- Platforms' in-house portfolios can overcomplicate things for new investors
- Adventurous funds have bet big on the US
- Income portfolios tend to be at the low end of the risk scale
‘Best-buy’ fund lists have long been a prominent part of investment platforms’ offer to their customers. In recent years, these have been joined in the shop window by portfolios run by platforms’ own investment managers, aimed at less experienced or uncertain users. But the performance and structure of these funds can vary widely, and it is worth paying attention to their foibles.
While multi-asset funds themselves are nothing new, platforms’ own in-house funds are typically labelled as ‘ready made’ or ‘quick start’ routes to investment, and access to the portfolios in question is usually preceded by a basic set of questions. Users are often able to specify whether they wish to focus on growth or income, and/or asked whether they wish to keep costs particularly low (in which case they are routed to passive funds). Growth-focused investors are then presented with a small range of in-house options, the names of which typically range from cautious (featuring a higher bond component) to adventurous (where the emphasis is on equities).