Among the top 10 best performing multi-asset funds, as categorised by FE, registered for sale to investors in Hong Kong and/or Singapore, only half live up to the multi-asset concept, and some clearly shouldn’t be using the “balanced” label.
In particular, the top performer in the category on a three-year basis, the India-domiciled DSP BR Balanced Fund had 93% of its holdings in equities, and the remaining 7% in money market instruments, according to FE, at the end of February, the most recent data available.
Similarly, the third best performer, ABN Amro’s multi-manager product AAMMF Profile 6, invests 100% in equities, according to the fund’s prospectus.
The Allianz Selection Income and Growth Fund, the second best performer in the past three years, perhaps best deserves the multi-asset label, (and the “balanced” one, which it does not carry), as its holdings are almost equally distributed among equities, bonds and convertibles.
The other funds that live up to their balanced label in our sample carry between 25% and 40% fixed income.
Growth funds, while still classified by FE as mixed-asset products, are heavily skewed to equities, with the JP Morgan and the Fidelity funds holding as little as 4% in fixed income and money market. The equally well performing UOB and HSBC growth funds hold between 15% and 20% in fixed income.
FSA suggests looking beyond the fund category label. A fund may be classified as balanced but what is under the hood might be far from it.
| Fund |
1-yr return |
3-yr return |
Equities |
Fixed Income |
Money Market |
| DSP BR Balanced |
1.9% |
27.94% |
93% |
0% |
7% |
| Allianz Selection Income and Growth |
18.03% |
25.22% |
32.6% |
64.9% * |
2.5% |
| AA MMF Profile 6 |
10.22% |
23.43% |
100% |
0% |
0% |
| PineBridge Acorns of Asia Balanced | 18.51% | 22.33% | 73% |
25% |
2% |
| UOB Growth Path Portfolio 2040 | 12.27% | 21.04% |
86.3% |
14% |
-0.3% |
| Templeton Emerging Markets Balanced | 5.77% | 20.14% |
50.8% |
39.3% |
9.9% |
| Janus Henderson Balanced | 11.05% | 19.91% |
61% |
38.4% |
0.6% |
| JPMorgan Provident High Growth | 15.74% | 19.81% |
95.8% |
1.8% |
2.4% |
| Fidelity Global Investment Growth | 15.72% | 19.25% |
96.1% |
2.7% |
1.2% |
| HSBC GIF Managed Solutions Asia Focused Growth | 9.98% |
18.89% |
81.8% |
17.3% |
1.0% |
