Barely a year after they came to market, the IBOSS range of multi-asset funds have reached £100m in assets, according to the company.
The IBOSS funds had assets of £18m at the start of 2017, an increase of 500 per cent year-to-date.
IBOSS, based in Harrogate, provides outsourced fund management to financial advisers and their clients.
The company launched in 2008, but the rapid growth of the recently launched multi-asset range supports a wider trend among advisers.
A survey of financial advisers, carried out by Platforum and Aegon in March, found there has been a significant increase in the proportion of advisers who predominantly allocate to multi-asset funds.
The survey of more than 250 advisers spoken to by Platforum and more than 100 contacted by Aegon, found 36 per cent now primarily allocate client capital to multi-asset funds, double the level recorded when the survey was conducted in March 2016.
The AIMS multi-asset funds run by Aviva Investors, has been a significant beneficiary of this trend, seeing growth in assets to £12bn over the past year.
According to IBOSS, advisers becoming “more nervous” about investment markets was central to the growth of its multi-asset funds, alongside more awareness of the IBOSS product range.
Chris Metcalfe, investment and managing director, at IBOSS said that much of the growth was achieved after the company reduced its charges earlier this year.
The IBOSS funds have, according to the company, a very “defensive” bent right now.
Funds in which it is invested to garner this defensive exposure include the Investec Cautious Managed Fund.
Paul Milburn, investment analyst at Lowes Financial Management said his firm has not increased its asset allocation to multi-asset funds within its model portfolios this, but doe use them for diversification.
"We do allocate to multi-asset funds within some of our lower risk model portfolios.
"By doing so we hope to benefit from the tactical asset allocation decisions which managers may make during different periods of the investment/market cycle.
"Multi-asset funds can also provide a further level of diversification within our own model portfolios, particularly those which invest in what we would call more esoteric investments which we wouldn’t or possibly couldn’t allocate to directly ourselves. When selecting multi-asset funds we therefore look to ensure that they offer at least one of these benefits.”
David.Thorpe@FT.com
