tax or investment advice. 

As a keen reader of The Economist, which prides itself on being radically central and objective, I have hardly believed what I've been reading in the past few weeks. 

Under the Trump administration, the transatlantic alliance, which has all but guaranteed western security for the past 80 years, appears to be crumbling before our eyes. This in combination with extreme market volatility, resulting from Mr Trump's aggressive trade tariffs, has constituted an upheaval of long-established norms. 

The implications of all this are both significant and far-reaching. 

Perhaps the biggest implications from a European perspective will be the need for markedly increased defence spending. In spite of the many troubling developments in recent weeks, this could have the much-desired effect of reinvigorating economies across the euro zone, with Germany under it's new chancellor Friedrich Merz, France and the UK leading the charge. Encouragingly, regardless of which way you voted on Brexit, this could all lead to a great strengthening of relations and collaboration between the UK and the EU. 

With governments across Europe faced with an urgent need to increase their defence spending, in order to contain Russian aggression without American support, a key question we should all be asking ourselves is "where is the money going to come from?"

Germany are looking very closely at relaxing the laws around their debt brake, so they can borrow more money to fund their increased defence spending. No doubt, other governments will also look at increasing their borrowing. Likewise they may look at reducing expenditure in key areas of the economy, such as welfare and foreign aid, in order to free up more cash. We also have to consider the possibility of increased taxation. 

In no particular order and without being exhaustive, you may wish to consider:

In the event of inflation levels rising, it may be prudent to ensure that cash is lodged in interesting-bearing accounts, cash management facilities or appropriate investments. This will become particularly relevant if interest rates were to raise, in order to counteract the threat of rising inflation. 

In the event of increased taxation, you could look to protect your assets, by holding them within tax-exempt and / or tax-efficient vehicles, such as a SSAS. 

From an investment perspective, you may also wish to invest some time in considering which companies and sectors will be impacted by changing events. For example, which sectors would stand to benefit from a sharp increase in defence spending that is underwritten and funded by central governments?

The wheels of continuous improvement never cease to turn at Empowered Wealth and indeed across the whole group of increasingly inter-connected companies.

A great deal of work has gone into bringing more investment counterparties and opportunities onto the Empowered Wealth platform, in service of providing you with a diverse range of opportunities to review, as part of your investment journey.

As of 17th March 2025, we're up to 43 investment opportunities live and listed on the platform, across a range of 8 asset classes. We also have 8 counterparties in the pipeline, which we're working closely with, in hopes of getting them live on the platform, in the coming weeks.

Please note that in order to review the investment opportunities on our platform, you will first need to self-certify as a high net worth or sophisticated investor. 

From a communications perspective, we're delighted to welcome Helen Alexander as the new communications director for the Empowered Group. As part of the great work that Helen is doing, we have sought to improve the format and content of this newsletter, so we can provide you with more value and helpful insights. 

Perhaps our biggest focus this month, has been on improving our customer communications and response times, with respect to incoming requests. Over the coming weeks and months, you should start to notice and benefit from:

If you'd like to learn more about how you can benefit from using the Empowered Wealth platform, this how-to guide has got you covered. Likewise if you're yet to have received an invitation to join, please send an email to [email protected]. 

My recommended reading for this month is "Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger", which at the time of writing, is available in the Kindle Store for the almost offensive price of £0.99. Talk about a good deal!

I'm not unique in being fascinated by the legendary investment journey of Berkshire Hathaway under the stewardship of Charlie and Warren. 

Very much by design, Charlie chose largely to stay out of the limelight. This book does a stellar job of sharing the handful of speeches, which he delivered over the years and provides great commentary on the relevant insights, which the reader can benefit from absorbing. 

My key learning from this book is Charlie's multi-disciplinary approach. He talks about taking the biggest and best ideas from a broad range of disciplines and using them to create a latticework of mental models, which can be combined to improve decision-making and identify opportunities that the vast majority of people will miss. 

Given his extraordinary track record of investment success, if it's good enough for him, I should imagine it will be good enough for us. 

Wishing you every continued success and prosperity.