Question
Is the Fidelity Asset Allocator a good isa for cautious investment over a 5-10 year period?Answer
The concept behind the Fidelity Moneybuilder Asset Allocator fund is very sensible. It invests across stock markets, corporate bonds, commercial property, commodities and cash using tracker funds to keep costs down. Total annual charges are 0.92% (based on Fidelity's published total expense ratio) which is competitive.
But will it prove successful?
This is a bit harder to answer. The fund's manager, Trevor Greetham, has an indifferent track record of running multi asset funds for Fidelity to date. So it's hard to get enthused about the positive impact he might have on the fund. My other main negative would be that property trackers track property company share prices, not actual bricks and mortar, which loses some of the diversification benefit - although it obviously helps reduce costs.
In order to assess risk it's important to look at how the fund invests its money and this is where Fidelity is really unhelpful - it still hasn't published these details on its website despite the fund being launched in October 2011. Given the fund sits in the IMA Mixed Investment 20-60% shares sector - the stock market exposure could range between 20-60%,which is a significant variance in potential risk.
Because of the above I can't answer your question on whether it would suit a cautious investor, but provided it's not taking excessive stock market exposure then I think it's worth considering. It's not the sort of fund that will likely be a top performer, but it provides a simple low cost way to access a variety of asset types - albeit probably without much flair.
But I must re-iterate, until Fidelity starts to publish the underlying holdings I'd steer clear. It's never to wise to buy funds when you don't know how they're investing your money.
Is the Fidelity Asset Allocator a good isa for cautious investment over a 5-10 year period?Answer
The concept behind the Fidelity Moneybuilder Asset Allocator fund is very sensible. It invests across stock markets, corporate bonds, commercial property, commodities and cash using tracker funds to keep costs down. Total annual charges are 0.92% (based on Fidelity's published total expense ratio) which is competitive.
But will it prove successful?
This is a bit harder to answer. The fund's manager, Trevor Greetham, has an indifferent track record of running multi asset funds for Fidelity to date. So it's hard to get enthused about the positive impact he might have on the fund. My other main negative would be that property trackers track property company share prices, not actual bricks and mortar, which loses some of the diversification benefit - although it obviously helps reduce costs.
In order to assess risk it's important to look at how the fund invests its money and this is where Fidelity is really unhelpful - it still hasn't published these details on its website despite the fund being launched in October 2011. Given the fund sits in the IMA Mixed Investment 20-60% shares sector - the stock market exposure could range between 20-60%,which is a significant variance in potential risk.
Because of the above I can't answer your question on whether it would suit a cautious investor, but provided it's not taking excessive stock market exposure then I think it's worth considering. It's not the sort of fund that will likely be a top performer, but it provides a simple low cost way to access a variety of asset types - albeit probably without much flair.
But I must re-iterate, until Fidelity starts to publish the underlying holdings I'd steer clear. It's never to wise to buy funds when you don't know how they're investing your money.
Read this Q and A at http://www.candidmoney.com/questions/question591.aspx
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