Eight years strong: How the VT Chelsea Managed funds are delivering on performance, value and peace of mind

2. Income: consistency and growth
A lot of our clients target income offerings, so it made sense to offer them a solution. We chose to go down the monthly income route because, although it is more work, it offers investors the ability to use that income on repeatable events (monthly bills etc). We prided ourselves on accessing a diverse number of income streams, ranging from UK equities to specialist offerings in the likes of infrastructure and renewables. This allowed us to continue paying an income during volatile periods like Covid, when many of our peers had to cut or suspend dividend payments. We pay 11 standard monthly income payments and then a final payment at the end of each year, which is typically larger than the rest. The VT Chelsea Managed Monthly Income fund currently yields 5.83%, and we have successfully grown our dividend payments year on year.

3. Access to managers
One of the benefits of having a business with a legacy dating back more than four decades – and with a strong media presence – is that we often get great access to some of the biggest fund managers in the industry when we need them. The team conduct over 250 fund manager meetings a year to understand a fund’s performance attribution, outlook and any potential red flags which may occur. This was particularly useful in volatile periods, like Covid, to help us understand the individual challenges fund managers were facing and what action we should take.

4. Experience of the team
Darius McDermott, Juliet Schooling Latter, James Yardley and Joss Murphy have over 70 years of combined experience in fund research, experiencing a number of bull and bear markets. The team are also not afraid to challenge one another on their views on sectors, funds and themes to make sure the case for including a holding is rock solid.

5. Diversification and access to specialist investments
One of the things we’ve looked to do since the launch of our own fund range is to find new ideas and sources of growth and income returns which have kept us ahead of our peers.

This drive for new sources of return has seen us find numerous opportunities within specialist investment trusts. Crucially, these trusts have allowed us to diversify our portfolios and reduce the risks from the wider global economy. In the days of low interest rates, they also helped deliver reliable yields at a time when investors had been crying out for them.

Areas we’ve looked at include the likes of investment trusts investing in renewable energies, such as wind farms or solar panels, which have been taking advantage of government subsidies and the drive towards a carbon neutral economy. Other themes include healthcare, infrastructure and even song royalties at one point.

6. Peace of mind
As mentioned, these funds were launched in response to growing demand for a more ongoing service, which made changes both proactively and reactively to events. The funds give us the ability to pivot quickly. For example, if we hear a fund manager has left we can be out of their funds in a couple of hours. We can also react quickly to changes in style, sector or geography to ensure investors are not left behind.

7. Price
When we launched in 2017, the funds were offered at an industry low. The current annual management charge of 0.3% (exclusive of ongoing charges – the price we pay for investing in the underlying funds) is markedly cheaper than a number of peers in the multi-asset space.

8. We are aligned with our investors
Finally, all of our fund management team, staff, friends and family invest in the funds, ensuring our interests are fully aligned with our clients’.

We’re incredibly proud of how well the funds have performed, and we​ are ​very grateful to our customers for placing their trust in us. ​We are committed to delivering strong results for ​o​ur investors, both now and in the future.