The report outline & research methodology can be accessed here, while the following insights provide a small taste of the content
“What a difference a year makes. Last year fund managers bathed in the glow of strong markets and strong investor inflows. Twelve months later they’ve experienced not quite an annus horribilus, but pretty close. For the year to December 2022, turbulent markets sliced $75bn (8.3%) off the industry’s addressable pie. The only positive, if it can be called one, was that net flows didn’t entirely follow suit. At +$2bn, versus $62bn in 2021, they represented a miserly organic growth rate of 0.2%.”
“A total of 140 pooled investment products were launched in 2022 across a range of asset classes, with an aggregated ‘asset allocation’ akin to a mix between a multi-asset balanced fund and a multi-asset growth fund. In a major departure from 2021, almost 50% of products were targeting a perceived supply gap or scarcity opportunity, while the remainder were targeting specific investment thematics or where the manager’s objectives were unclear.” More importantly, with the gestation between product ideation and go-to-market launch averaging 12+ months, at a time of rapidly shifting market conditions, are these the right products for this time?”