Managed funds

Former Merrill Lynch stockbroker Alastair Irvine has joined Jupiter as a product specialist for the Merlin multi-manager team.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has cut fees on its Fusion fund range, run by Tony Lanning, in a bid to improve the portfolios' competitiveness.

Joseph Molloy, global head of index equities at Legal & General Investment Management, has joined HSBC Global Asset Management as head of passive equity.

Investec Asset Management's John Stopford has begun hedging US equity exposure in his Diversified Income fund, despite this part of the portfolio being the most significant contributor to performance last year.

Global macro funds could receive a performance boost following a difficult year, as divergent central bank policies create a favourable environment for top-down investing, according to GAM's Charles Hepworth.

Fidelity has proposed an overhaul of conventional methods of comparing tracker funds' performance, saying simply looking at tracking errors can produce 'illusory' results.

Multi-asset

The managers of the Ruffer investment company have cut their US dollar exposure further, even as the currency looks set for its best quarter in over 20 years.

The Investment Association's plans to reorganise the Unclassified sector may lead to advisers reaching "dubious conclusions" on funds, according to Old Mutual Global Investors' John Ventre.

Threadneedle is to merge its multi-manager range into funds run by Seven Investment Management (7IM), with two managers set to move across as part of the deal, Investment Week can reveal.