Investment Committee


Our Investment Committee is the investment fiduciary responsible for the prudent management of our Investment Portfolios. The Committee will comply with all applicable fiduciary, prudence, and due diligence requirements experienced investment Professionals would utilize; and with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations from various local and international political entities that may impact the Portfolios.

The Committee shall have the exclusive authority to establish, execute and interpret an investment policy statement for the Portfolios. The Committee shall be solely responsible for the selection and retention of Fiduciary advisors to the Portfolios, which may include, but not be limited to, investment managers, investment consultants, custodians, lawyers, accountants, and clerical staff.

Definition of a Fiduciary

A fiduciary is defined as a person who has the legal and/or implied moral responsibility to manage the assets of another person. A fiduciary must act solely in the best interests of that person. The Committee is subject to certain duties and responsibilities, including, but not limited to:

1. Know the standards, laws, and trust provisions that impact the investment process of the Portfolios
2. Prudently diversify the Portfolios to a specific risk/return profile
3. Prepare, execute, and maintain an investment policy statement
4. Have investment decisions made by prudent experts
5. Control and account for all investment-related expenses
6. Monitor the activities of all investment-related service vendors
7. Avoid conflicts of interest and prohibited transactions

Our investment committee aims to provide a best-of-breed approach, which identifies the most suitable funds in each asset class and which are appropriate for a given Investment portfolio.We look beyond the current performance figures of the fund to determine the risk factors what drive investment returns, thus gauging future potential.

Our due diligence of a potential fund includes:

•    Discrete performance of a fund
•    Fund manager support & resources
•    Investment philosophy and management techniques of the fund manager
•    Risk control
•    Cost

We monitor the funds on an on-going basis and once a fund is on our buy list it is not guaranteed to stay there.  It is important to us to ensure that the funds continue to be appropriate for our investors

The Key Committee members are as follows:



Marc Westlake, CFP®, TEP, Grad Dip, Dip PFS,QFA
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER TM and REGISTERED TRUST & ESTATE PRACTITIONER
Head of Wealth Management

Marc has worked as an Independent Financial Planning Consultant since 1994 a specialist in Portfolio Management, Pensions and Tax and Estate Planning, he moved to Ireland from the UK and joined GoldCore in January 2008. Marc has a Bachelors Degree in Economics, Politics and American Studies from Leeds and Pennsylvania State Universities.  He is a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute (www.cii.co.uk) and Personal Finance Society in the UK having been awarded the Diploma in Financial Planning. In Ireland, Marc is a member of the Life Insurance Association (www.lia.ie) holding the QFA diploma. Marc is also a member of the prestigious Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners in Ireland (www.step.ie) and works closely with Estate Planning Lawyers in Ireland to assist clients in managing their wealth transfer to the next generation.

In 2011, Marc was awarded the post-graduate Diploma in Financial Planning from the Institute of Bankers/UCD and subsequently awarded the internationally recognised distinction of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (www.fpsb.ie)

Dr Constantin Gurdgiev 
Academic Consultant

Dr Constantin Gurdgiev is the Editor of Business & Finance, Ireland’s largest business publication, a Lecturer in Economics at University College Dublin and a Research Associate at the Institute for International Integration Studies, Trinity College, Dublin. He is also a Founder and Academic Director of the Open Republic Institute—www.openrepublic.org—Ireland’s only independent economic and social policy think-tank, for whom he edits the quarterly Open Republic magazine and co-edits the weekly Policy Watch newsletter.

He is a Member of the Academy of Political Science, the American Economic Association and the American Finance Association. Dr. Gurdgiev holds a PhD in Macroeconomics and Finance from Trinity College, Dublin, an MA in Economics from Johns Hopkins University and an MA in Pure Mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining University College Dublin, Dr. Gurdgiev taught economics and mathematics at Trinity College, Dublin and Johns Hopkins University.