Skandia, the UK-based investment management firm, is to launch a new range of 20 single manager funds across ten asset classes.

The new range, known as “Signature” comprises one property fund, two UK fixed interest funds, three international fixed income funds, four UK equity funds, two European funds, three North American funds, one Japanese fund, two Far East ex-Japan funds and one global specialist fund. Of these funds 18 are new to the UK market.

Skandia is keen to highlight the fact that the new fund range offers UK investors access to managers who usually only undertake institutional rather than retail business. While the fund manager line up - which will be selected by Skandia Investment Group’s 40-strong investment team - is still to be confirmed, Skandia asserts that they will all be “world class”. Moreover, as each fund will contain only one manager the range will compete directly with the broader retail universe, rather than just multi-manager solutions, the firm said.

“The Signature funds meet the growing demand from financial advisors for different approaches to portfolio construction and management.  Some advisors like to research and select funds themselves but increasingly advisors are looking to focus more on their clients financial planning needs and outsource elements of their investment service,” said Graham Bentley, head of investment marketing at Skandia.

“Managed investment solutions such as risk-rated funds allow them to outsource both asset allocation decisions, fund selection and risk control, but Signature offers a further option.  Advisors can retain control of the asset allocation and style-tilt decisions within their client portfolios, but utilise the huge resources and expertise of SIG’s global investment research team to indentify the best fund managers in each investment sector.”