The Research Team

Our funds research team is led by Stewart Smith. With over 7 years experience in the Willis Owen Research team, Stewart leads the fund research programme and compiles the selected funds and portfolios. He has a BA (Hons) degree in Financial Services, as well as the Financial Planning Certificate. Here Stewart answers some questions about how the funds for the Portfolios are selected.

Our three Portfolios aim to meet the needs of different types of investors, but the processes we use to select funds are essentially the same. We start by giving funds an overall score based on a thorough analysis of the market. To do this we use 8 different performance factors to help us identify funds that have demonstrated consistent returns over a given period of time, under both rising and falling stock market conditions. This helps us to pick out funds that have performed consistently well under a variety of stock market conditions. We then look at the top scoring funds in more detail, taking into account such things as; the amount of risk taken by the fund managers, their experience and the investment processes they use, as well as the level of support they get from investors.

One of the main building blocks for any portfolio is to spread risk through diversification. We look for funds where their patterns of returns complement each other so as to smooth out the amount by which investors might see their capital fluctuate in value both upwards and downwards. For example; in our Income and Balanced Portfolios we aim to diversify risk by including funds that invest in bonds as well as funds that invest in UK shares. Historically, the patterns of returns from these two types of investment have not coincided. In our Global Opportunities Portfolio we aim to spread risk by using funds that invest in different regions of the world’s stock markets.