The latest news on investment offerings, financial products and other services relevant to wealth advisors and their clients.

Lazard Asset Management
This week, Lazard Asset Management has launched the Lazard Thematic Inflation Opportunities Fund, designed to benefit from the structural shift to a higher inflationary environment.

Managed by Steve Wreford, John King and Nicholas Bratt, LTIO is based on five to eight themes and comprises 40 to 80 underlying equity holdings, each with a market capitalisation of around $1 billion or more, the firm said in a statement. 

LTIO said it follows the philosophy of the Lazard Global Thematic Equity strategy, launched in 2003, which was one of the world’s first thematic equity investment offerings.

LTIO’s themes are affected by the investment team’s global framework for structural inflation, a series of considerations intended to capture the primary causes and effects of the structural shift to a higher inflationary environment. 

The framework’s considerations identify the investment implications of emerging inflection points in monetary policy, fiscal policy, and demographics. These drivers may lead to cost-push and demand-pull inflation for companies and consumers across numerous industries.

The investment process also incorporates environmental, social and governance considerations in a manner designed to enhance long-term returns and minimise unintended risks.

“The world is undergoing important shifts in demographics as well as monetary and fiscal policy, which could fuel structurally higher inflation that is currently not reflected by market consensus,” said Steve Wreford, portfolio manager on the Lazard Global Thematic Equity Team.

“Against this backdrop, there is a strong need for strategies designed to help clients mitigate the risks and capture the potential investment opportunities of inflation. LTIO can help investors target the drivers and outcomes of inflation through diversification between themes and across time horizons, unlike single-theme strategies,” he added.

“Clients require forward-facing solutions to navigate the challenges and capitalise on the investment opportunities created by rising inflation,” Jeremy Taylor, chief executive officer of LAML, said.

“Lazard has spent nearly two decades identifying structural and secular changes in the global economy and investing in companies that stand to benefit from those forces, including inflation. The launch of LTIO builds on this successful approach,” he added. 

An indirect subsidiary of Lazard Ltd (NYSE: LAZ), LAM, the fund’s investment manager, offers a range of equity, fixed-income, and alternative investment products worldwide. As of 30 June 2022, LAM and affiliated asset management companies in the Lazard Group managed $217 billion worth of client assets.

Legal & General Investment Management      
Legal & General Investment Management has expanded its Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) range with the launch of four new investment strategies.

The four new funds, which build on LGIM’s existing range of ETFs, will target thematic and growth oriented investment opportunities, the firm said in a statement. Three of the new ETFs – Emerging Cyber Security, Optical Technology and Photonics, as well as Global Thematics – will sit within LGIM’s flagship thematic range; whereas the Metaverse Fund will sit within LGIM’s newly-created ‘Access’ range, the firm added.

The thematic ETF investment strategies are based on LGIM’s unique investment approach which blends active research and rules-based transparent implementation to create custom thematic indices that aim to offer investors purer exposure to themes, and underlying positions that are differentiated from traditional portfolios.

The new ‘Access’ range of investment strategies, of which the Metaverse Fund forms part, aim to provide exposures that are designed to serve as a tactical or strategic tool for investors seeking ‘access’ to non-traditional investment opportunities.

Welcoming the move, Aanand Venkatramanan head of ETFs, EMEA at Legal & General Investment Management, said: “Thematic investment strategies have seen strong investor interest over recent years, thanks to their ability to capitalise on structural and foundational changes in the way we live and work".

"As we have continued to build our thematic ETF range, we have sought to provide investors with purer and differentiated access to new and emerging themes that are shaping the future. Three of the funds launched today capture some of the most innovative and disruptive companies shaping global economies, while the Global Thematic Fund will seek to allow investors to gain exposure to multiple themes, in an easily-accessible format,” he added.