In our latest article, Ed Margot FEI’s Investment Strategist, contemplates the power struggle that raging between the world’s two largest superpowers: China and the USA. All, it appears, is not as it seems on the surface…
Since FE Invest launched its Managed Portfolio Service in 2015, it has gained over 2 billion in assets under management. This has resulted in FE Invest being named the fastest growing Discretionary Fund Manager (DFM) on platform according to research from Platforum*.
Financial experts have long debated whether investors should go down the active or the passive route when it comes to selecting their investments. The benefit of passive funds can largely be put down to the lower fees they charge over their active counterparts. On the contrary, the benefit of an active fund is that, while more expensive, it offers the possibility of outperforming the benchmark and returning greater profits to the investor.
It goes without saying that investments should only be recommended to, or included in discretionary portfolios of, clients whose needs, characteristics and objectives they meet. MiFID II has formalised this obligation by requiring advisers, platforms and DFMs (collectively referred to as distributors) to consider matching any funds or products with target markets based on given criteria.
A recent study by Ben Carlson showed “the only one of the [US-based] three major asset classes that’s up this year is actually cash”. Carlson has found out that “it’s only happened 10 times in 92 years”. I decided to apply the same analysis to UK-based investors, who have not benefited from several interest rates hikes in 2018.
Following the EU referendum in 2016, investors expected property markets to fall sharply, resulting in a rush of withdrawals from property funds. Several funds had to suspend withdrawals or apply value adjustments to stave off the tide while they raised money through the sale of assets. Despite the initial panic most of the affected funds have now re-opened and the sector overall has performed relatively well since 2017. We give our view on what's next for the sector.