Advance flagship fund cracks $1 billion
Advance Funds Managementflagship investment vehicle, the Advance Imputation Fund, has passed the $1 billion mark after successfully outperforming the S&P/ASX 200 index by almost 8 per cent over the last 12 months.
The fund has been in operation since 1986 and is managed by boutique value specialist managerMaple-Brown Abbott. Under the guidance of Robert Maple-Brown, the fund has outperformed the S&P/200 index by 1.5 per cent over the last 10 years, 2.4 per cent over five years and 3.7 per cent over the last three.
The fund performance is impressive given the recent strong bull market and Advance head of product management and marketing, Eamonn Roles says the success of the fund is due to its handling by Maple Brown Abbott.
“Robert Maple-Brown has been predominantly involved and has achieved a consistent high delivery of returns,” he says.
Roles says these returns have been evidenced by the fact that the fund outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 index when it has fallen 80 per cent of the time and this was driven by not simply choosing the right blue chip stocks, but in choosing the right weightings.
“It would be highly unusual for Maple-Brown to be out of large cap stocks [when the market falls]; rather, he would just hold the appropriate weighting,” Roles says.
The fund has been heavily supported by advisers, but Roles says Advance has not relied on its connections with theSt George bankadviser network.
“St George financial planners are certainly using the fund, however it’s only on a case by case basis. The fund has been taken up more by the independent financial community at large across Australia,” Roles says.
The breaking of the billion dollar barrier comes as Advance kicks off a marketing campaign in which it will sell its brand as a funds manager to the consumer as well as the financial planning community.
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