Barclays is launching a range of multi manager portfolios for U.A.E. personal customers that that provides access to professional investment managers who are usually restricted to large institutional investors dealing with billions of dollars. The portfolios have been designed to provide a straightforward solution to a wide variety of investment needs. Barclays advisers are on hand to help evaluate individuals’ financial objectives and appetite for risk and recommend a personalized approach. The portfolios are suitable for both new and experienced investors, with a minimum investment of US$30,000. Additional services are available for those investing between US$100,000 and US$2 million.
Barclays will offer more choice than competitors, who typically offer fewer than five managers, and has recruited 17 of the world’s leading investment management houses to manage specific mandates in line with their areas of expertise. Barclays scale has enabled it to include institutional-quality fund management houses not normally accessible to retail investors. They include Aberdeen, Aberforth, Artemis, Barclays Global Investors, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo, Intech, Invesco, Legg Mason, Newton, Payden & Rygel, Royal London, Schroders, Standard Life, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and Threadneedle. More managers will be added in the future as required. Independent expert Mercer Investment Consulting assisted Barclays in assembling the range of investment managers.
“Based on an in-depth review of customer needs, we have introduced a multi manager approach as we believe it has the best chance of providing optimum investment performance for clients over the longer term. We also believe we have created the most flexible, true manager of managers offering in the market at one of the most competitive prices. We will use our financial expertise by maintaining overall investment control and asset allocation decisions. To date, nearly £3 billion in existing customers’ funds have already migrated,” explained Steven Mendel, Director of Barclays UK Private Client business.
Barclays’ multi manager approach uses modern portfolio management techniques that top institutional investors use, and will concentrate in several areas: strategic asset allocation between asset types and classes, balancing diversification and risk management, currency management and tactical overlays to enable short-term changes in allocation to be carried out efficiently.
The range of investment portfolios caters for a wide variety of different customers’ attitude to risk. The portfolio types available include: Income, Cautious, Balanced, Growth and Adventurous Growth. Each of these is available through either a unit trust or OEIC wrapper.
