St James’s Place has launched a range of fund-of-funds, managed by State Street Global Advisors.
The Polaris range, which will be available to SJP’s clients from November 21 this year, comprises four fund-of-funds.
Head of portfolio strategies at SJP Robin Ellis said the Polaris range, which sits alongside the company’s InRetirement range, provides investment solutions for clients across a range of different objectives.
These could range from building wealth and maximising the value of savings, through to drawing down on those savings in retirement.
“They contain our best investment thinking, based on the principle of sophisticated investment design, that is simple to use, and easy to understand,” he said.
The four funds all have different levels of equity exposure:
- Polaris 1 – lowest risk fund with 40 per cent in equities
- Polaris 2 - balanced solution, with 60 per cent in equities
- Polaris 3 - designed for investors with a higher appetite for volatility, 80 per cent equities
- Polaris 4 - the highest risk solution, investing 100 per cent in equities
Asset allocation decisions will be managed internally by SJP’s investment team, overseen by its investment committee, and State Street will be responsible for rebalancing the funds, as well as cash flow management and currency hedging.
Copia launch
Meanwhile, the investment solutions division of Novia has launched a short duration bond portfolio to meet adviser demand.
The portfolio, created by Copia Capital Management and called Copia Select, contains primarily high quality investment grade bond funds.
Copia said this portfolio will take advantage of the recent “dislocation” in fixed income markets, creating opportunities not seen since 2008.
It also said it is receiving increasing demand from advisers and investors for a low-risk attractive yield alternative to cash.
To illustrate the dislocation, Copia said the new portfolio was yielding below 2 per cent a few months ago, rising to around 7 per cent at the end of October.
The “significant” sell-off in bonds that will mature in the coming months has created an attractive opportunity, said Robert Vaudry, managing director of Copia Capital.
“We had already been introducing a short-duration bond fund into several multi-asset portfolios, and advisers liked the idea for their low risk and attractive yield properties,” he said.
“The feedback to us was that, if we could launch a pure mandate possessing the same low risk characteristics and attractive yields, their clients would find this appealing.”
sally.hickey@ft.com
