By Dave Baxter, Investors Chronicle, July 12, 2023:
Few funds made it through 2022 unscathed, and even those with an explicitly defensive profile took a hit. A combination of problems, including a painful government bond sell-off, ultimately took its toll on most of the so-called wealth preservation investment trusts, although most of them fared better than equity markets…
The managers of the wealth preservation trusts tend to fear moments of market exuberance, so it is little surprise that they harbour concerns about this year’s market rally…
Personal Assets’s lower exposure to inflation-linked debt should make it slightly less vulnerable to rate rises, relatively speaking…
Ruffer had 15.7 per cent in illiquid strategies and options, the latter effectively serving as insurance against market falls, and 7.1 per cent in cash…
RIT Capital is more of an unusual beast in that it tends to have more esoteric investments, including private assets accessed directly and via funds, and absolute return portfolios…
Specialists have different views on the options available and the trusts can serve different purposes…
Mick Gilligan, head of managed portfolios at Killik & Co, views Ruffer as the least volatile of the four thanks to its cash position, heavy exposure to short-dated bonds and use of options. He puts Personal Assets in second place..
James Carthew, head of investment company research at QuotedData, adds that RIT Capital Partners has fared best over longer periods and says: “If we are looking five or 10 years out from here, I’d expect it to be top of the pile again.”
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