Boutique fund incubator, Bennelong Funds Management has formed a partnership with three asset management experts – Alastair MacLeod, Sam Jacob and Andrew MacLeod – to create a new business, Wheelhouse Investment Partners, designed to deliver investment outcomes to Australian retirees.
To achieve this, Wheelhouse would take into account real-world challenges of market volatility, income generation, and the impact of manager fees while delivering access to a high growth asset class.
The firm would deliver a global equity income strategy that would rely upon an index created and maintained by Morningstar with Wheelhouse Partners integrating a tailor-made derivative overlay, purpose built for Australian retirees.
Portfolio manager, Alastair Macleod, said the global equity income strategy would aim to minimise the risk of chronic loss when investors could least afford it.
“When Australians enter retirement, and have changed from accumulation to redemption mode, their investment objectives need to change too. Australians are fortunate to be living longer, which means investment strategies also need to change to minimise the risk of retirees outliving their savings, and the real-world outcomes that this represents,” he said.
“The strategy is designed to have structural lowered volatility, improved capital preservation and higher income generation, all of which, when combined with a growth asset like equities, should work to narrow the range of investment outcomes.
“Manager fees also stand between returns and outcomes, and we have structured our offering with Bennelong to enable what we believe is a genuine low-cost solution for the value that we provide.” The Wheelhouse Global Equity Income Fund would be available for institutional investors, with plans to extend the offering to the retail market.
The company said that the fund would be based upon the Morningstar Developed Markets Wide Moat Focus Index, which would be drawn from a universe of approximately 1,400 stocks researched by Morningstar’s global equity analyst team.
Bennelong’s chief executive, Craig Bingham, said Wheelhouse Partners would have a solid team, with the offering designed to help retirees manage the volatility in their investment portfolio, and “smooth their income returns”.
“Alastair and his team have a strong background, and proven track record. Bennelong’s reputation has been built on its success in identifying and partnering with quality asset managers, offering high-grade investments. Wheelhouse Partners fits this model perfectly,” he said.
The new partnership would bring the total number of partnerships for Bennelong to eight with asset managers and to 12 with the funds.
