AJ Bell has launched a Responsible Managed Portfolio Service (MPS) as client demand for a responsible investment approach continues to rise.
The six portfolios have been built around a 25% allocation to the VT AJ Bell Responsible Growth fund. By using this cornerstone investment, AJ Bell said that it has the flexibility to make tactical allocation changes within the fund rather than the rest of the portfolio, minimising clients’ potential Capital Gains Tax liabilities.
The new range of portfolios invest in ETFs that track a MSCI SRI index where possible, which provides a range of values-based exclusions and ensures that AJ Bell targets companies with high ESG rankings to invest in.
The multi-asset portfolios follow the same structure as the investment platform’s passive, active and pactive MPS options, with six risk profiles that are mapped to all the main risk profiling tools used by advisers.
AJ Bell said the balanced portfolio in the Responsible MPS has an estimated carbon intensity that is 77% lower than when compared to investing in the balanced portfolio within AJ Bell’s passive MPS.
Kevin Doran, chief investment officer, AJ Bell, said: “Advisers have told us this is important to them and a growing number of their clients so, in line with our commitment to offering advisers choice, we have expanded our MPS to include a responsible investment option. The portfolios mirror our existing MPS service which is being used by an ever-expanding number of advisers and are also aligned with the existing risk profiling tools advisers use, so will be easy to integrate into their existing business processes.”
Doran added that all portfolios have OCFs of under 0.5% per annum, which the firm believes will give advisers a “highly competitive solution” for clients that want to invest responsibly “without sacrificing the potential for positive returns.”
All portfolios have a management fee of 0.15%, but the underlying funds OCFs range from 0.27% for cautious to 0.35% to global growth.
