Interesting thread and thanks for the contributions.

Appreciate quite a lot of discussion on the AJ Bell funds have been around the growth / higher risk end.

The one that interests me is the AJ Bell Balanced fund. The fact sheet shows a split of equity 53%, fixed income 34%, cash 6%, alternatives 5% (equity allocation reduced / bonds increased compared to the breakdown in the Q4 2022 report).

On the face of it, the broad allocation by category looks pretty similar to the HSBC Global Strategy Balanced fund and not that far off the Vanguard 60 fund.

There is not a huge amount in it, but the AJ Bell fund looks to have out performed these two other funds over 1, 3 and 5 years.

Any thoughts around the allocation / risk levels within the AJ Bell balanced fund or is there anything better for an off the shelf 60/40 type fund which hasn’t been mentioned on this thread ?

Just to add, I am in the process of trying to tidy up my portfolio across ISA's / SIPP and looking to replace various low conviction holdings that I have added over the years when trying to either add income (reits) or diversification which is all too messy and over complicated. I want to get rid and replace these with a single fund which is at the lower risk end, ie something like the AJ Bell Balanced fund, which can sit alongside global trackers and my higher conviction equity funds.

Thanks

It’s worth looking at how that outperformance came about.

Has it been steadily outperforming each year? Or did they get lucky one year out of 5 which flatters the annualised figures?

Problem with MyMap is they all hold ESG indexes rather than vanilla indexes. So basically just loads more tech and chunkier holdings in Apple, Microsoft, Tesla etc. Makes it a no from me, though appreciate others may not mind.

I believe they also hedge half their equity exposure or something, which again may be seen as a positive or a negative.

If I'm understanding your question properly, for me it makes sense having three or four that combine home bias/global, hedged global bonds/unhedged global bonds, and perhaps one that's quite actively/dynamically tweaked. That way you can cover all the bases IMHO.

So, for example, at the 60:40 nominal level in the spectrum, hold these three:

LS 60 - home bias, sterling hedged global bonds, index-linked bonds, all with fixed allocations

Fidelity Multi Asset Allocator 'Growth' - no home bias, unhedged global bonds, some small caps, and property, again fixed allocations

HSBC Global Strategy 'Balanced' - more 'actively managed', unhedged global bonds, some derivatives, property, no home bias

That would be 58% equities, and cover all the possibilities re the other variables (ie max diversification within the nominal 60:40 selection). Not bad for 20 bps.

Is that what you meant?

Two other aspects would prevent me from going with just one of them:

I have a max I'd invest with any single fund

You've got to keep something to monitor and fret about! LOL