Funds In Focus

An Investment Team designed for today's markets

As a clever way to spread investment risk, multi-manager funds have earned their space in today's complex and evolving investment arena. Through combining assets that behave in different ways, they attempt to insulate against market fluctuations whilst providing the potential for rewarding returns in one simple package. Multi-managers can also help with the daunting task of portfolio construction, creating balanced investment portfolios whilst keeping track of the latest hot topics, rising stars, thousands of fund managers and their performance.

At Architas, multi-manager investing is what we do. We are passionate and dedicated to providing the best market offerings with innovative thinking and investment design. At the heart of this offering, and key to running successful multi-manager funds, lies our Investment Team. We believe it's worth looking at the Team, its diverse talents and how they can benefit investors, in more depth.

Creating the Architas Investment Team
Handpicked from a competitive marketplace, our Investment Team brings strong investment intellect to Architas. This unique blend of talent and experience ensures our Investment Managers and analysts are well positioned to tackle the challenges of being a multi-manager specialist.

The Team draw from a broad range of varying and complementary experience and skill sets. Certain members of the Team have focused solely on multi-manager funds whilst others have experience of directly managing bond and equity funds. Also adding to the Team's rich diversity is the members' experience from a range of other areas, such as stock broking, accountancy and actuarial.

Experience matters
With many members of the Team having experienced most stages of the investment cycle, the Architas Investment Team combines a depth of experience with current ideas and fresh thinking. As well as valuable experience in investment markets, the Team also benefits from some members' specific knowledge of multi-manager investment from the beginning, when the concept started to take off in the 1990s. We believe our insight into both past and current markets is a powerful combination.

The diversity of the Team is evident across other areas too, as some analysts have gained well-honed expertise through a career dedicated to one or two firms, whilst other Team members have worked for a variety of investment houses, all with different cultures. As a result, the Team is able to share knowledge, best practice and a wide-reaching network of valuable industry contacts.

Individual focus
Although we encourage discussion and the sharing of ideas we also recognise the importance of accountability and focus. For this reason, every sector of the financial markets has a dedicated representative within the Team, along with support from at least two analysts. We are confident every area is thoroughly researched and considered.

This consultative approach is applied to various phases of the research process, including face to face meetings. Unlike many multi-managers we never conduct fund manager meetings on a one-to-one basis. We believe that two heads are better than one because each individual brings different ideas, and because a combination of personalities is extremely beneficial when performing qualitative research.

The Team meets weekly to formally present their detailed analysis. This gives them an opportunity to debate ideas, with all members welcoming others' opinions. This exchange of ideas and in-depth analysis ultimately strengthens the Team's conviction when selecting or deselecting a fund.

In conclusion, we believe the Architas Investment Team's finely tuned balance of unique individual insight and common purpose offers you an exciting proposition which stands out from the crowd.

www.architas-mm.com

Richard Philbin
Chief Investment Officer
Architas Multi-Manager Limited