What happened to the previous double-digit Crown fund managers?
IPAC Asset Management had 12 five Crown funds last rebalance, while Macquarie Investment Management had 10, but how did they do this time around?
Last September there were two double-digit Crown fund managers – IPAC Asset Management led the way with 12 five Crown funds and Macquarie Investment Management had 10 – but both saw significant drops for this rebalance.
The 12 five Crowns IPAC previously had was now four. Most funds only dropped to four Crowns, but one dropped all the way to one Crown.
Macquarie now had five funds with five Crowns, as the other five dropped to four Crowns.
The IPAC funds that retained their five Crown rating were Select Index Growth, Select Index High Growth, Summit Select Index Growth and Life Choices Index 85.
Seven IPAC funds dropped from five Crowns to four Crowns, those were: Diversified Investment Strategy 4, MMP High Growth, North Multi Manager Active Growth, North Professional High Growth, Select Index Balanced, Life Choices Active 100 and North Guardian Volatility Growth.
Stephen Flegg, portfolio manager at AMP Capital, said overall last year was still a good year for performance across the full IPAC range.
“If we look at the different ways we measure success, the first is in absolute performance and that was a good year, one of the best in the last decade, all of our flagship balanced funds were in the top half of their peer groups,” Flegg said.
“It was a challenging year for a lot of active managers… if you weren’t in the few big names that performed well, active managers typically underperformed.
“Our funds marginally underperformed the index, but we when look across the different metrics of how our diversified funds performed, so absolute performance relative to peers, we would characterise last year as successful.”
IPAC SIS - International Share Strategy No 2 dropped from five Crowns to one Crown, which Flegg said was closed to the public and had no direct investors.
“This fund is used as a building block trust within a number of the diversified IPAC portfolios. As such its performance is relevant within the context of a broader multi-asset portfolio,” Flegg said.
“Primarily, investors gain exposure to this fund through investing in our diversified ranges such North Professional, Life Choices Active, Diversified Investment Strategies or Summit Select Active.”
Macquarie’s five Crown funds were Balanced Growth, Australian Small Companies, Small Companies, Australian Shares and True Index Global Infrastructure Securities.
The funds that lost their five Crown ratings were Property Securities, Active Plus Equities, Wholesale Australian Equities, Australian Equities and Walter Scott Global Equity – all now four Crowns.
When asked about the performance of the now four Crown rated funds, Macquarie declined to comment.
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