“Real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.”

Sir David Attenborough

Aim of Portfolio

 AimBenchmarkTime frameRisk/VolatilityExclusionsCapital at risk
Cautious Positive Impact PortfolioTo deliver a return of between 6% and 8% gross over the long term. In a normalised environment, this should be above the higher rate of cash or inflation. Royal London UK FTSE4 Good Index Fund.10-years plusThis is our lowest-risk exclusionary strategy.
 
This is best suited to more risk-averse investors. It has a higher weighting to defensive assets such as fixed income (bonds) and tangible assets (infrastructure and property) and a lower exposure to traditional UK and international growth assets.
YesYes

For more information click here

About the Portfolio

The name, Positive Impact Portfolio, reflects a desire to achieve positive outcomes for the environment and society without sacrificing returns.

To this end, we build the investments first; whether they fall into the ethical, sustainable or impact bucket is almost irrelevant. We take a blended approach to deliver the best outcomes and the chart below shows the current split between buckets in our Cautious Positive Impact Portfolio.

More details on our approach can be found here

Making a difference

We use analysis from BlackRock for the portfolio. The latest data is shown below based on the holdings as at 1 July 2023.

Split by funds within the Portfolio (as at 1 July 2023)

Fund NamePercentage Holding
Fixed Interest
Rathbone Ethical Bond Fund6.75%KIID
Aegon Ethical Corporate Bond Fund6.75%KIID
Brown Advisory Global Sustainable Total Return Bond Fund5.50%KIID
Alternatives
Greencoat UK Wind PLC7.50%Documents
The Renewables Infrastructure Group Limited7.50%Documents
JLEN Enviromental Assets Group Limited7.50%Documents
Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure Trust10.50%Documents
VT Gravis Clean Energy Income Fund7.50%KIID
Equity Exposure
Premier Miton Responsible UK Equity Fund3.00%KIID
Royal London Sustainable Leaders Fund3.00%KIID
Abrdn Europe ex UK Ethical Equity Fund3.00%KIID
Liontrust Sustainable Future European Growth Fund3.00%KIID
Legg Mason ClearBridge US Equity Sustainability Leaders Fund6.00%KIID
Baillie Gifford Positive Change Fund3.00%KIID
Ninety-One Global Enviroment Fund3.00%KIID
Regnan Global Equity Impact Solutions Fund3.00%KIID
Sarasin Responsible Global Equity Fund3.00%KIID
LF Montanaro Better World Fund3.00%KIID
Alquity Asia Fund5.00%KIID
FP Carmignac Emerging Markets Fund5.00%KIID

Portfolio Review

The Big PictureOctober 2023
Market OverviewOctober 2023
Portfolio UpdateOctober 2023
FE Analytics – LWM Cautious Positive Impact Portfolio ReviewOctober 2023
Quarterly Portfolio UpdateJuly 2023
Quarterly Market UpdateJuly 2023
FE Analytics OverviewJuly 2023
Quarterly Portfolio UpdateApril 2023
Quarterly Market UpdateApril 2023
FE Analytics Overview April 2023
Quarterly Portfolio UpdateJanuary 2022
Quarterly Market UpdateJanuary 2022
Morningstar Quarter 4 2022 Portfolio Overview January 2022

Performance:

The Portfolio was launched on 1 July 2020. The chart shows the total return up to 30 September 2023.

 Total Return Since LaunchAnnualised Return Since Launch
Cautious Positive Impact Portfolio-1.96%-0.61% p.a.
LWM Benchmark35.68%9.85% p.a.
 202120222023Since Launch
Cautious Positive Impact Portfolio9.06%-17.17-4.14%-0.61% p.a.
LWM Benchmark16.24%1.15%5.50%9.85% p.a.
 1 Year to 30/09/211 Year to 30/09/221 Year to 30/09/23
Cautious Positive Impact Portfolio12.22%-13.32%-4.22%
LWM Benchmark23.84%-2.26%14.97%

Volatility

You should note that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns and the value of your investments can fall as well as rise. The total return reflects performance without sales charges or the effects of taxation, but is adjusted to reflect all on-going fund expenses and assumes reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. If adjusted for sales charges and the effects of taxation, the performance quoted would be reduced.

Important notes

What is the difference between the aim of the strategies and benchmark?

