Fund Management

| Approach

Asset allocation is the lynchpin of our award-winning approach to investing, founded on Harry Markowitz’s Nobel prize-winning model. 

Essentially, asset allocation is the art of knowing when to be invested in which asset classes, in which markets, and having the optimal percentage of each making up your personal portfolio. At all times we ensure that your investment portfolio is tailor-made to your unique investment objectives, time horizon, appetite for risk, income and capital requirements, and the existing market conditions. 

As world-renowned research has shown, 92% of investment returns come from asset allocation, only 2% from market timing and only 6% from stock selection. Investing in the right assets, and diversifying your risk across asset classes, is fundamental to ensuring capital growth and wealth preservation for all of our clients over the long-term. 


| Process

At Southern Charter, we uphold the value of accountability and believe in transparent business relationships. For this reason, we aim to ensure that you have a clear understanding of our decision-making process. The origin of this process is based on the research of Nobel Prize winning  economist, Harry Markowitz. He determined the optimal mix of asset classes to achieve an optimal level of return for a given level of risk by “essentially investing money smarter and taking risk into account.” 

  • Based on long-term (60 years) return data, the asset allocation mix for our funds is determined. This is the percentage allocated to each asset class in order to achieve the long-term return objective of our funds, while taking into account the specific risk profile of each fund.

  • In this phase, we look at past and current trends in the local and global markets as well as identifying future developments.

  • We go through a process of distilling all the information we have gathered. We then vigorously debate, and finally agree on, key investment themes or trends that are emerging across asset classes.

  • Based on those trends, we then adjust the asset allocation. We always start with the fund’s strategic allocation and move from there. Based on our research, we determine whether a particular asset class will perform better or worse relative to other asset classes, while taking relative risk into account.

  • Once we have determined our strategic asset allocation, we turn our attention to selecting the best fund managers in those asset classes. Based on our analysis of prevailing market conditions, we assess and choose managers that will perform well under the present and expected future market conditions. These managers and their investment positions are then monitored on an ongoing basis.

  • Lastly, we review the performance of all our funds, the underlying asset classes, and our managers to determine where our decisions added or detracted value to the performance of our funds. With this information, we then improve our overall investment decision-making process.


| Investment Options

We offer a range of investment options for our advisors to use to help you achieve your goals. They are managed according to our investment approach (learn more here) but each with their own specific objectives. We have three types of investment options.  
 
Flagship risk-profiled Life Cycle Funds 
For retirement savings and local investing – Learn more 


Offshore feeder funds 
For easy offshore investing – Learn more


Offshore portfolios  
For more complex offshore investing  – Learn more 


| Awards

Over the last 10 years we have one more than 10 awards for our funds. Beating out the biggest names in the business. These are given purely performance and risk metrics and not influenced by size of investment company or who knows who. They are an unbiased measure of success. 


  • Winner of the Best Aggressive Allocation Fund
    Southern Charter BCI Growth Fund

    Winner of the Best Moderate Allocation Fund
    Southern Charter BCI Balanced Fund

  • Winner of the best fund group (balanced)
    Southern Charter BCI Balanced Fund

  • Winner of the Best Multi-Asset Medium Equity Fund
    Southern Charter BCI Balanced Fund

    Winner of the Best Multi-Asset Medium Equity Fund on a Risk-Adjusted Basis
    Southern Charter BCI BCI Balanced Fund