While markets and economies have experienced a lot of bad news over the past few years even amid the gloom bright spots always emerge. In such cases it can be worth getting exposure via a low-cost passive fund, as the area is going to hopefully deliver good returns without the intervention of an active manager, and with low costs you get more of the return. Therefore we asked three wealth advisers what areas they choose for 2013, and their favourite exchange traded funds (ETFs) for their chosen area.
WORLD EQUITIES: Edward Allen, portfolio manager, Thurleigh Investment Managers
"2013 will be a mixed year during which we expect to see a broader global uptrend with the continuation of significant volatility. While we think that emerging markets will be strong and could potentially see the most equity market growth, we would recommend retaining some exposure to developed equities. A simple and cost-effective way of getting this kind of exposure is through the iShares MSCI World ETF (IWRD). This gives exposure to a broad basket of developed market global equities, with a natural market-capitalisation-led bias towards the US (around 53 per cent of the underlying index). The index comprises more than 1,600 of the largest companies worldwide over 24 developed countries, so we think it is a great way to access equity markets. This fund provides both sufficient diversification to weather any storms that beset equity markets and access to the reacceleration of high-quality company earnings as 2013 continues."