Empirically, this means delivering on the stated investment mandate. Consideration should be given to the cost structure as charges can be higher with multi-asset funds. Picking multi-manager funds, which adds a best-of-breed sub-advisory element to the proposition, also comes with an extra layer of charges.
Researching funds
Historically, differentiation between funds was difficult. Charges were the same, areas of investment focus and style were similar; performance or return invariably became the main filter.
Nowadays, as client desired outcome, attitude to risk and capacity for loss can vary significantly, providers have come up with a wide range of funds to help advisers provide suitable solutions for their various client segments. This has left advisers with the huge task to pick solutions for their clients from a complex universe.
This infographic gives advisers a starting point in their research process. It defines the landscape and helps you map out a way to client solutions. To further help, Defaqto and other research agencies provide ratings services, which group together criteria we believe are important for the particular grouping.
We segment funds in many different ways, including whether they are return-focused or risk-targeted, multi-manager or direct (single-manager). A direct fund is where one fund manager or team manages all the investments in the fund, while with multi-manager funds different fund managers are used for different asset classes.
Funds are further categorised into predominantly active or passive, based around the Investment Association sector they’re part of in the case of return-focused, and by asset class in the case of passive funds. Passive funds include both traditional funds (Oeics/UTs) and the more recent exchange-traded funds or ETFs.
We believe that this level of granularity in the research process is necessary to build up a complete picture and compare like with like.
What the infographic visualises is that multi-asset funds come in various shapes and sizes. With over 500 UK-authorised funds available, comprising nearly 2,000 share classes, the landscape certainly offers plenty of choice.
To give this more context, the Investment Association recently announced their post-RDR methodology for nominating primary share classes. Where multiple share classes of a fund exist, the intention is to take the unbundled share class that has the highest charge but that’s free of any rebates or intermediary commission. The share class must also be freely available through retail third-party distributors.
At the end of 2012 many RDR share classes were launched, which makes it impossible to compare performance prior to the launch date unless synthetic performance history is added. The Investment Association has said that post-RDR share classes are to take the track record of pre-RDR bundled retail share classes.
