DeVere, which calls itself the ‘world’s largest independent international financial consultancy’, has $90bn of funds under advice and around 70,000 clients.
It has traditionally looked after expatriates but in September 2011, appointed Kevin White to head up its UK operation as managing partner, and announced plans to take on UK clients in addition to looking after expats who had returned home.
Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, said deVere was "delighted" to be able to include the JPM Fusion Funds in the range it offered its clients, and noted that the range was well suited to "the RDR era".
He added that the expansion underscored deVere’s commitment to forming alliances with major companies like JP Morgan.
Unusual timing
As reported here in 2011, White acknowledged that some might wonder at deVere’s decision to enter the UK advisory market at precisely the same time that it was expected to shrink, as a result of new regulations being brought in by the Retail Distribution Review.
But he added that the group had nothing to fear from RDR, and noted that all of its UK-based advisers were RDR-qualified.
Risk-spectrum straddling
JPM’s Fusion Fund suite is described as being positioned across the risk spectrum, and consists of five strategies: Income, Conservative, Balanced, Growth and Growth Plus.
The firm has combined members from both its investment management and private banking divisions to work on the funds, in a team headed by Jonathan Shelon.
Lanning will be lead fund manager in the team when he joins in May. The funds are designed to be whole-of-market, and will invest in other collectives.
Jane Nicholls, head of UK client solutions at JPM asset management, said the fund manager’s size and scale would enable it to tap into asset classes and share classes that more traditional fund-of-funds providers might not be able to to access.
The range is risk-rated by Distribution Technology and Barrie & Hibbert, and is available through platforms for intermediaries, with a clean fee share class charging 0.75%.
