Multi-asset investing

Roundtable

Testing times It’s an interesting time to examine multi-asset investing. We last discussed the asset class at a roundtable in October, but much has changed since then leading us to revisit the subject. The number of such funds available for those wishing to move away from a traditional equity/bond portfolio keeps growing and many of […]

April 2018

Testing times

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It’s an interesting time to examine multi-asset investing.We last discussed the asset class at a roundtable in October, but much has changed since then leading us to revisit the subject. The number of such funds available for those wishing to move away from a traditional equity/bond portfolio keeps growing and many of them are different when investors lift the bonnet to look at the moving parts.The marketing says that these funds are designed to provide equity-like returns, while offering greater protection in times of volatility. The wobble in global equities and the bond sell-off at the start of the year was the markets first real experience of volatility since the UK voted the leave the European Union (EU) in June 2016. It appears that the various funds reacted differently, but the overall consensus appears to be that they performed worse than many had expected.For some this is a time to look at what happened and work on how to strengthen their funds to repel any similar shocks that may lie ahead. Others, however, are embracing the volatility that they have waited so long for, believing it highlights the benefit of ditching a passive approach for an active management strategy.Our autopsy of what happened earlier this year includes the views of a pension scheme investor, multi-asset managers and consultants. We assessed the lessons to be learned from the rough ride markets had experienced and looked at how multi-asset investing is evolving.

Roundtable