Aviva Smooth Managed Fund
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Aviva Life & Pensions Aviva Smooth Managed Fund January 2021 Aviva: Public Aviva Smooth Managed Fund CONTENTS Aviva and Aviva Investors .................................................................................................... 3 Product Development ................................................................................................................... 3 Fund Overview .............................................................................................................................. 4 The Smoothing Process ................................................................................................................. 5 Fund Management Team .............................................................................................................. 6 Investment Process ....................................................................................................................... 7 Governance and Risk ................................................................................................................... 11 Current fund positioning .................................................................................................... 12 Performance ................................................................................................................................ 13 Summary & Evaluation ...................................................................................................... 14 Aviva Platform Document Links .................................................................................................. 15 About Us ........................................................................................................................... 16 ©Rayner Spencer Mills Research Ltd 2021 www.rsmr.co.uk 2 Aviva: Public Aviva Smooth Managed Fund Aviva and Aviva Investors Aviva Investors are a global asset manager with broad expertise across all major asset classes. As part of the Aviva Group, Aviva Investors are well positioned to combine insurance heritage with investment capabilities to deliver the outcomes that matter for investors. Aviva provides insurance, savings and investment products to 33 million customers worldwide. It is one of the UK’s largest insurers, as well as one of Europe’s leading providers of life and general insurance. It operates in 16 countries in the UK, Europe, Asia and Canada with the provision of long- term savings, fund management and general insurance. Assets under management stood at £510 billion as at May 2020. Aviva was formed following the merger of CGU plc and Norwich Union plc on 30 May 2000. The firm was originally named CGNU plc but was subsequently renamed Aviva plc on 1 July 2002. CGU plc and Norwich Union plc were both major UK-based insurers operating in the long-term insurance business and general insurance markets and both had long corporate histories. CGU plc was formed in 1998 from the merger of Commercial Union plc and General Accident plc. General Accident was incorporated in 1865 and Commercial Union was incorporated in 1861. Norwich Union was founded as a mutual society in 1797. In 1997 it demutualised and became a public listed company. In 2015, the Aviva Group completed the acquisition of Friends Life Group Ltd through an all share exchange. In 2016, Aviva Canada Inc acquired 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of RBC General Insurance Company (RBC) in Canada. This product is governed by Aviva Life and Pensions with the fund management being conducted by Aviva Investors. Product Development Aviva Smooth Managed fund (SMF) has been designed by Aviva Life & Pension (Aviva L&P), with the investment management function being sub-contracted to Aviva Investors Multi-asset team. The fund has been available through the Pension Portfolio product on the Aviva adviser platform since December 2017 and it was added to Aviva’s investment bond, Select Investment, in February 2019. The fund is expected to be available via an ISA as an insured fund in due course. The SMF is available solely for the UK adviser market and is available on the Aviva for Advisers Platform and Select Investment Bond. The product was developed as the increased flexibility on pension benefits led to significantly fewer investors opting to buy an annuity on retirement. At the same time advisers were looking for alternative solutions and the FCA were concerned about the lack of innovation from providers in a rapidly expanding new market. There was a greater need for outcome focused investing, particularly given the risks associated with decumulation investing (i.e. taking withdrawals from a pension portfolio). The risks being particularly high in declining and volatile markets. In a declining market ‘pound cost averaging’ becomes ‘pound cost ravaging’. In addition, as part of post retirement planning, there is the need to provide some protection against inflation which diminishes the purchasing power of money. ©Rayner Spencer Mills Research Ltd 2021 www.rsmr.co.uk 3 Aviva: Public Aviva Smooth Managed Fund Aviva Smooth Managed fund is designed to deliver growth over the medium to long term, while employing a ‘smoothing’ process to shelter investors from some of the adverse impacts of market movements. The fund invests in a broad range of global assets which are actively managed, to aim to add value or protect capital, while keeping the level of investment risk in line with a moderately cautious risk profile. Aviva decided to utilise a smoothing process based on their identification of the potential client needs and consideration of the investment market, and then carried out extensive quantitative modelling, looking at potential returns from capital markets (including sensitivity and scenario analysis to understand the key risks to fund performance). They used proprietary optimisation models in order to capture the required returns and objectives within a defined risk/reward framework. The outcomes were stress tested. The proprietary models continue to be used to monitor the fund on an ongoing basis and they feed into the investment management, risk analysis and fund governance processes with the aim being to ensure that the framework continues to optimise returns and achieve end client objectives. In this review we will look at how the fund works, the investment team, the philosophy and process, past performance, and risk and governance. Fund Overview Whilst there is a ‘smoothing’ process in operation, it is worth noting that this is not a with profits fund. It is a unit-linked vehicle with an automatic smoothing mechanism which does not depend upon anyone making a judgement about any aspect of the fund. The underlying portfolio is invested in a blend of actively managed and passive funds. The portfolio will invest in funds managed by Aviva Investors, but it has the flexibility to invest in external managers if required. Typically, there is a bias towards passive exposure in developed equity and government bond markets, which are usually informationally efficient and liquid, making active management more challenging. A more active approach, however, is taken in emerging markets, given the additional risks associated with that asset class. In fixed income, exposure to developed market government bonds is wholly passive whilst there is a wholly active approach in credit (e.g. global high yield and investment grade). A feature of being passive in the credit space would mean that the portfolio would get more exposure to the most indebted companies which is not attractive. The portfolio is fully unconstrained and invests on a global basis. See the section on the Investment Process for details. The fund is in the ABI Specialist sector where there are no restrictions or constraints to follow. ©Rayner Spencer Mills Research Ltd 2021 www.rsmr.co.uk 4 Aviva: Public Aviva Smooth Managed Fund The Smoothing Process The underlying portfolio, like any other, will be valued on an ongoing basis and units within the fund will have an unsmoothed price (the value of assets divided by the number of units in the Smooth Managed fund). Smooth Managed, however, also has a smoothed price which is the price investors pay to buy and sell units in the Aviva Smooth Managed fund. The smoothed price will normally rise in accordance with a Smooth Growth Rate. For the Pension fund, the Smooth Growth Rate is equal to the Bank of England Base Rate +5% per year. For the Life fund, the Smooth Growth Rate is equal to the Bank of England Base Rate plus 4% per year. Advisers and their clients, however, need to understand that the Smoothed Growth Rate is not guaranteed. For the Pension fund, the Smooth Growth Rate will never be less than 5% or more than 10%. For the Life fund, the Smooth Growth Rate will never be less than 4% or more than 9%. There may, however, be Fund Price Adjustments. Fund Price Adjustments take place when there is a 6.5% or more difference between the Smoothed price and the Unsmoothed price. Aviva automatically adjust the Smoothed price so that the difference is only 1.5%. When markets perform badly the underlying assets may lose value, which can trigger a downward Fund Price Adjustment. Equally, in an environment where markets perform well, an upward Fund Price Adjustment may be triggered. Since launch, the following price adjustments have been applied: Date Price Adjustment Fund 18 December 2018 -5.0% Pension 30 July 2019 +5.4% Pension 9 March 2020 -6.72% Pension 10 March 2020 -5.2% Bond 12 March 2020 -7.1% Pension 12 March 2020 -4.8% Bond 28 May 2020 +6.2% Pension