Willis Towers Watson, a firm of investment consultants, has launched an equity fund after being disappointed at the level of index hugging in the asset management industry.
The Global Equity Focus Fund (GEFF), which has a high active share, contains the top five unconstrained-equity ideas from the “world’s top stock pickers”.
David Shapiro, GEFF portfolio manager at WTW, said: “When looking at what was available to those clients wishing to invest in equities, we were dispirited by the preponderance of expensive index-hugger-type products,” he said.
GEFF provides daily liquidity and comprises 20-25 stock picks from eight investment managers with risk managed at the portfolio level.
The fund joins five other WTW pooled funds that wrap together all of the firm’s best investment ideas and have $5 billion (€4.4 billion) in total.
“We would assert that this high active share fund, offered at such a competitive price, is a world first,” said Shapiro.
A price for the fund was not given and a request for it had not been received at the time of going to press.
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