Southeast Asia-based wealth management platform StashAway reveals that it has introduced three thematic portfolios given its rising popularity that’s starting to eclipse more conventional equity products.
The themes reportedly include tech enablers, the future of consumer technology, as well as healthcare innovation.
StashAway‘s management reveals that the portfolios include ETFs (or exchange-traded-funds) from some of the leading asset managers, such as ARK Invest, iShares, Global X, and VanEck.
The company also noted that the risk management feature of its thematic portfolios differentiates it from similar product offerings that are offered to retail and institutional investors.
The feature allows investors to choose the potential downside they are willing to accept in any given financial year, and then the StashAway platform will aim to maximize the thematic exposure accordingly (as much as possible within those risk parameters).
Since 2018, the amount of assets allocated via thematic funds internationally have been increasing at an annual rate of around 37%. Last year, assets in thematic funds surged by 77%, meanwhile, thematic portfolios have represented almost 40% of equity fund net sales since 2017.
Freddy Lim, Co-founder and CIO at StashAway, stated:
“This gives investors the access to thematic investing without the risk inherent with thematic investing. The remaining non-thematic assets in a portfolio are there to manage risk. We call these non-thematic assets ‘balancing assets’, and their role in our thematic portfolios is just as important as the thematic assets.”
Albert Kok, Deputy Country Manager, Malaysia at StashAway, remarked:
“StashAway’s thematic portfolios will empower Malaysians to invest in promising innovations for the long term. Innovations that aim to shape the future take time to grow and gain market acceptance. So, it’s important for investors to have a long-term mindset when investing in these themes.”