Vanguard’s head of UK retail sales said his firm has seen a shift away from fund picking and trying to time the market towards global asset allocation for their investment clients.
Mr Blake said: “Rather than ‘risk-on, risk-off’ or whether it’s emerging markets this week, the conversation now is more about advisers viewing themselves as risk managers for their client. They are not thinking they have to shoot the lights out for a client, but how much clients need to achieve their goals.”
Mr Blake said this allowed advisers to assess how much “growth engine” they need in portfolios and the appropriate amount of risk dampening. His comments came as Vanguard announced its life strategy range of funds had rebalanced to achieve better global exposure, admitting the funds previously had “home bias”.
Mr Blake added: “Advisers are not here to bet with their clients’ portfolios anymore.”
Adviser view
Vivien Zarucki, chartered financial planner at Vector Financial Planning, Bournemouth, said: “DFMs typically use global asset allocation, because they are looking to stay within a set range of volatility and that is one way to achieve that.”
