Bonham Carter on multi-asset: 'Innovation is a dangerous word'

Jupiter vice chairman Edward Bonham Carter has questioned the number of groups launching multi-asset funds, with the majority attracting little interest from fund buyers.

Research by Investment Week last year found just 8% of the 470 funds in the four main IMA Mixed Asset sectors managed to take in £50m or more in 2013. Speaking at the FundsNetwork conference earlier this month, Bonham Carter said the industry faces a “back to the future moment”, with many of the funds looking like outdated legacy products. “Innovation is a dangerous word: a lot of the new multi-asset funds are like the balanced funds we bought from life companies 20 or 30 years ago,” he said. The new launches have so far failed to gain much traction, with investors preferring funds...