Financial advisers' preference for multi-asset funds marks the "biggest cyclical change for 30 years", an Allianz Global Investors retail sales head has said.
Nick Smith (pictured), responsible for retail sales in Europe ex-Germany at Allianz GI, argued the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review has encouraged advisers to seek funds with clearer outcomes.
He said: “The general trend away from buying an Asian fund or a North American equity fund to buying multi-asset funds is for me the biggest cyclical change that has ever happened in 30 years. One should not underestimate that.”
According to Smith, the move to fee-based advice has forced advisers to spend less time building their clients’ portfolio from individual funds.
But while this “fundamental” shift may have been unintended, he described it as a positive one: “There is a spotlight on advisers and how they make these decisions. Increasingly advisers have a much more disciplined approach to assessing clients’ profile.”
Mixed assets was the second-most popular asset class in 2013, according to the Investment Management Association’s latest data, with net retail sales of £4.6bn. Sales were more than one-and-a-half times higher than those of 2012.
The best-selling IMA sector, meanwhile, was the multi-asset Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares, with net retail sales of £3.1bn in 2013.
