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

Wellington Management, an investment management firm with more than $1.3 trillion in assets under management, has launched the Luxembourg-domiciled Wellington Absolute Return Global Equity Fund, a market neutral, multi-manager global equity UCITS strategy aimed at delivering returns above cash, independent of market direction. The fund is not available to retail investors and is offered only to professional and/or accredited investors, subject to applicable regulatory requirements.

It is available to professional and/or accredited investors in the UK and the EU, as well as select markets in Asia; it is not available in the US. Within Asia, the fund is available for professional investors in Hong Kong and accredited investors in Singapore, a Wellington spokesperson told this new service.

In a market environment characterised by heightened volatility, unstable asset class correlations and lower-than-expected returns from traditional beta exposures, investors are seeking differentiated returns and ways to achieve enhanced portfolio resilience without redesigning core allocations. The fund is designed to be a liquid alternative solution to complement traditional portfolios by providing diversification and resilience across market cycles, the firm said in a statement.

The fund invests in a diversified portfolio of equity strategies managed by Wellington portfolio managers, tailoring a hedge for each allocation and maintaining tight risk guardrails at the total portfolio level to mitigate overall market and factor exposures. The UCITS fund is based on a strategy, managed by Wellington since 2022, with about $1.4 billion in assets under management. The approach is designed to isolate stock-specific alpha from opportunity-rich segments of the market, seeking to result in a return profile with low sensitivity to broader equity and bond markets, the firm continued.

“Traditional diversification alone is often no longer enough for today’s investors,” said Scott Geary, vice chair and head of global wealth at Wellington Management. “That’s why advisors are increasingly partnering with managers who can bring innovative solutions to the market to help deliver more resilient, outcome-oriented portfolios.” 

“This launch is a response to clients seeking solutions to generate returns that are less dependent on market direction and broad asset class relationships,” said Luke Stellini, head of solutions production management. “The fund aims to harness global equity alpha as a diversifying return stream that can enhance a traditional multi asset portfolio design for a wider set of investors.”

Bridge Investment Intelligence
Bridge Investment Intelligence, a UK-based investment research firm, has launched Bridge, a platform providing financial advisors with institutional-grade research, oversight and reporting on Managed Portfolio Services (MPS).

The platform tackles a persistent pain point facing advisors today: over-reliance on high-level data tools that favour momentum investing over genuine evaluation of an MPS provider's underlying investment process.

Bridge aims to address this gap through two core components. First, it provides in-depth, transparent research covering asset allocation, fund selection, advisor support, and costs, enabling advisors to assess the quality of an MPS provider’s investment process. Second, it delivers continuous monitoring support, including quarterly reviews and consumer duty reporting, giving advisors a framework for oversight. This is complemented by messaging and on-demand support, allowing advisors to ask questions and access insight in real time – effectively providing the support of an in-house investment research function.

Franklin Templeton
California-based investment manager Franklin Templeton has launched a range of enhanced indexing funds for UK investors, combining factor-based investing with a conviction signal derived from its fundamental managers.

The actively managed Franklin Core Enhanced Equity Index Funds cover UK, Europe ex-UK, the US and global equities; they are available as sub-funds of the Franklin Templeton Funds (FTF) OEIC range.

Developed and managed by the Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions (FTIS) team, the four strategies aim to reflect a “for portfolio allocators, by portfolio allocators” approach, the firm said in a statement. They are designed to stay close to their benchmarks while seeking incremental outperformance, serving as cost-efficient core building blocks within diversified portfolios.

Available through a variety of platforms, the range consists of the following:

-- FTF Franklin Core UK Equity Enhanced Index Fund
-- FTF Franklin Core Europe ex UK Equity Enhanced Index Fund
-- FTF Franklin Core US Equity Enhanced Index Fund
-- FTF Franklin Core Global Equity Enhanced Index Fund

In each case the investment process begins with an active, factor-based quantitative strategy, which is then enhanced with the firm’s fundamental equity expertise through the use of the “conviction” factor.