Retiree-focused fund added to BT wraps


BT has added Legg Mason's Martin Currie Equity Income Trust to its BT Wrap and BT SuperWrap, the global asset manager revealed last week.
The fund, designed to address retiree longevity risk and help avoid the need to draw down on capital through retirement, delivered an income return of 7.3 per cent before fees in the year to January 2016, while the S&P/ASX 200 index declined 6.1 per cent.
Martin Currie Australia chief investment officer, Reece Birtles, said fund's performance and low drawdown through the recent market volatility highlighted the fund's low risk design.
"We believe that a well-diversified portfolio of quality companies that can grow their dividends best meets this objective, without the need for costly protective overlays which can potentially impact returns and duplicate the diversification benefits from other asset classes," he said.
The fund has previously received a "highly recommended" rating from Lonsec, and is also available on CFS (Badged version), Linear, PowerWrap (Escala only), Ausmaq (Morgan Stanley badged), mFund, SIV.
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