Multi asset portfolios can have very diverse sets of objectives, scope and breadth of investment, complexity, approach, DNA, and therefore likely investment journeys. Not knowing individual clients’ specific requirements therefore makes it difficult to create a tailored recommend list that covers all eventualities. In any event, we believe very strongly that this is the responsibility of intermediaries because they will know their clients’ needs best. For this reason, all our research is constructed to enable intermediaries to make their own best judgements based upon a list of portfolios that have already passed our strict criteria.
This means that all multi asset portfolios, investment teams, as well as the relevant fund groups, must meet our quality criteria for them to be included.
Fund groups pay us a fee to enable intermediaries to download reports on their portfolios. However, all other reports are still available to read, it’s just that they can’t be downloaded. We see this as the best way to enable intermediaries to see all our reports for free without compromising the integrity of our research.
If you don’t see the ‘Download / PDF’ button at the top of a portfolio’s Multi asset DNA report and you’d like to be able to download it, then please let us know. We will always let the relevant fund groups know when there’s demand to download a report. It will then be down to the fund group’s response as to whether we can unlock the portfolio for you to download.
If we can unlock a portfolio, it will also make it possible for it to be used in the Portfolio blending tool.
All portfolio managers are subjected to annual in-depth interviews, and DNA audits, and they are also required to complete quarterly monitoring questionnaires. This results in multi asset DNA reports being updated at least on an annual basis, and often more frequently than this depending upon when we identify changes to the portfolio management team, investment objectives, scope of investment and approach, or indeed any passages of performance that appears to be out of kilter with what we expected given our knowledge of the portfolio.
Fund groups submit information about portfolio charges on a quarterly basis using our quarterly monitoring questionnaires. It’s therefore incumbent upon fund groups to ensure that this information is both correct and timely. We then upload this information as soon as we receive it. However, we can’t be responsible for its accuracy.
Fund groups pay us to enable intermediaries to use their portfolios in the Portfolio Blending Tool, so not all of them are visible. If you’d like to blend a different portfolio that we already research and for which we already produce a Multi asset DNA report, then please let us know. We will always let the relevant fund groups know when there’s demand to use a portfolio in the tool. It will then be down to the fund group’s response as to whether we can unlock the portfolio for you to use.
If we can unlock a portfolio, it will also make it possible for its Multi asset DNA report to be downloaded.
All portfolio managers are subjected to annual in-depth interviews, and DNA audits, and they are also required to complete quarterly monitoring questionnaires. This results in a portfolio’s DNA in the Portfolio blending tool being reviewed at least on an annual basis, and often more frequently than this depending upon if we identify changes to the portfolio management team, investment objectives, scope of investment and approach. Charging information is checked and potentially updated on a quarterly basis – please see below for more details.
Fund groups submit information about portfolio charges on a quarterly basis using our quarterly monitoring questionnaires. It’s therefore encumbrance upon fund groups to ensure that this information is both correct and timely. We then upload this information as soon as we receive it. However, we can’t be responsible for its accuracy.
The DNA factor percentages shown in the result of blending column represent the percentage of the ‘combined’ blended portfolio. However, DNA style factors invariably overlap with one another. For example, it’s possible for a portfolio to have a DNA of 100% value as well as 100% income. This means that when combined, DNA factors can add up to more than 100%.
Fund groups submit information on a quarterly basis, and we upload this as soon as all entries are received.
Not all multi asset teams have strong views on different asset classes. For example, some teams focus purely on investment selection regardless of geography.
The answer is both ‘Yes and No’…
Because multi asset portfolios can have very diverse sets of objectives, scope and breadth of investment, complexity, approach, DNA, and therefore likely investment journeys, it means that in our view a simple quantitative based performance screening mechanism that filters across all available portfolios in the multi asset universe simply doesn’t work very well. To properly understand the quality of a particular portfolio and how it’s likely to perform we believe you need to research it thoroughly. In one sense, we’d say that we’re rather like a stock picking fund manager who researches stocks from the bottom up. Of course, in our case we research multi asset portfolios instead, but the principle is the same.
Yes, this is something that we’ll look to do in the future. In fact, quite a number of the portfolio managers that we already research manage both fund-based as well as platform model portfolios.