Premier’s move into the passive space has been labelled as a “natural extension” of its multi-asset range.
The managed index range will be led by Wayne Nutland.
Nutland (pictured) joins from HSBC Global Asset Management where was a senior fund manager and head of discretionary, UK multi-asset team. He had worked in an investing role at the bank for 19 years.
In the newly-created role, he will be responsible for the development and management of the multi-asset portfolios, the details of which will be released in due course.
The managed index fund range will make active asset allocation and fund selection decisions via passive products.
Earlier this month, the asset manager merged with Miton.
‘Full set of multi-asset funds’
Chelsea Financial Services director Darius McDermott said: “It is a natural extension of the Premier multi-asset range as they will have a full set of multi-asset funds when these are launched.”
Tilney’s managing director Jason Hollands said demand from some clients for lower costs solutions is driving many fund groups and wealth managers to offer both active and passive multi-asset product ranges.
7IM this week launched a multi-asset passive model portfolio range charging 0.15% a year.
Peter Sleep, senior portfolio manager at 7IM, said: “The cost of setting up new funds is relatively low and as a result competition is very keen, which keeps costs low. The competition is great for small investors who get high quality funds at a very low cost.”
Hollands added: “The common thread is, of course, the need to have a robust strategic and tactical asset allocation process, but instrument selection is more straight forward when exclusively investing through passive instruments than the level of scrutiny required when selecting and monitoring active managers.”
Multi-manager, diversified and managed index
Following the addition of the range, Premier multi-asset portfolios will be divided into multi-manager, diversified and managed index. Each range will be managed by its own specialist investment team.
Multi-manager will consist of 10 actively managed multi-asset portfolios of underlying funds with a team led by David Hambidge, while diversified will consist of five actively managed portfolios of direct holdings in company shares and bonds together with alternative investments.
Premier CIO Neil Birrell said: “Investors are looking for wide asset class exposure combined with a focus on specific outcomes and value delivered, but have different preferences in terms of investment styles.
“We have been developing the concept of a range of actively-allocated portfolios with underlying index based allocations for some time, and we believe that Wayne’s experience makes him a great choice to develop this component of our multi-asset range.”
Nutland added: “There is strong demand for diversified, multi-asset investment products and I look forward to playing a key role in the development of Premier’s new actively managed, multi-asset index solutions.”
