Elston has announced the launch of the UK’s first Smoothed MPS available across multiple platforms: the industry’s first multi-platform Smoothed MPS.
The firm writes that the Elston Smoothed WSF Portfolios combine a core allocation to the Wesleyan With Profits Growth Fund and a satellite allocation to selective equity, bond and alternatives funds.
There are three risk profiles based on look-through equity allocation ranges: 35 per cent Equity, 60 per cent Equity and 80 per cent Equity.
The investment management fee is 0.15 per cent and the underlying OCF is 0.40 per cent-0.46 per cent depending on risk profile.
The portfolios have been designed by Elston Consulting and manufactured by Elston Portfolio Management and are being made available on abrdn, Hubwise, Nucleus and Wealthtime platforms.
In October, Elston launched the first single-platform Smoothed MPS and Smoothed Retirement MPS on the Aviva platform, using the Aviva Smooth Managed funds a building block.
Elston Consulting provides investment committee support to a growing number of financial adviser firms and Discretionary Investment Managers, with approximately GBP6 billion of assets under consulting, of which approximately GBP2 billion is in Managed Portfolio Services (MPS) managed by Elston Portfolio Management across all major platforms.
Henry Cobbe, Founder & Head of Research at Elston Consulting, says: “Speaking to our adviser community, With Profits funds and Smoothed Funds have a role to play for certain client segments. Rather than adopting an all or nothing approach, most advisers typically blend smoothed funds with a multi-asset strategy themselves, but this makes rebalancing and administration a growing challenge. We designed the Smoothed Portfolios for these advisers who want a blended approach but also want the benefits and consistency of a managed approach to ensure consistency of performance together with institutional pricing on the satellite funds.”
Karen Blatchford, Managing Director, Intermediary Distribution at Wesleyan, says:
“Innovation and industry collaboration are essential if we’re to make smoothing more accessible at a time when its benefits for advisers and their clients are more valuable than ever. We were the first provider to add a smoothed With Profits fund to an independent adviser platform in 2021 and now we’re excited to partner with Elston on this UK industry first.”
