Award winning investment specialist achieves recognition for ESG multi-asset fund range
Award-winning investment specialist Blackfinch has received the Defaqto 4 Diamond Rating for its Asset Management Adaptation Funds less than 12 months after their launch.
Given in recognition of the multi-asset unit trusts’ performance and competitiveness in the market, the accolade indicates that Blackfinch’s Adaptation Funds already offer a good proposition relative to the peer group across charges, performance, risk shape and other features.
Individually labelled Blackfinch VT, the multi-asset funds were set up in July 2020 to meet demand from a growing number of financial advisers who are seeking optimal outsourced investment solutions in order to cater to clients’ ethical investment concerns and to avoid the confusion of the 10% loss reporting brought in by MiFID II.
This included increased demand for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) propositions, and coincided with a comprehensive rebrand for the Blackfinch Group which last year confirmed its commitment to helping to create a more sustainable world through its own focus on ESG factors.
This includes investing in funds and firms that are paying close attention to the impact they make on society and the environment, and any investments which do not meet the clearly defined ESG standards are screened out.
Richard Cook, Founder and CEO of Blackfinch Group welcomed the recognition which he said ‘further cements’ the company’s commitment to helping clients and advisers reach their personal finance and business goals by delivering extensive business support and a straightforward portfolio.
An independent financial information and technology business, Defaqto assesses key areas such as scale, accessibility and manager longevity in order to help consumers, financial institutions and financial advisers make better informed decisions.
It rates families of funds to give advisers an insight as to whether the intended gradations of risk and return have been delivered and combines a quantitative assessment of both performance and numerous other data points, including manager tenure, assets under management and costs.
The process sees 60 experts independently collect and assess details of around 41,000 financial products, funds and fund families over the course of a year, of which over 5,000 are Diamond rated funds.
Today’s announcement allows advisers and other intermediaries – and their clients – to see instantly where the individual funds and fund families sit within the market.
Richard Cook of Blackfinch, said: “We’re delighted that the Blackfinch Asset Management Adaptation Funds have received a 4 Diamond Rating given by Defaqto, given the fund families’ infancy.”
“Such recognition is not only confirmation that it offers a good proposition relative to the peer group across charges, performance, risk shape and other features; it is also testament to our approach of offering straightforward, clear and transparent investment opportunities that are targeted and streamlined in terms of their ratings, structure, reporting and availability.
“Equally, we’re proud that our Adaptation Funds are structured in a way that addresses the growing demand from advisers to offer an ESG-committed outsourced solution which brings the benefits of greater investment scope and regulatory parameters.
“We’re confident that the 4 Diamond Rating will provide further reassurance to our clients about the success of the funds to date, as well as where Blackfinch Asset Management Adaptation Funds sits within the marketplace based on its ongoing performance.”
Pan Andreas, Head of Insight and Consulting (Funds & DFM) at Defaqto adds: “Defaqto Diamond Ratings are an unbiased assessment of the quality and performance of a fund, fund range or model portfolio (MPS). We combine a quantitative assessment of both performance and numerous other data points, including manager tenure, assets under management and costs. Blackfinch’s 4 Diamond Rating for its Asset Management Adaption Funds indicates the high quality of its proposition.”
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