The fund will allow James Elliot, chief investment officer for Europe and Asia, to take the best ideas from across the global multi-asset group (GMAG) to provide a total return above cash, net of fees, over rolling 12-month periods.
Elliot, who assumed his current role in December, will manage the fund alongside Talib Sheikh and Shernick Shah. The fund has a minimum initial investment of £1,000 and an annual management fee of 1.5%. Adopting a top-down approach to asset allocation over the short- and long-term investment horizon, the fund can also use derivatives to mitigate downside exposure.
Elliot left JP Morgan to spend a year at hedge fund RAB Capital in 2005, before returning the following year to launch a behavioural finance fund. He took over as lead manager of the underperforming Cautious Total Return and Balanced Total Return funds in December, as former CIO of the GMAG Neill Nuttall moved to a more senior position within the firm.
Mike Parsons, head of UK fund sales at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, commented: "There is significant demand within the UK for total return funds as evidenced by the growth in the IMA’s absolute return sector in recent years which has seen assets under management grow from around £3.7bn in 2008 to some £27.4bn in 2012. The JPM Multi-Asset Macro Fund encapsulates the very best ideas from J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s global multi-asset group at both a global and asset class level."
