Money Marketing Podcast

The MM Podcast: Overcoming Protection Hurdles

In the latest episode of the Money Marketing Podcast, this week in association with Royal London, our panel takes a deep dive into the protection market and how to overcome barriers to sales. Money Marketing editor Justin Cash is joined by Addidi Wealth's Anna Sofat, Richmond House's Ian Jenkins and Royal London's Vincent O'Connor to discuss their greatest protection victories and how advisers can communicate the real benefits of cover to their clients.

How to access Indian turnaround in corporate profitability?

The Neptune India fund has seen inflows of over £90m since the start of the year, and a lot of these came from investors looking for foreign funds in the wake of the EU referendum. Kunal Desai, the head of Indian equities at Neptune Asset Management explains to investment reporter Valentina Romeo how the Indian economy is enjoying structural growth with a closer look at the sharp turnaround in companies' earnings. Kunal's £120m fund is a concentrated portfolio of 30 to 50 stocks with a turnover of 10 per cent. The fund manager says despite the fund being mostly mid-cap biased, the companies he looks at are set to become blue-chip firms in the next ten years. The fund has returned 30.5 per cent over one year period, compared to the 8.9 per cent of the IA Specialist sector, according to Morningstar.

Are smart beta strategies mainstream or still niche?

In 2016 more than €6bn has been added to smart beta strategies. But have advisers embraced the trend or are smart beta products still in their infancy? Elsewhere, other investment strategies this year had a lot to do with inflation protection, following the very high monetary policy intervention from central banks around the world. Investment reporter Valentina Romeo speaks to Lyxor ETF's head of Northern European research Adam Laird about the uptake of smart beta strategies as well as about the latest inflation data and how to invest to protect from it.

Is non-advised drawdown a disaster waiting to happen?

Customers have flooded into drawdown products following the radical pensions reforms. However, many have done so without the help of an adviser. Just Retirement's Steve Lowe, Hargreaves Lansdown's Tom McPhail and IFA Nick McBreen speak to Money Marketing about the risks facing customers and the experience so far.

Is it still a good time to invest in emerging markets?

The growth story in emerging market is still a valid one despite higher recent volatility, says Jupiter's new emerging market fund manager Jason Pidcock, who talks to investment reporter Valentina Romeo about his views on the region. Pidcock, who has been investing in emerging markets for over 20 years, says worries about China and its economic slowdown will remain but in some areas the country will grow faster, such as in tourism. Former Newton fund manager is to launch his Asian Income fund next week, topping key countries such as Australia and the Philippines. He says it is much more profitable to launch a fund in emerging markets after the market has been weak rather than to do so at the top of the market. On Brexit, the fund manager also says he has no concerns on the UK growth rate whatever the outcome of the referendum might be and so he says Asian companies should not be worried about trading with the UK whatever the scenarios.