Iveagh Private Investment House, the Guinness family office and asset management firm, has announced that the Iveagh Wealth Fund has been added to the Skandia Investment Solutions platform as well as the Skandia life and pension fund range.
Demand from financial advisers for wealth preservation strategies is a key driver for the success of the fund which has grown quickly since it launched in September 2008, now holding more than 200 GB million pounds ($US325 million) in assets under management. The Iveagh Wealth Fund was also recently awarded an early Standard & Poor’s AA fund rating based on the investment process and the experience of the team.
The Iveagh Wealth Fund replicates the asset allocation service provided for the family office clients, which include key members of the Guinness family. It targets a nominal return of around 10% per annum. Iveagh’s sophisticated portfolio optimisation and asset allocation techniques are used to achieve this objective with minimal risk.
The Iveagh Wealth Fund, a global multi-asset UCITS III fund for retail investors, is co-managed by Cambiz Alikhani, John Ricciardi and Christopher Wyllie.
Paul Ross, CEO, Iveagh Private Investment House, comments: “The success of the Iveagh Wealth Fund has already surpassed our initial expectations and offering the fund via the Skandia platform will certainly help to make it more widely accessible. Feedback from advisers tells us they are drawn to our ability to preserve wealth, particularly during the last two years in the worst economic environment in living history, as investors re-evaluate the strategy behind their investment portfolio.”
Graham Bentley, head of investment marketing, Skandia UK, added: “The Iveagh Wealth Fund has seen significant inflows since launch which demonstrates strong demand from advisers and their clients. As a result we are pleased to be the first major fund platform to give advisers access to the fund, further broadening the range of investment solutions they can recommend to their clients.”
How do they do it?
The optimised portfolio universe is drawn from alternatives (private equity, venture capital, hedge funds and structured products), real assets (precious metals, natural resources, global real estate), major market equities, emerging market equities, bonds and cash. The fund invests almost entirely in daily dealing quoted securities.
The tactical asset allocation strategy aims to increase the portfolio return and reduce downside risk by making tactical adjustments to holdings on a quarterly basis. This strategy makes use of highly liquid instruments such as exchange traded funds and the direct purchase of government bonds.
Furthermore, the Iveagh Investment Committee forecasts the direction of major markets by using proprietary research and drawing upon the additional views of two of the oldest sovereign wealth funds.