Lorna Blyth, Managing Director, Investment Proposition, Aegon

Sep 05, 2024

Headlinemoney and Aegon

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Lorna Blyth, Managing Director, Investment Proposition, Aegon

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Lorna Blyth, Managing Director, Investment Proposition at Aegon, comments on advisers' use of multi-asset funds for client accumulation and decumulation.

Findings from Aegon’s latest Adviser attitudes report show a number of new and continued trends within investment advice, collating the responses of 200 financial advisers to paint a comprehensive picture of an ever-evolving industry.

The research shows that multi-asset strategies are the top investment choice recommended by financial advisers, with 90% of surveyed advisers using them for both client accumulation and decumulation. Notably, the findings show that 25% of client assets are invested in such funds. In comparison, 20% of assets are invested in DFM portfolios, 20% in fully in-house model portfolios, 18% in externally built model portfolios, 12% in single strategy funds, and 1% in individual stocks.

Lorna Blyth, Managing Director, Investment Proposition, comments on the findings:

There’s no doubt that elevated market volatility has made the past three years an incredibly challenging and unpredictable period for investment advice. But, as we start to see a gradual return to normality, it’s encouraging to know that the majority of advisers are aligned and feeling confident in the strategies employed by their clients’ investments.

In particular, our research shows advisers favour multi-asset funds as their primary investment structure, with 25% of all client assets under management in such funds. This is likely due to their considerable versatility and diversity, and the ability to select options that align to different risk appetites.

Multi-asset funds, such as Aegon’s Risk-Managed Portfolios, also offer ease-of-use for advisers and customers, with the permission to make asset allocation changes over time on the customer’s behalf built into the fund design.

In addition, they support advisers in meeting their regulatory obligations – such as MIFID II, PRIIPs and new Consumer Duty rules – with target markets’ pre-defined and robust investment governance processes built in.