St. James’s Place (SJP) has made a number of changes to the manager line-up for its global and UK funds.
The wealth manager has appointed five new external fund managers to its global fund as it moves to a diversified multi-manager approach.
Acadian, Dalton, Kopernik, MAC Alpha and Phoenix have been added, alongside existing manager Artisan, bringing together a range of investment styles, expertise and approaches.
The fund will also introduce an active systematic investment approach through Acadian.
The name ‘global managed’ will be altered to just ‘global’ across the associated life, pension and international funds.
Dimensional has been added to the line-up for it UK funds. The firm will handle both large-cap and small-cap allocations. The firm joins existing managers Baillie Gifford, BlackRock and Redwheel.
Justin Onuekwusi, CEO, investments said: “These changes mark the next step in the evolution of our investment approach at SJP.
“As a team, we continue to refine our proposition to ensure our funds remain well positioned and diversified as market conditions change.
“We’ve made significant progress over the last few years in delivering greater value and cost efficiency for clients. Being cost-effective doesn’t mean defaulting to one way of investing – both active and index investing have an important role to play.
“Our multi-manager approach is central to that strategy, bringing together managers with different but complementary investment styles and strengths.”
The firm has also made some asset allocation changes.
It has reduced investment grade corporate bond allocations in favour of conventional and inflation-linked government bonds, UK equities and small cap equities.
These changes vary across the Polaris, Polaris Multi-Index and InRetirement ranges.
Other changes include cutting back its overweight allocation to emerging market equities specifically across the Polaris Multi-Index funds, in response to increased concentration risk.
Robin Ellis, director of multi-asset portfolio management, said: “We’re operating in a market where performance has become increasingly dependent on certain areas.
“Diversification matters most when markets become convinced it doesn’t.
“As concentration has increased across both equity and bond markets, we’ve broadened our sources of return to help portfolios remain resilient, adaptable and positioned for long-term growth.”
This story was written by our sister-title, PA Adviser
