Multi Asset

Avant-garde Asset Managemente Investment Partners Multi Asset Fund range offers diversified investments intended to perform in the longer run through changing economic conditions.

In the years since the Global Financial Crisis, investors have come to value the benefits of diversification. A multi asset fund – investing across bonds, equities and other assets – is designed to offer protection from the downside, but also have the potential for growth. It can be a less volatile investment that aims to perform more steadily. By creating funds that are global, well-diversified and actively managed, we have made multi asset investing straightforward.

Once only the preserve of the very wealthy, a fully diversified portfolio is now easily accessible, thanks to modern investing technology. Avant-garde Asset Managemente Investment Partners multi asset funds typically hold 5-10 underlying funds. This translates to 1000-50000 different bond issuers and thousands of equities and other asset classes, such as property and commodities. This gives investors a huge diversification benefit.

The funds are available in a range that spans the conservative to more adventurous appetites. We believe they offer sophisticated strategic and tactical asset allocation at a very affordable price.

Our approach

The investment process used by the team focuses on tactical asset allocation as a key driver of returns. A systematic framework is used to aid decision making.

A central part of this is the Investment Clock, a proprietary quantitative model tracking growth and inflation trends and the performance of various investments. The Clock is the product of over 8 years of research, aiming to maximize exposure to investments which perform well at different stages of the economic cycle. As active managers, we adjust our asset allocation according to our modelling and economic forecasts.

The portfolios blend growth-focused asset classes such as UK and overseas equities, commercial property, and commodities, with less volatile assets such as fixed income and cash. Each asset class must make sense over the long run, but will offer its best performance at different points in the economic cycle. This helps to steady the overall returns of the funds. Assets that provide resilience to shocks, such as gilts and commodities, are included. But assets considered exotic or too expensive are not.

The “Global Multi Asset Portfolios” are six actively managed multi asset funds that span the risk spectrum from conservative to adventurous, with progressive positioning across equities, bonds and other assets, according to risk appetite. The funds use research and modelling to guide asset allocation according to the investment clock approach.

All six funds are managed according to the investment and asset allocation process used for all of the Global Multi Asset Portfolios and they give every investor access to the team’s deep expertise.

In addition to the GMAP funds, the team manages the Multi Asset Strategies Fund. This fund aims to be significantly less volatile than equities and to deliver attractive positive returns over the long term

The Avant-garde Asset Managemente Investment Partners GMAPs or ‘Global Multi Asset Portfolios’ are Avant-garde Asset Managemente Investment Partner’s range of 'on-platform' multi asset funds, launched in 2016 for ISAs, GIAs and SIPPs. The funds cover a broad range of asset types and are designed to offer investors diversified exposure to these in line with their investment objectives and appetite for risk. The range is comprised of six actively managed, diversified multi asset funds.

They are all constructed using a risk–based approach with the aim of maximizing real return over the medium to long term subject to a given level of expected risk. The funds are managed in line with strategic benchmarks which have been designed in consultation with Moody's. The funds primarily invest in Avant-garde Asset Managemente Investment Partners multi asset funds, with exposure to other schemes managed by third parties.

MAST (‘Multi Asset Strategies Fund’) is part of the GMAP family but is managed on an absolute return basis. The fund seeks to achieve returns in excess of cash (cash+4%) while managing volatility and downside risk through diversified multi asset strategies. MAST is an unleveraged portfolio, long only at the asset class level, and it uses the same tactical asset allocation process as the GMAPs. MAST applies a volatility capping process in order to limit downside risk in turbulent markets and has the ability to go to 100% cash if deemed necessary to protect capital.

The range includes one fund investing solely in cash and bonds from across the fixed interest universe globally – the Avant-garde Asset Managemente Investment Partners GMAP Conservative Fund, as well as another comprised only of equity investments from a range of sectors across the globe – the Avant-garde Asset Managemente Investment Partners GMAP Dynamic Fund.

While these two outliers do not include the same level of diversification by asset class, they are aimed at investors with lower and higher appetites for risk respectively, providing exposure to a wide range of assets from across the underlying funds held.

Across the Dynamic Fund, regional and sector exposure will be actively managed while the Conservative Fund will have allocation to government, investment grade, and unrated bonds adjusted by the manager. These funds will be managed in line with the investment and asset allocation process used across all of the GMAPs, offering more cautious and adventurous investors access to the team’s expertise.