Reasons Why to Invest - SWIP Multi-Manager Select Boutiques Fund
SWIP
SWIP is one of the UK’s largest asset management companies, with over £139 billion of funds under management (Source: SWIP as at 31 December 2011) and a diverse client base. The company offers a comprehensive product range designed to meet investors’ needs and consider property, absolute return, UK equities and multi-manager among our core competencies.
Asset Allocation
The SWIP Multi-Manager Select Boutiques Fund aims to achieve long-term capital growth through investment in a portfolio, predominantly comprising collective investment schemes, which gives exposure to UK and overseas equity markets and sectors.
The fund aims to do this by investing in a diverse range of collective investment schemes – other regulated investment funds – the majority of which will be managed with an absolute return mindset by specialist or boutique investment management companies.
Investing with boutique investment managers can have a number of advantages. On the whole, they tend to be small and very much focused on a particular sector or area of investment. Being a specialist in their field, boutiques can offer access to in-depth knowledge and expertise, often impossible for other fund managers to achieve.
Boutique investment management companies might be those which:
- are able to pursue an investment style or approach unhindered by centralised asset allocation and investment process
- have a specific culture or specialisation
- are smaller, specialist funds which may not be actively marketed to investors. Where appropriate, it may also invest in transferable securities (including closed-end funds) and a range of other securities across a number of asset classes.
Source: SWIP, as at 31 December 2011
Fund selection
The SWIP multi-manager team has a rigorous and proven investment process to research and select funds, researching over 10,000 funds through a quantitative and qualitative screening process. What’s more, the team is able to focus entirely on researching the thousands of funds in the market place to deliver a more consistent return and reduce risk.
The team looks to understand how performance has been achieved – the potential for it being repeated again in the future – and how the Fund will blend into the portfolio. The team conducts over 300 fund manager interviews a year to gain in-depth insight into a fund manager’s process, style and their ability to adapt to varying market conditions – as well as the types of stock the fund manager will invest in. This builds a clear picture of each fund before selecting the right combination of funds to meet the portfolio’s objective.
Additionally, the managers meet face-to-face with individual fund managers and have access to funds that are often not available to you as an individual, which means you can benefit from investing in a number of funds with only one administration cost.
The team
The two lead members of the team are Mark Harries and Simon Wood, who both joined SWIP in 2007. Each has over 25 years’ experience. The fund is currently A rated by OBSR* an independent investment research and ratings agency.
Each member of the team is a specialist in their own right and focuses on specific sectors and/or asset classes. Plus, the team has access to research resources from across SWIP’s investment desks to provide them with a wealth of information and insight to the markets and individual managers’ strategies.
By investing in the SWIP Multi-Manager Select Boutiques Fund, you will benefit from a skilled team of individuals. The team has an average of greater than 20 years' experience and have worked together for over ten years. This makes them one of the most stable multi-manager teams in the industry, and provides a level of consistency and reliability to their investment process.
*Source: OSBR. September 2011
Important information
The value of investments can go down as well as up depending on investment performance. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. You may not get back your original investment. Funds may have holdings which are denominated in different currencies and may be affected by movements in exchange rates. Consequently, the value of your investment may rise or fall in line with exchange rates. Investments in emerging markets may involve a higher element of risk due to less well regulated markets and political and economic instability. Tax rules relating to OEICs may change.
Multi-manager funds can invest in a wide range of asset classes, including collective investment schemes, which they themselves invest in a range of other assets. These underlying assets are likely to vary from time to time but each category of asset (which may include, but shall not be limited to, hedge funds or property) has individual risks associated with them. Multi-manager funds and the Manager may not have control over the activities of any collective investment scheme or company invested in by Multi-manager funds. Managers of collective investment schemes and companies in which the Multimanager funds may invest may take undesirable tax positions, employ excessive leverage, or otherwise manage the collective investment schemes in a manner not anticipated by the Manager.
Further details of the risks relating to the SWIP Multi-Manager Funds can be found in the Key Features Document which must be read before taking any investment decision.