THE FIRST THREE YEARS ARE SINK OR SWIM...

Is your existing multi-asset manager working for you?

Many multi-asset funds face conflicts of interest when selecting funds – do they pick the best or most appropriate in the market, or do they pick funds operated by themselves to increase the fund size and drive their own commercial interests? At AJ Bell, we do not operate any of the funds’ underlying holdings, so our only incentive is to maximise your return. The way we grow our profits is by helping your clients to grow theirs.

Sealed with a KISS – ‘Keep it Simple, Stupid’

Open-ended property, infrastructure, student loans, structured products. We see all manner of investments added to multi-asset funds in an effort to do something clever or add some diversification, but it typically comes at a price. Liquidity risk. Poor price discovery. Sharp drops in price and even loss of access to the money. Not something you’ll see in our funds. When you consider all of this, you may be left asking yourself: has your multi-asset manager let the team down?

Is everyone’s asset allocation the same?

With tradition comes legacy: doing things in a certain way because that is how they have always been done. Since the advent of ‘modern’ portfolio theory in the 1950s, the world has become more global, and allocating to different regions no longer gives you the diversification benefits it did in the past. As a 21st century asset manager, we mix both traditional and modern thinking. By allocating to equity sectors, bond maturities and differing credit qualities, alongside core asset classes, we have built portfolios that aim to perform well on both the way up and the way down.

Are you being weighed down by high charges?

No one can control future performance, but the one thing you can control is cost. At AJ Bell, we keep our costs low without compromising on process. Our asset management business is complementary to our platform, so we can cut out distribution costs and pass them back for the benefit of the end investor. This means that our fund costs are capped at 0.35% OCF, making them up to two-thirds cheaper than the average multi-asset fund. It all adds up over time.