Investment research firm RSMR is adding a growth portfolio to its Responsible Managed Portfolio Service (MPS), ESG Clarity can exclusively reveal.
Run by the head of MPS Stewart Smith (pictured), the RSMR Responsible Growth Portfolio will sit under the Dynamic Planner (DP) risk profile level of 6 when it is launched later this month. It will sit alongside the Responsible Cautious, Responsible Balanced, and Responsible Dynamic, which are have risk profile levels of 4, 5 and 7 respectively.
The firm said asset allocation and fund selection will vary over time but the initial allocations are 37.5% international equities, 27.5% UK equities, 26.0% fixed income, 5.0% multi-asset and 4% cash.
Asset allocation breakdown
| RSMR Responsible MPS range | Cautious (DP 4) | Balanced (DP 5) | Growth (DP 6) | Dynamic (DP 7) |
| Cash | 15.0% | 10.0% | 4.0% | 2.0% |
| UK Equity | 10.0% | 21.0% | 27.5% | 33.5% |
| International Equity | 10.0% | 26.0% | 37.5% | 52.5% |
| Fixed Interest | 45.0% | 35.0% | 26.0% | 12.0% |
| Multi-Asset | 20.0% | 8.0% | 5.0% | 0.0% |
Initial investments are in larger groups including the Aegon Ethical Equity, BMO Responsible UK Equity, Janus Henderson Global Sustainable Equity and Royal London Sustainable Managed Income funds, as well as smaller names, which Smith said “equally strong pedigrees in responsible investing and often provide more specialist exposure to the portfolio”. These include FP WHEB Sustainability, Quilter Cheviot Climate Assets, Troy Trojan Ethical and VT Gravis Clean Energy Income.
Smith added: “As the RSMR Responsible fund universe continued to grow, we launched the RSMR Responsible Balanced Portfolio in June 2016, initially as an advisory portfolio but then converted to a discretionary portfolio in March 2018, at which point we also added the Responsible Cautious and Responsible Dynamic portfolios. We have been running standard and SRI/Responsible client portfolios comprising RSMR rated funds for advice businesses for much longer than that.
“We have taken the opportunity to broaden our offering in the Responsible investing area through the launch of the Responsible Growth Portfolio, which means we can offer advisers four RSMR Responsible portfolios, risk profiled by Dynamic Planner within risk levels 4, 5, 6 and 7.”
See also: – RSMR: ESG as a risk factor
RSMR currently has 44 Responsible rated funds, since launching the service in 2012, and these are each categorised as either Ethical, Sustainable, Thematic or Impact.
Smith said: “ESG factors represent potential risks to any fund’s holdings, therefore we consider ESG to be an integral part of the research process for all funds we assess, monitor and ultimately rate.”
The RSMR Responsible MPS range is available on the abrdn Wrap, abrdn Elevate, Aviva, FundsNetwork, Nucleus, Quilter and Transact platforms.
The annual DFM management charge for the RSMR MPS is 0.15% with no VAT.
