Our starting point is to work closely with The Openwork Partnership to develop the Strategic Asset Allocations (SAA) that form the foundations for portfolio construction. The SAA is a blend of investments in specific amounts that matches your risk profile and aims to deliver the best long-term return for that risk profile. the weightings for each investment, or asset class, is based on our long-term expectations for potential returns and how we expect different asset classes to interact with each other and the level of risk you are willing to take.
A key issue in determining your investment strategy is an understanding of your attitude to money, the risks you are prepared to take to achieve your goals, and your ability to accommodate any short or long-term losses. Your adviser will help you to identify the solution that matches your needs – today and in the future.
Once the SAA is set, we make ongoing tactical asset allocation decisions to respond to the changing investment environment. This process involves increasing and decreasing exposures to the different asset classes and geographical regions. We describe this process as underweighting (where we have lower exposure than the strategic weight) and overweighting (where we have higher exposure than the strategic weight).
Investment search and selection
Omnis has a range of funds and appoints expert investment managers to make the investment decisions in the funds. When selecting a manager for one of the Omnis funds, our dedicated Manager Research team works with an external specialist research firm to distil the large universe of investment managers into a list of managers that we could consider meet our robust criteria.
We rigorously assess our investment managers and review and analyse their investment philosophy, their investment process and their team, amongst other things. We then validate that against data we already have. We meet potential investment managers and their teams in person so that we can gain a thorough insight into their investment approach. We use a variety of tools to measure a manager’s abilities before deciding to appoint them to manage one of the Omnis funds.
This robust and repeatable process ensures all Omnis funds are run by outstanding investment managers. We appoint them after careful due diligence and keep them under review so if there are any changes to their process or team that require us to take action, including appointing a new manager, we do just that, without it requiring action from you. Learn more about our investment managers here.
When Omnis Agility selects ETFs we use similarly robust process, taking into account a range of factors, including size, cost, how closely the ETF returns track the market, the credentials and reputation of the manager. We then select the ones we believe provide the most efficient exposure.
Checks and balances
Appointing an external asset manager to manage an Omnis fund or the inclusion of an ETF into an Omnis Agility portfolio is just the start of a rigorous on-going monitoring process that continues for as long as we have the investment in the Omnis Agility portfolio. Our systems and processes aim to create a safe environment for investing and provide an additional layer of oversight and governance.
We believe that our rigorous selection processes, leading investment managers, and robust control and governance framework all combine to act as the “guard rails” to your investment experience and help to deliver peace of mind that we are carefully and diligently managing your investment.