IFSL Wise Multi-Asset Income

IFSL Wise Multi-Asset Income can invest directly or indirectly across multiple asset classes including equities, fixed income, infrastructure, property and private equity.

The team aims to invest in these funds or investment trusts at times when their prices are significantly below what it estimates are their fair values. The managers also believe they can serve their shareholders best by adopting the widest possible investment remit, so that when certain asset classes become dangerously expensive, they have the best chance of finding value in others.

Philip and Vincent start the investment process by combining bottom-up research with a macro overlay. The bottom-up focus looks at manager research, backdrop for the asset class, market knowledge, industry trends, competitor analysis and valuation focus. Meanwhile, the macro covers broader themes like politics, events, sentiment, inflation, valuation and growth.

The next stage covers market technicals. The fund invests in public vehicles (funds, investment trusts or equities) all of which fluctuate in price. These fluctuations are both challenges and opportunities where the managers believe they can add value over time.

Although the fund has no strong style bias, it does lean towards value. When focusing on fund selection, the team specifically looks for companies with a clear investment philosophy and repeatable investment process. As mentioned, the team wants to target managers at times when their sectors are unfashionable and their styles are out of favour, ideally through closed-ended funds at discounts to their asset values, as they feel this is the best route to achieving their funds’ objectives over time.

The fund has a small allocation to direct equities but is not actively look to increase this.

The fund targets an annual income in excess of 3%, and income and capital growth (after income distributions) at least in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), over rolling periods of 5 years.
The final portfolio typically holds 30-60 companies.

The fund is benchmark agnostic and the team is happy to take concentrated positions when it has strong conviction in a particular asset class, theme or manager. However, the managers will look to express their views in a risk-controlled manner, which naturally leads to diversification. Liquidity risk is assessed monthly on both an internal and external basis.

As a multi-asset vehicle, the fund has around 30-60 underlying holdings to offer diversification. The team focuses on high-quality funds and investment trusts investing in out-of-favour areas, which means performance can take longer to come through.

ESG - Limited

The team at Wise believes the analysis of ESG factors not only opens up potential investment opportunities but also highlights potential risks, both of which should lead to better investment outcomes. The team actively discusses these factors with its investment managers and expects them to do the same with their underlying holdings. This policy is applied across all asset classes the team invests in, whether held directly or indirectly via third-party funds.

Whilst the team invests in funds for which improving corporate governance forms part of their investment strategy, or which invest into sectors that create a positive societal or economic impact, the fund itself does not explicitly adopt non-financial considerations, such as an ethical policy or specific exclusions.

The team reads research and annual reports, and holds meetings with executive management teams, board members and fund managers to give it a rounded view of the particular ESG issues facing direct or underlying holdings. The team also favours the investment trust structure for their holdings – where it believes there is strong corporate governance oversight provided by an independent board. It is also active on voting resolutions.