James Burns, Lead Portfolio Manager at Evelyn Partners, has noted a significant rebalancing in active MPS portfolios in his latest note to investors.
Burns (pictured) said: “This rebalance was driven primarily by updates to the Dynamic Planner asset allocation framework. The changes made to the portfolios were the first in exactly a year and were, perhaps unsurprisingly, sizeable. At the headline level equities have been reduced significantly in all models apart from Dynamic Growth where there was only a small reduction. Bonds and alternatives have been correspondingly increased.
“Within the equity allocations sizeable cuts were made to the UK and US whilst Europe, Japan and Asia/Emerging Markets generally saw increases. Two holdings were exited entirely (NinetyOne UK Alpha and Federated Hermes Global Emerging Markets) whilst the passive tracker Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index was introduced.
“The bond allocation saw some major changes with UK government bonds being increased at the expense of US government bonds. We believe that UK gilts look more attractive than US treasuries as we see there being greater scope for growth concerns to come through in the UK which would lead to interest rate cuts, whilst the growth picture in the US remains more robust. There is also the possibility that US government bonds’ status as the ultimate safe haven assets may be called into question following President Trump’s recent tariff announcements. Corporate bonds were also reduced as we see less downside protection in them versus government bonds.
“Two new positions were introduced within the alternatives allocation through one hedge fund position (Fulcrum Diversified Absolute Return) and one listed infrastructure position (Cordiant Digital Infrastructure). Both these holdings should offer good diversification to the portfolios as we expect their return profiles to be driven by their own fundamentals rather than relying on positive equity markets. Finally, NB Uncorrelated Strategies was exited, although this was only held in one portfolio.”
These changes affect the following strategies:
- Active Defensive
- Active Defensive Income
- Active Balanced Income
- Active Balanced Growth
- Active Growth
