The BFIA Wealth Summit 2025 taught us to prioritize safety, value, and growth

Every year, we celebrate 25 years of BFIA with a wide range of experts and ideas at our BFIA Wealth Summit

This year's annual conference, which took place in honor of the magazine's 25th anniversary, was a huge success. Here's a summary of what you missed if you weren't present. Andrew began by pointing out that the magazine's 25-year history was bookended by two enormous technological booms, while the intervening years had witnessed remarkable occurrences like a pandemic and a financial crisis.

Van Sickle, Andrew.

The only thing it hadn't witnessed was a typical business cycle, as a result of central banks' persistent meddling with economies and cycles. Dylan Grice of the Calderwood Capitals emphasized how state intervention was a recurring theme and that well-meaning attempts to control the market only made the crises that led to the French and American revolutions worse. Extreme caution is required in light of the current geopolitical, technological, and financial unpredictability.

Grice Dylan.

According to him, diversify by building an equally weighted portfolio that includes stocks, commodities, precious metals, real bonds, nominal bonds, and securities that provide exposure to insurance and reinsurance, like CAT bonds.

Following Dylan's speech, James Mackreides of City A, a columnist for BFIA, hosted the panel. In M. and included Charlie Morris of ByteTree, Frank Ducomble of RIT Capital Partners, Jasmine Yeo of Ruffer, Troy Asset Managements, and Charlotte Yonge, emphasized the potential for gold, bitcoin, and index-linked bonds to protect investors' holdings. Charlie expressed his belief that artificial intelligence is a huge bubble that peaked in late October.

Panel debate.

Highlights of the BFIA Wealth Summit.

Opportunities for long-term growth were then given more attention. Let us introduce you to Vietnam, one of our favorite stock markets since 2005. According to Dragon Capital's Dominic Scriven, the economy is expanding at a rate of 7% to 8%. Consumption is increasing as exports have progressed up the value chain from raw materials to electronics. In an effort to improve the efficiency of the public sector, the pro-business Communist government is firing one million civil servants.

Scriven Dominic from Dragon Capital.

Meanwhile, Japan is increasing the efficiency of its private sector. The campaign to change corporate governance and unlock value was reviewed by AVI's Nicola Takada Wood. AVI has been a significant activist investor in the market's understudied small-cap sector. The vast majority of companies trading below book value in the market are small caps, so there is still opportunity for improvement.

Wood, Nicola Takada, AVI.

Baillie Gifford's Ben James was an AI specialist. It is the most recent in a line of technological revolutions that started with the industrial revolution and ended with information technology. In the early stages of the machine era, robotics will be a major theme, with robots performing manual labor everywhere. In this regard, Baillie Gifford is interested in Tesla robots and Aurora, an unmanned truck group.

Ben Gifford from Baillie.

Gaurav Narain from India Capital Growth Funds then spoke to us. India's young population, with a median age of 28, is driving the country's continued strong growth of roughly 6% annually. The stock market, which accounts for one-third of global flotations, is still strong.

Gaurav Narain, India Capital Growth Fund.

James Proudlock of OptionsDesk and Erik Norland of CME Group were questioned by Cris Heaton during a lunchtime gold discussion. Afterward, a quick survey of the audience revealed optimism.

Cris Heaton, Erik Norland of CME Group, and James Proudlock of OptionsDesk.

Following lunch, Merryn Somerset Webb, our founding editor and current Bloomberg employee, reviewed the lessons learned over BFIA's 25 years. Two of these were that mean reversion and diversification are always important. and grasp gold.

Then, Laura Foll of Janus Henderson spoke with former BFIA editor John Stepek, who is currently employed at Bloomberg, about the enduring issue of the British stock market's decline. The market's overall valuation is consistent with its long-term average, but small and mid-cap stocks continue to appear inexpensive. According to Foll, commercial real estate is unlikely to become outdated as technology advances.

Former BFIA editor John Stepek and Laura Foll of Janus Henderson.

Over the past few years, Diana Choyleva of Enodo Economics has become more optimistic about China. Now that the government is attempting to persuade people to hold stocks instead of real estate, there is potential for a bull market. Charlotte Morris of Pantheon International reminded the audience that exposure to private equity is crucial since there are three times as many privately held companies as listed ones. James Douglas of Polar Capital claims that this also applies to healthcare. Concern over the Trump administration's arbitrary health policies has subsided, the pace of innovation is still remarkable, demand is strong, and valuations are attractive.

Enodo Economics' Diana Choyleva.

BFIAs columnist David C. hosted the afternoon panel, which focused on diversifying outside of the US and its AI-driven tech stocks as well as the relative benefits of small and large caps. Stevenson? Swathi Seshadri of MCP Emerging Markets, Simon Barnard of the Smithson Investment Trust, and Martin Connaghan of the Murray International Trust joined David. Although Simon Barnard pointed out that the AI boom might be more beneficial to future users than the initial investors, value extends beyond the US.

David C. Stevenson, Smithson Investment Trust's Simon Barnard, Murray International Trust's Martin Connaghan, and MCP Emerging Markets' Swathi Seshadri.

After Dr. Pippa Malmgren's compelling explanation of how stablecoins could transform the global financial system, BFIA's finance columnist James Mackreides concluded the conference by urging readers to maintain optimism and keep in mind that value stocks were occasionally cheap for a reason. According to him, the FTSE 100 will soon hit 10,000. It's tantalizingly close this week.

Physician Pippa Malmgren.

We appreciate the support provided by our headline partner Aberdeen, event partners India Capital Growth Fund, OptionsDesk, Polar Capital, QuotedData, RIT Capital Partners, Smithson Investment Trust, and Vietnam Enterprise Investments, as well as association partner The Association of Investment Companies.