The fund, managed by Alex Lyle, aims to deliver capital growth in the medium to long term. As part of its diversification strategy, it is also seeking to mitigate the effect of short-term fluctuations in value through holdings in alternative assets classes, such as funds investing in commercial property and private equity.
It is mainly invested in UK equities at 32 per cent, with US equities also prominent in the fund at 18.5 per cent. The portfolio is fettered with its largest holding in the Threadneedle American Select Institutional fund at 12.19 per cent of the fund.
It has a minimum investment of £3000 and permits additional regular investments of £100. Its total expense ratio is 1.59 per cent, with an annual management charge of 1.5 per cent and a maximum initial charge of 3 per cent. It is not available for Isas.
Further down the rankings in the same sector is the £5.99m Barclays Wealth Global Markets fund, placed 95th. It delivered a return of 11.49 per cent, more than 10 per cent below the peer group average. Year-to-date trailing returns were 6.04 per cent as of 7 October.
The portfolio has been managed by Jaime Arguello since 2010 and is mostly invested in equities, at 60 per cent, with the rest of the fund’s holdings split evenly between fixed income and alternative asset classes.
Its aim is to provide high capital growth in the medium to long term through wider exposure to global equities, rather than focusing on the UK.
The portfolio is predominately invested in US funds, at 41.9 per cent, with 8.62 per cent held in the eurozone and 8.13 per cent in developed Asia.
Its main holding at 17.87 per cent is the BlackRock Index Selection Fund, which targets growth in equities across developed countries.
The minimum initial investment is £500. Additional investments of £500 are also allowed, as are monthly savings of £50.
The fund, which can be accessed through an Isa, has a TER of 1.57 per cent, an AMC of 1 per cent and a maximum initial charge of 4.50 per cent.
| Barclays Wealth Global Markets |
| BlackRock Index Selection Fund Developed 17.87% |
| Vanguard Global Stock Index 17.71% |
| BlackRock Index Selection Fund Emerging Markets 17.44% |
| HSBC MSCI World UCITS 15.31% |
| Deutsche Bank Hedge Fund Index ETF 7.02% |
| FP Omnis Threadneedle Advanced Fund |
| Threadneedle American Select Institutional 12.19% |
| Threadneedle European Select Institutional 8.27% |
| Threadneedle UK Fund 2 7.99% |
| Threadneedle UK Select Institutional 7.59% |
| Threadneedle Global Emerging Markets Equity 6.64% |
Adviser says...
Darius McDermott, managing director of London-based Chelsea Financial Services, said: “The good performance of the FP Omnis Threadneedle Advanced fund in the past three years can be attributed both to the asset allocation and the outperformance of the underlying funds. Mr Lyle is an extremely experienced manager with a great track record on his multi-manger funds. The high weighting to developed market equities – currently around 70 per cent – has been the right place to be and the underlying UK and European equity funds in particular, as well as the US funds, have significantly outperformed their respective indexes. The bond weighting is pretty low at around 4 per cent, and the weightings in other asset classes such as commodities are similar.
“In contrast Barclays Wealth Global Markets has a lower weighting to developed market equities and more in emerging markets which have not done as well in recent years. It also invests in exchange-traded funds and trackers so in an environment where the active management of the Threadneedle funds has really shown its value, it just hasn’t been able to match the returns. It’s a very varied sector though so investors really need to look at funds individually to see which best matches their expectations and goals.”