RMG to roll out fund for UK clients

RMG Wealth Management plans to launch its first Ucits fund for UK clients before the end of the year.

The group said the fund would be based on its existing Guernsey-domiciled £13m RMG Real Return fund, and would be likely to be domiciled in either Dublin or Luxembourg.

The fund will be managed by Stewart Richardson, partner and investment manager at RMG, and co-manager Howard Jones.

The fund, a multi-asset, absolute return mandate, would have a minimum investment of £10,000 and target a total return of 5-7 per cent.

Mr Richardson said the firm realised it “needs to have a Ucits structure” because having a regulated structure would make it easier to work with advisers.

David Man, partner and head of business development at the firm, added that advisers would continue to be the driving force for investment post-RDR.

“I don’t think as a firm we can be in a position to ignore advisers,” he said. “We need to put ourselves in a position where we can work with onshore clients.”

The firm added it would look to launch further Ucits products as it saw demand from advisers, and pointed out it was currently looking to roll out a US equity strategy to take advantage of stronger economic movements in the world’s largest economy.

But Mr Richardson warned that if the US Federal Reserve did not move to inject liquidity into the economy by this summer, it would be “too close” to the US presidential elections in November and growth in the US would likely stall. But he said if chairman of the Fed Ben Bernanke did move for another round of quantitative easing, he “expected equity markets to rise” globally.