Cofunds surveyed 259 advisers in August this year and 70% said the UK was one of their favoured investment regions for the remainder of 2015 and looking into 2016. This is followed by the US – favoured by half (51%) of advisers – and then Europe at 41% and Asia trailed at 24%.
Advisers also reported that their clients were relatively optimistic on the outlook for the UK: Nine out of 10 advisers (90%) polled feel their clients are either neutral or fairly optimistic about the UK economic outlook moving into 2016, with just 7% sensing any pessimism among clients.
The majority of advisers – 60% – are recommending their clients keep their UK allocations unchanged, while almost a third (30%) are recommending an increase in exposure.
UK equity income was the top-selling sector on the platform in the second quarter, followed by the property and targeted absolute return sectors.
Britt Holland–Ellice, head of commercial at Cofunds, said: “Over the last four quarters, we’ve seen UK sectors such as UK Equity Income steadily rise in our sector sales leaderboard. Our adviser research also echoes this behaviour, indicating that in times of market uncertainty UK investors are looking closer to home for investment security.”
