Evelyn Partners has unveiled changes to its Core Managed Portfolio Service (MPS), with the rebalance designed to address ‘a large overweight to the UK and more modest underweight to Europe’. Attached is a detailed note outlining the changes and a picture of James Burns.
James Burns, Head of MPS and Lead Portfolio Manager on Evelyn Partners Core MPS, said:
“This rebalance saw us make a small reduction in the exposure to UK equities with the proceeds being reinvested into European equities. No changes were made to the bonds or alternatives allocations.
“Within our regional equity allocation, we have for some time held a large overweight to the UK and a more modest underweight to Europe versus our long-term asset allocation framework. While UK market performance has been strong year-to-date, we struggle to find sufficient conviction to justify maintaining such a large exposure. Both regions look cheap compared to the US, but relative earnings and margin signals suggest that Europe ex-UK is more appealing than the UK.
“Only one new fund was introduced, with M&G Asian being added to the two highest risk portfolios to add some diversification to our existing list of holdings. The manager, David Perrett, takes a benchmark aware approach with no large deviations in either sector or geographic allocation. Instead, he has developed a strong track record of generating outperformance through stock selection.”
Note: While the MPS team exited Lindsell Train UK Equity in its Core Defensive, Conservative, Cautious and Balanced risk-based portfolios, it chose to reduce its holding of this fund in its Core Growth, Adventurous and Maximum Growth funds. The decision to exit or reduce UK Lindsell Train in some risk-rated portfolios is limited to the MPS team’s decision to reduce its holding in UK equities in favour of European equities. Lindsell Train UK Equity remains on the wider buy list for Evelyn Partners.
The Evelyn Partners Core MPS range ensures portfolios remain effectively managed through the investment cycle by maintaining diversification and risk management. Among the outsourced investment solutions Evelyn Partners provides to UK financial advisers, Core MPS sits alongside the Evelyn Partners Active MPS range, a low-cost Index MPS range which invest in passive funds and ETFs, and a Sustainable MPS range.
