The four additional strategies are equity long/short, equity market neutral, credit long/short and global macro.

The SEI strategic portfolios, the range which the new funds join, were launched in February 2010 with the aim of providing business solutions for advisors. The enhancement to SEI's porfolios provides an exposure of up to 10 per cent in the Conservative, Moderate, Core, and Balanced portfolios. Other absolute return strategies may be added in the future to take advantage of opportunities throughout the economic cycle, SEI said.

“It helps diversify the portfolios and we get the same level of return but for less risk. It will improve risk-adjusted returns over the long term but the journey will also be smoother," Cedric Bucher, director of client investment strategy at SEI, told WealthBriefing.

The absolute return strategies will be overseen by SEI's alternative investment team, which manages around $2 billion and which uses SEI's manager-of-manager process.

SEI, which has $164 billion assets under management, recently formed a strategic alliance with Bestinvest to provide a range of wealth management services, accessible via a platform.