News
In times of uncertainty, communication is key. COVID-19 has spread more virulently across the globe than many people expected, forcing governments into crisis management mode with varying methods of action being implemented to address the same problem. This is also true of companies, big and small, relying on continually updated advice from authorities to help shape their individual Business Continuity Plans.
Our people are the lifeblood of Enhance and we have acted quickly and responsibly to COVID-19 to protect them, a process which began in February prior to any reported cases in Jersey. Having implemented a staged approach, company travel and external meetings were fully restricted and all staff that travelled off island for personal reasons followed a cautious isolation protocol.
From Tuesday 24th March, the full Enhance Group team will be working from home*. Our team is readily contactable by telephone, email and video conference in the ordinary way and we do not anticipate any material disruption to our service provision as the pandemic escalates. As a fintech-led business, Enhance is agile and online, with internal IT expertise coupled with best-in-class external partners, utilising public and private cloud infrastructure that enables like-for-like remote working for all of our staff. We do, however, rely on many external counter-parties to provide services to our clients, so should it come to light that any of our services may be disrupted in any way we will be proactive in addressing the situation.
Enhance has the privilege of acting as centurion for the wealth of many families across the world and in times of crisis it is essential that we maintain a high level of engagement with them and their advisers. Investment markets are unsurprisingly reeling and amidst black swan events such as this the importance of monitoring investments and being available to guide clients and their advisers cannot be overstated. Investing is an emotional journey, even for the most seasoned investors, and experience tells us that people benefit from professional advice in turbulent times. As ever, we are here to help and provide reassurance.
We can only hope that our collective efforts to ‘flatten the curve’, however we choose to implement this across the world, successfully limit the human and economic impact of this Coronavirus and enable us all to return to normality sooner rather than later. COVID-19, like most viruses, cruelly targets the most vulnerable amongst the population and invariably families will sadly lose loved ones in the weeks and months ahead. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone around the world indiscriminately - never before have the values of the #bekind movement or phrase ‘thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ from the Book of Leviticus been more pertinent.
Keep safe and well,
Tom Wiseman
CEO
*Article updated on Tuesday 24th March 2020.
Note: Our quarterly investment update will be our first public commentary on the pandemic and this will follow in the coming weeks. Clients are encouraged to contact us directly for our latest macro-economic views and portfolio observations.
