Whitechurch's Willis: We are getting too big to back managers at launch

'We are getting too big to back fund managers at launch'

Whitechurch Securities' head of research, Ben Willis, talks to Laura Dew about dealing with soft-closures of popular funds, the growing difficulties in backing new portfolios, and a surprise 2014 outperformer.

Whitechurch is looking to impose a cap on the size of fund it buys for its clients, meaning you will exit funds that exceed a certain level. Are these measures close to implementation? We are still not quite there and are working out how we could do it. It is difficult as some funds will be capped at lower rates than others.  We have already moved out of some small-cap funds that have soft-closed. Whether we have to move out of a fund that is soft-closed depends on whether or not the group imposes a charge. But it will be good for us to have a hard and fast rule which forces us to loo...