BT expand retail offering and scores mixed rating
BT Funds Managementwill offer its nine Partner Funds to the retail market and allow investors to access investment managers previously only available through its wrap platform as a wholesale offering.
The news comes as research houseAssirtdelivered a mixed prognosis of the BT business, following a full rating of the fund manager — branding it ‘weak’ across Australian equities (including socially responsible investments and small caps) but ‘strong’ for international equities (both core and global value) and ‘competent’ for international growth stocks.
The Partner Funds, which consist of five single-manager funds and four multi-manager funds, will allow retail investors direct access for the first time to international equity growth managerMarvin & Palmer Associatesand international equity value manager Bank of Ireland Investment Management.
The retail offering will sit alongside and complement its wrap platform, and provide access to advisers who prefer not to use wrap platforms or have clients who prefer the same, a BT spokesperson says.
According to BT product innovation manager Patrick Clarke, the change is to provide retail investors with complete diversity across their portfolios and to invest with well-researched quality managers they otherwise wouldn’t be able to access.
“It also provides additional protection as you get access to a style of asset management rather than a manager per se, as we along withInTechwill move quickly to remove poorly performing managers. We can replace the manager without the investor incurring a capital gains tax disadvantage,” Clarke says.
BT head of retail Rob Coombe reinforces Clarke’s notion that managers will be replaced if they under-perform or deviate from their investment style mandate.
“The ability for BT and InTech to replace managers means that the Partner Funds may help reduce advisers’ reputational risk associated with fund manager performance and style deviation, and ease administrative hassles associated with changing fund managers,” Coombe says.
The three additional managers in the single-manager funds are Alliance Capital Management Australia,AMP Henderson Global Investors, andGMO Australia.
BT’s multi-manager offerings, which have access to up to 18 managers, are the BT Wholesale Partners Diversified Shares Multi-manager Fund, the BT Wholesale Partners Multi-manager Growth Fund, the BT Wholesale Partners Multi-manager Balanced Fund and the BT Wholesale Partners Multi-manager Conservative Fund.
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