It’s notable that while the allocations to UK equity funds in the balanced portfolios we cover has been drifting downwards, in the income portfolios we monitor, the pattern is less clear.
In the balanced portfolios, the average UK fund exposure has fallen from 18 per cent to 14 per cent over the past two years and in ESG portfolios a similar slide has been seen: from 16 per cent to 14 per cent over the past year or so.
Meanwhile in income portfolios the average allocation is broadly unchanged, being 16 per cent a year ago and 15.9 per cent now.
That the UK is an income market is a shock to no one, but it’s the folks at Wise who have the largest exposure to the UK in their Income model, at 36 per cent, while James Burns and his colleagues running the Evelyn Active range have an exposure of 23 per cent, while Morningstar are on 22 per cent.
Evelyn’s allocation can be seen in the context of it having the largest exposure to equities in its income portfolio at 63 per cent, compared with the peer group average of 48 per cent.
At the other end of the distribution, Charles Stanley has just 4 per cent in UK equity funds in its income model, despite being overweight to equities relative to the peer group, with a 49 per cent allocation.
The next lowest allocation is that of Invesco, at 6.1 per cent, but as ever, context is everything and Invesco has a staunch underweight to equities, its 24 per cent allocation there being around half the peer group average.
