The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

Schroders Capital
Schroders Capital, the specialist private markets business of UK-listed Schroders, has just received regulatory approval for its first UK wealth market focused Long-Term Asset Fund (LTAF), as the firm focuses on providing investors with a broader selection of access points to private markets.

Earlier this month, Schroders Capital, which has $97.3 billion assets under management, received approval for an LTAF dedicated to UK venture capital.

LTAFs, a funds' regime authorised by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, are designed to enable UK investors with longer-term horizons to invest in illiquid assets. The majority launched to date have allowed defined contribution (DC) investors to access private markets and have been structured as authorised contractual schemes.

The newly-launched Schroders Capital Wealth Solutions LTAF has been designed as an open-ended investment company (OEIC), enabling it to be made available to UK wealth managers with retail clients. The LTAF will work as an umbrella structure to hold other LTAFs, with the first fund launched under it being the Schroders Capital Global Private Equity LTAF, a feeder fund into an existing strategy, the Schroders Capital Semi-Liquid Global Private Equity Fund.

Traditionally, retail investors could only access alternative investments such as private equity and private credit through trusts, but the introduction of the LTAF to the market has begun to shift this.

Managed by Schroders Capital’s head of global private equity portfolios, Benjamin Alt, the fund is focused on small and mid-market buyout and growth investments globally. These encompass US and European SME buyouts and Asia growth companies, with a strong focus on technology and healthcare sectors.

"Private equity enables investors to access different parts of the economic ecosystem, bringing the potential for robust investment performance and the benefits of diversification," Alt said.

Robeco
Rotterdam-headquartered Robeco has just strengthened its multi-asset proposition by launching a flexible allocation strategy, complementing its existing multi-asset allocation strategies.

The investment decisions for the flexible allocation strategy will not be anchored by a traditional benchmark. Instead, it has an outcome-focused approach by targeting cash plus 4 per cent annually, the firm said in a statement. Returns aim to outpace inflation, protecting and increasing the real value of investments, offering a stable investment for clients.

This asset allocation approach considers how conditions vary significantly across the market cycle. The strategy focuses on the retail or wholesale investor with a mid-range risk appetite and has a standard five-year investment horizon for returns.