The titular character in Thomas Hardy's novel The Mayor of Casterbridge makes somewhat unorthodox choices - including auctioning off his wife.

As far as wealth management goes, this feels like an extreme solution but Casterbridge Wealth is a DFM which does things a little differently.

The firm is headquartered in Salisbury - in Hardy country - well away from the bustle and smog of Gresham Street and is the product of some ex-Quilter employees who have been quoted previously by Asset Allocator as wanting to do something a bit differently. 

Well, what does different look like in a marketplace of Fundsmiths and Lindsell Trains?

One of the ways Casterbridge is a bit more unorthodox is in its alternatives exposure, with its head of MPS Julian Menges saying this typically forms about 20 per cent of a balanced portfolio. 

“We might have five or six different alternatives or different absolute return funds,” he said.

“But in many ways, you don't necessarily want them all doing the same thing at the same time, because then the chances are you've got a high current correlation.”

Further, they keep their regional equity holdings reasonably concentrated, as Menges believes too many active picks effectively neutralise one another, in which case "you may as well buy passive", he said.

An overweight to alternatives almost certainly implies an underweight to bonds, and Casterbridge goes as low as around 18 per cent in its indifference to fixed income.

Menges added this comes down to their belief that no one can have much confidence where yields are going to go in one or two years' time, particularly given the debt explosion in both the US and, now, the UK.