Newcastle-based financial adviser Ian Lowes has put “significant investment” into launching his own fund range.
Mr Lowes is managing director of Lowes Financial Management in Newcastle said he has hired extra investment and distribution staff to enable him to launch the ML Diversified Strategy fund and the Lowes UK Defined Strategy fund.
The former is a fund of funds that was created almost a decade ago solely for Lowes clients, but has recently become available to external clients.
Mr Lowes said: “We are launching this product more widely now because it has a track record and we noticed that some external people were buying it.”
He has also launched the Lowes UK Defined Strategy fund, a vehicle that will mostly own structured products.
Mr Lowes said: “Structured products have started to shake off the bad reputation they had, now there is a recognition of the role they can play in portfolios. We have had clients in structured products for a long time, but think there is a limit to how much of those an investor can have in their portfolio.
"But clients have been asking for more of them, and we think the best way to do that is to create a fund of structured products for the client to be invested in, as that way they are more diversified."
Paul Milburn and Doug Millward, who work as investment managers at Lowes Financial Management, run both the funds.
Mr Lowes said: “Setting these funds up is something I worked on throughout 2018, and we have invested, we have hired assistant investment managers to work with Ian and Doug, they wouldn’t have had assistants before this.
“Lowes has an experienced, in-house Investment management team, which has been running portfolios for nearly 45 years. In addition, our 20-plus years of researching and investing in structured products, calling out the market when it warrants it, gives us an expertise that we believe cannot be matched by any other firm.
"We are using that expertise in the UK Defined Strategy fund, in our collaborations with leading structured product manufacturers, as well as in the publishing of a list of Lowes ‘Preferred’ Plans, our choice of individual products, which we use in the portfolios of Lowes Financial Management clients.”
Structured products are investments that allow a client to profit from the movement of a stock market, for example the FTSE 100, without actually investing in the underlying assets. For example, a structured product may pay out if the FTSE 100 is above a certain price level at a pre-determined date in future.
The products are often used to provide downside protection for investors. For example, an investor might invest in UK equities, and profit if those equities rise in value, and then invest in a structured product that pays out if the UK equity market is at a lower level than at present, this means the investor could generate a positive return whether the market rises or falls.
Lowes Financial Management has assets under management of £950m.
Francis Klonowski, of Klonowski and Co, an advice firm in Leeds said: “I have looked at structured products for my clients, but I think they are too complex, too many ifs and buts, and so difficult for an adviser to understand, never mind the end client.”
david.thorpe@ft.com
