Jupiter Merlin income Jupiter Merlin Income
This fund is a key component of the Cautious and Balanced Portfolio. The Jupiter Merlin Income Portfolio was launched on 14th September 1992 and makes up one quarter of the Merlin Portfolios (along with their Balanced, Growth and Worldwide Portfolios). The fund mainly purchases other investment funds, rather than directly owning stock. This investment process is commonly known as a Fund of Funds approach.
Peter Lawery joined Jupiter in 2001 to jointly run the Jupiter Merlin Funds of Funds range with John Chatfeild-Roberts and Algy Smith-Maxwell. He is currently a Fund Manager of the Jupiter Independent Funds Team and a Director of Jupiter Asset Management Limited. Peter started his career in 1990 working for Hill Samuel Investment. He moved to Lazard Asset Management in 1992 and became a Fund Manager in 1996.
Jupiter was founded in 1985 and since then they have been keen to demonstrate that they are able to out-perform their competitors, particularly over medium and long term investments.
Why we like this investment and what we expect
It is very rare that we would consider a Fund of Funds approach. The high charges for these funds rarely justify their performance. Nevertheless, Jupiter Merlin Income is one of a very limited number of exceptions in the marketplace and has doubled the performance of the Cautious Managed sector average over 5 years.
Investing in a fund of funds has some advantages. Firstly, it offers a more diverse method of investment, meaning that you do not have to place all your 'eggs' in one basket. Secondly, there is less risk involved, as you are not restricting your investment to one particular geographical region or within one particular sector of the industry. This fund has some exposure to emerging markets by investing the First State Asian Equity Plus and the Threadneedle Emerging Market Bond.
The fund is slightly more aggressive than the typical UK cautious managed fund but these risks are extremely well managed. The fund has approximately 40% invested in fixed interest investment, 35% in UK Equity, 20% international equities and 5% in cash.
We expect this fund to out-perform its peers in the cautious managed sector whilst taking similar risk. Because of the nature of the charging structure we would expect significant ‘added value’.
The underlying fund charges 1.15%. Sterling’s charge is in addition.
Fund Manager Factsheet (PDF)Fund Prospectus (PDF)
