Given the current market
conditions, however, it may well
be argued that you would like a
little more protection in a flexible
fund. The Foord Flexible Fund
of Funds, for instance, currently
has more than a quarter of its
portfolio in cash, and the Nedgroup
Investments Bravata fund is even
more defensively positioned with
over 40% of its assets in cash and
money market instruments.
In both cases, this has certainly
limited their ability to benefit on the
up-side, but in a market pull-back
it will certainly protect investors on
the downside.
Another factor that makes these
funds attractive is that, perhaps
contrary to what one might expect,
they are generally quite reasonably
priced. The total expense ratio (TER)
on the Imalivest fund is just 1.13%,
and most of these funds show
TERs of under 2%. Quantum is the
biggest exception at a TER of 3.53%.
Taking a slightly longer term view,
the below table shows the top
performers over the last five years.
Nine of the funds on this list are
also in the top ten over three years.
The only addition is the Coronation
Market Plus Fund. It replaces the
Platinum fund that does not yet
have a five year track record.
Again, none of these funds
managed to perform better than
the MSCI World Index. The majority
did however show better returns
than the local All Share and all of
them comfortably out-performed
CPI+5%.
Top performing worldwide multi asset flexible funds funds to 31 July 2015
Fund
5 Year annualised total return
Foord Flexible FoF R
21.09%
Imalivest MET Worldwide Flexible
Fund
20.75%
Coronation Optimum Growth Fund
A
20.24%
Flagship IP Worldwide Flexible FoF
19.80%
Flagship IP Worldwide Flexible
Fund
18.75%
Efficient BCI Worldwide Flexible
Fund
17.48%
Nedgroup Investments Bravata
Worldwide Flexible Fund A
17.24%
Marriott Worldwide Flexible FoF
16.80%
Coronation Market Plus Fund
15.98%
Quantum BCI Worldwide Flexible
FoF
15.89%
FTSE/JSE All Share Index
16.35%
Worldwide multi asset flexible fund
category average
16.29%
MSCI World Index (in ZAR)
22.22%
CPI plus 5%
10.60%
Source: Morningstar
Note: There are only five funds in this category with \