Church House, the private client fund management group, runs six UK regulated funds on which Smith & Williamson Fund Administration acts as authorised corproate director.
Some of the range will be renamed to feature the Church House brand. The range includes the £120m S&W Church House Investment Grade Fixed Interest Fund, run by Jeremy Wharton and the £30m multi-asset Tenax Fund, which will be renamed Church House Tenax Absolute Return Strategies Fund and sit in the IMA Targeted Absolute Return sector, targeting Libor +4% over three years.
Broad equity range
The other funds include the Managed Growth Fund, a portfolio of FTSE 350 stocks; UK equity vehicle the Balanced Value And Income Fund; a concentrated UK growth vehicle, the Deep Value Investment Fund; and the Esk Fund which invests in global equities.
Low volatility is a common characteristic across the range and new clean share classes are being created, with further distribution across a number of fund platforms.
Church House is a privately held company established in 1999 and majority owned by the Directors, senior staff and 20% held by the Cayzer Trust Company.
'Best kept secret'
Church House commissioned Albemarle Street Partners to help it develop its retail business and subsequently recruited Liddle, who will remain a partner at ASP, the business he launched with former Saltus director Dan Kemp and investment consulatant Clive Hale.
Liddle called Church House “one of the industry’s best kept secrets”, adding: “It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring to the investment market a developed fund range with an excellent track record from a highly experienced team of fund managers and we look forward to revealing the full details of our exciting product range in the near future.”
Church House is also developing a managed portfolio service based on its bespoke private client service, which will provide a range of risk-graded portfolios with tested performance and volatility track records.
Chief investment officer James Mahon added: “We have been managing risk-graded portfolios since the company started in 2000 and feel that our competitive pricing and a strong performance record will provide IFAs with a viable alternative to the many highly priced DFMs with less proven track records.”
