The struggle for mixed asset funds
Just one fund in the mixed asset – growth space has seen positive returns since the start of 2020, out of 102 funds in the sector.
According to data from FE Analytics, within the Australian Core Strategies universe, only 0.9% of funds in the sector managed to achieve positive returns.
The only fund to see positive returns since the start of 2020 to 31 July was Simplicity Growth Investment which returned 2.49%. The sector average was a 6% loss.
Run by a New Zealand firm, its largest weightings included a 47% allocated to international equities, 30% to Australian equities and 12% to international fixed interest.
Its top 10 holdings included Vanguard index funds, cash and shares such as Fisher & Paykel and a2 Milk.
The next best-performing fund in that sector was CFS Colonial First State Wholesale Balanced fund which lost 1.3% over the same period.
The worst-performing fund was IPAC Classic Enhanced Growth Portfolio fund which lost 19.4%.
Looking at performance over one year to 31 July, 2020, the number of positive funds rose from one to seven, some 6.8% of the sector.
These were the Simplicity fund (at 8%), Bendigo Wealth Growth Wholesale (1.57%), IOOF MultiMix Balanced Growth (1.19%), IOOF MultiSeries 70 (0.68%), CFS Colonial First State Wholesale Balanced (0.49%), IOOF MultiMix Growth (0.21%), Vanguard Growth Index (0.21%) and BlackRock Tactical Growth (0.14%).
IPAC Classic Enhanced Growth Portfolio was the worst-performing fund over one year with a loss of 16.5%.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Recommended for you
Some 42 per cent of CEOs say they are actively reinventing their business to stay relevant in the next decade, with consumer services the most common choice for asset and wealth managers.
Former Ophir Asset Management chief executive, George Chirakis, has joined private equity manager Scarcity Partners, while the asset manager has appointed a replacement from Macquarie.
Australian Unity has appointed a fund manager for its Healthcare Property Trust, joining from Centuria Healthcare, as it restructures the product with a series of senior appointments.
Financial advisers nervous about the liquidity of private markets funds for their retail clients are the target of fund managers launching semi-liquid products which offer greater flexibility and redemptions.