The target or aim is to deliver returns of 6% to 8% p.a. over ten years. This includes the fund charges but not our fees and platform charges.

How do we test these figures?

We follow the BlackRock Capital Market Assumptions https://www.blackrock.com/institutions/en-zz/insights/charts/capital-market-assumptions

These outline the long-term asset return expectations. The current return expectations for the portfolios are:

 Return
Cautious Positive Impact Portfolio7.01% p.a.
Balanced Positive Impact Portfolio7.05% p.a.
Adventurous Positive Impact Portfolio7.39% p.a.

Would we review the expectations?

If the market expectations for returns are reduced, we will reduce our long-term return profile. We review this quarterly, and although the long-term market expectations have come down, they are still within the 6% to 8% target.

Do we guarantee a return of 6% to 8% p.a. over a ten-year period?

This is our stated aim. We do not guarantee this.

Why do we have a benchmark?

The benchmark is a measure of performance.

We use the Royal London UK FTSE4 Good Index Fund as the benchmark across all the portfolios. We aim to deliver a return of between 6% and 8% p.a. over ten years.

The FTSE4 Good Index can include some fossil fuels, but it is the closest match we can use. Below is the methodology they use.

It does have exclusions:

We don’t have a ten-year track record on the Balanced Positive Impact Portfolio, and the Cautious and Adventurous Portfolios were only launched in 2020. The table shows performance over three years, five years, and since launch (for the Balanced version, this was 1st August 2014).

 3-years (p.a.)5-years (p.a.)Since Launch (p.a.)
Cautious Positive Impact Portfolio-2.54%-0.61%
Benchmark11.13%9.85%
    
Balanced Positive Impact Portfolio-1.86%1.95%6.16%
Benchmark11.13%3.76%4.86%
    
Adventurous Positive Impact Portfolio-0.72%1.51%
Benchmark11.13%9.85%
    

How do we measure performance?

Portfolio Level

We have several touchpoints when monitoring performance:

  1. We monitor performance monthly.
  2. We have an internal monthly investment risk matrix. Within this, we monitor the target return and compare the performance to a range of discretionary managed portfolios.
  3. We update the website quarterly with performance data and provide updates.
  4. From September to February, we conduct a comprehensive review of the portfolios and rebalance on 1 July each year (subject to your approval).

The primary focus of this work is to understand periods of underperformance and adjust where we see appropriate.

For example, we increased exposure to fixed income (debt) in 2023 to reflect higher interest rates and a more conducive environment for these investments.

Fund Level

At a minimum, we review all the funds within the portfolios once a year. We write up the notes from these reviews which are available on the website.

Although we consider more extended-term performance, we also look at short-term performance to understand the reasons for any underperformance or sudden spike. We may change the strategy where we feel that there is a long-term shift in the environment, where we think the investment will no longer be appropriate, if there are better opportunities, or where there has been a significant change to the operation of the strategy.

For example, with higher interest rates, the availability of cash will naturally be limited, meaning companies needing money to develop will find it harder. Therefore, we have increased our exposure to “quality” and reduced our exposure to strategies that carry higher risk with more innovative and cash-poor companies.

Charges

The performance data includes the fund charges but not the platform and LWM fees. Fees are fully disclosed. Below are the fund fees as of 30 September 2023 provided by Trustnet.

 Fund fees
Cautious Portfolio0.74%
Balanced Portfolio0.80%
Moderately Adventurous Portfolio0.89%
Adventurous Portfolio0.90%
  
Cautious Positive Impact Portfolio0.94%
Balanced Positive Impact Portfolio0.91%
Adventurous Positive Impact Portfolio0.91%
  
Income Portfolio0.99%
Positive Impact Income Portfolio1.06%

We review our charges within the Consumer Duty Fair Value Assessment. We also disclose under transparency on the website.

Performance

You should note that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns and the value of your investments can fall as well as rise. LWM only invests in UK based investments although some funds / assets may have overseas holdings, the performance of funds / assets where some holdings are denominated in foreign currencies will also be subject to variations in currency rates.

Factsheets

These factsheets are provided by third parties for information. LWM is not responsible for these factsheets, has not reviewed them, and accepts no liability in connection with your use of them or any of their content. These factsheets display the fund manager’s standard retail charges and please note that product charges and fees may replace the charges displayed.