Absolute Return funds: What your client needs to know

The explosion in the last year or so in the number of retail absolute return funds (£3.9bn under management as at the end of 2008 according to the IMA and growing rapidly) has led many commentators to question whether this is a long-term trend or simply a knee-jerk reaction to investors running scared of traditional relative return products in the face of last year's unprecedented volatility in equity markets.