In the second regular DC update from Newton Investment Management, Paul Flood looks at why the construction of a portfolio with diversified sources of return is so important in the current economic environment.
After years of wallowing in a forgotten backwater, inflation has found its way back to mainstream markets, presenting another threat to investors' real returns, even as yields remain at all-time lows.
Inflation is just one of several risks faced by defined contribution (DC) investors, and needs to be considered in the broader context of a member's investment objectives.
As investment managers, our purpose is to increase the real wealth of DC members and to ensure that their savings pots keep up with the cost of living and support their lifestyle at retirement.
In order to achieve this, the importance of regular monthly contributions over members' working lives, harnessing the compounding effect of incremental returns, cannot be underestimated.
Similarly important is to provide a smooth investment journey that helps ensure members do not take fright but continue to contribute when markets go through times of stress. Such periods can provide some of the beshear UK government bond yield stands at about 1.2%1, well below the current UK RPI inflation rate of 2.6%2, which Bank of England Governor Mark Carney believes will persist until moving towards a 2% target rate in 2020. This leaves an investment in bonds with a significant negative real return.
Providing a smooth investment journey therefore requires careful consideration and an evaluation of the predominant risks. Within a multi-asset portfolio, inflation protection can consist of assets such as renewable energy and infrastructure which have very little sensitivity to the economic cycle but which have very strong contractual obligations to provide inflation-linked revenues.
In short, in the current challenging environment, constructing a portfolio with diversified sources of return is an important consideration for strategies which are designed to form a key building block of a DC default solution. Indeed, this is where much of the fee budget is spent, combining growth with a focus on capital preservation.
The attraction of such an approach is that it is not wedded to any single asset class, benchmark or peer group and can allocate capital to those areas of the market that offer the best risk/reward characteristics.
Paul Flood is a multi-asset team portfolio manager at Newton Investment Management
1 Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream, March 2017.
2 Source: Office of National Statistics, March 2017.
Important information
This is a financial promotion. This document is for professional investors only. The opinions expressed in this document are those of Newton and should not be construed as investment advice or any other advice and are subject to change.
