[Panel] Multi-Asset Strategies: Diversifying for Uncertainty

In a year that has seen the $5tr Global ETF industry go from strength to strength, hear the opinion from thought leaders and industry insiders as to what drove that success.

You'll learn which new investment themes were launched in 2018, which ETFs gathered the most assets and returns and where the ETF market is heading in 2019.

With so many products to choose from hear the views of our panel as to what the industry trends will be in the year ahead.

Via our panel of investment professionals you will learn about the different ways that these diversified investment funds can be deployed in both bullish and bearish markets.


Allan Lane - Moderator (Co-Founder of Algo-Chain)
James McManus - Head of ETF Research - Nutmeg
Hector McNeil - Co CEO - HANetf
Irene Bauer - CIO Twenty20 Investments
John Swolfs - CEO Inside ETFs

Seilern Investment Management is an asset manager based in London that specializes in long-only equity investments. The investment strategy focuses exclusively on quality & growth stocks, and takes a long-term view.

At the heart of Seilern Investment Management lies an unwavering conviction in its investment philosophy as well as a disciplined and process driven approach to executing its strategy.

Michael Faherty, portfolio manager of Stryx World Growth, and Tassilo Seilern, Head of Research, will discuss the philosophy behind the funds, and the types of quality-growth companies that they look for.

The Heptagon Future Trends Fund provides investors with access to a high-conviction, concentrated portfolio of global equities that are exposed to a diverse set of themes, all of which look set to grow in importance.

The team at Heptagon Capital has been writing proprietary thematic commentaries on topics as varied as robotics and molecular diagnostics for the last seven years.

Heptagon subsequently launched a UCITS fund centred on its best-of-breed ideas derived from this research at the start of 2016. The Fund focuses on a wide number of themes (currently 12), but invests exclusively in businesses that offer pure-play exposure to the trends in question (defined as at least 75% revenue being theme-derived).

All of the businesses in which the Fund invests are market leaders in their respective fields, spending above-average levels of research and development in order to sustain their dominant position.

Leading plays on cybersecurity, alternative energy, and robotic-assisted surgery have been the biggest contributors to returns over the past year, highlighting the diversity of the Fund.

As Brexit approaches, some banks are relocating, currencies are fluctuating, and markets are moving as well - are there any possible scenarios are not priced into the market?

This webinar will cover:
The current state of negotiations.
Who will win and who will lose if brexit happens - and if it doesn't.
How Investment Managers are doing scenario planning.

Panellists
Jon 'JB' Beckett, Senior Manager - Fund Manager Assessment, Scottish Widows
James Alexander, UK Wealth and Asset Management, Accenture

Join Jeff Gitterman, Gitterman Wealth Management, Martina MacPherson, President, Network for Sustainable Financial Markets, Brace Young, Arabesque Asset Management, and Paul Ellis, Host of The Sustainable Finance Podcast on BrightTALk, for a review of industry growth in 2018 and the global outlook for key developments in 2019.

Sustainable, responsible and impact investing strategies grew to $12 trillion in the two years from January 2016 to January 2018, a 38% increase that represents 26%, or one in every four dollars, of total U.S. assets under professional management.

The BrightTALK Q4 ESG investing webinar will feature advice for 2019 investment allocation from leading financial advisors and asset managers who specialize in sustainable and impact portfolio strategies. Their clients include institutions, family offices and mass affluent investors, many of whom are integrating global sustainability frameworks like the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their mission-based and personal values focused due diligence process.

This has been a highly extended global economic cycle led by the US. Its longevity has been due to a number of factors including unorthodox monetary policy, fiscal stimulus and an absence of the exuberance that typically precedes a market reversal. The panellists will debate which factors are likely to drive markets over the next 12 months. They will cover key issues such as:

* The underlying strength of the US economy and the timing, and potential causes, of recession

* Evidence of inflationary pressure and the consequent impact on economies and markets of any reduction in liquidity

* Whether the downtrend in labour’s share of income is likely to reverse

* The outlook for the US dollar and the emerging markets

The panellists will discuss what the market currently discounts and how their views differ from this consensus. They will give their views on the asset allocation and style, region and sector exposures that are likely to offer the best (and worst) combination of risk and reward in this environment. They will finish by suggesting their own possible surprises for 2019. These are outcomes which the market believes have no better than a one in four chance but which the panellists believe have a probability of 50% or more.

Justin Simler, Industry Expert
Lars Kreckel, Global Equity Strategist, Legal and General Investment Management
Chris Watling, CEO & Chief Market Strategist, Longview Economics
Lothar Mentel, Chief Investment Officer, Tatton Investment Management