Multi-manager - June 2012

Published by Financial Adviser | Jun 20, 2012

For many they offer a solution for clients that are new to investment or just have limted assets they want to invest.

Now more than ever, they are expected to come into their own as financial advisers have to justify their time more clearly with clients, and commissions will no longer be paid from advisers.

Financial advisers are expected to find multi-manager funds more useful as this is a way to outsource their investment research process, relying on the experts to make the decision about which is the best fund available.

But as managers of these funds attempt to show that they are the answer in the post-RDR world, so other forms of outsourced investment are hoping to move into this market. Discretionary fund managers are marketing themselves in the expectation that advisers will want to spend less time on constructing portfolios, and will want to offload some of the work to these services.

There are many already out there that are trying to appeal to advisers.

Multi-manager funds frequently come in for criticism about the charges that they make - one charge for the underlying fund and one for the multi-manager.

It is times like the present when multi-managers have to justify their charges, and prove that the diversification of the portfolio, and selection of the best funds is worth the cost.