Am I overlapping ?

Venomspread3r

Hello everybody I hope you're all doing well.
Thanks to the help of the friendly folk here I'm well on my way to setting up my LGPS AVC Via my money Matters.

I've been scouring their funds and I'm drawn to two of them I'm looking at setting and forgetting for the next 10 years at least (I'll look at adding securities etc after this)  and aggressively attacking equities.

BUT I'm stuck between two options:

1] Blackrock all world ex UK (I believe this tracks the FTSE all world ex UK) 

2] HSBC Islamic Global Equity fund 

My whole portfolio will  is an 80% Funds 20% Gold l

What's your thoughts on 40% In both BlackRock & Islamic equity fund.?

OR am I massively overlapping ?

Many thanks.

leosayer

You might get some more helpful responses if you outline your reasons for selecting those 2 funds, particularly given the ex-UK and Islamic nature.

Also, why have such a large gold allocation?

Linton

1) The Blackrock fund is OK, though why no UK?  Better in my view to get a simple all world tracker.

2) The islamic fund should be avoided unless it is a religious requirement and/or you understand and accept its problems.  The main one is that it is 38% invested in large Tech companies and 80% US.  This makes it potentially highly volatile.  The problem arises from areas that should form diversifying core holdings, in particular finance, being deemed unsuitable.

In addition anything it does hold will also be in the Blackrock fund.

Venomspread3r

Thankyou guys for the swift responses it's very much appreciated.

Firstly it would seem of the higher risk options that Prudential are offering these are the only two of course I'd rather the uk not be excluded but this to me seems to me (of course I could be wrong) the only all world (although they aren't all world funds as they exclude the UK) I can see that are available.

I've attached a picture (see below) 

Point taken regarding the Islamic heavy tech/us allocation.

As for 20% gold this is my preference to Bonds but I'm not adverse to having 10% bonds 10% gold.

Ill be honest I'm playing catch-up I'm 41 years of age and with only my work place pension - I've cleared ally debt (finally) I have my emergency fund and now I'm finally addressing extra pension contributions via a shared cost AVC so I'm topping up extra to my pension via that route. 

Marcon

Prudential Dynamic Global Equity Passive Fund includes UK and is in the same 'risk' class as the two you've said you are considering - ditto Prudential Positive Impact Fund.

Or you could put some of your cash into one of the two 'higher risk' funds, particularly give your age?

Venomspread3r

Hi @Macron thanks for the reply.
I'm more than happy with the risk with the top risk ones but they are predominantly UK based which I find strange why.
I'm not sure why there isn't an option that doesn't just include the UK or exclude it I'm not sure of the reasoning.

But I see what you mean maybe like a 50/50 
With black rock excluding UK (high risk - medium high risk) and the Prudential UK equity index fund (high Risk)?

The Prudential dynamic global equity passive fund looks a solid all rounder though as you mentioned.
But even this doesn't have that much America in it. It's very strange.

Linton

Venomspread3r said:

Hi @Macron thanks for the reply.
I'm more than happy with the risk with the top risk ones but they are predominantly UK based which I find strange why.
I'm not sure why there isn't an option that doesn't just include the UK or exclude it I'm not sure of the reasoning.

But I see what you mean maybe like a 50/50 
With black rock excluding UK (high risk - medium high risk) and the Prudential UK equity index fund (high Risk)?

The Prudential dynamic global equity passive fund looks a solid all rounder though as you mentioned.
But even this doesn't have that much America in it. It's very strange.

Information on Prudential dynamic global equity passive seems difficult to find but I think the fund is actively managed switching between passive funds for each geography.  It is currently 30% UK and 16% US with smaller %s in many other countries.  So it is not a global index fund.

Venomspread3r

You're correct @Linton it's very strange that there is no All world alternative - I guess in the best case scenario here I go for blackrock ex UK and the UK Equity fund that insures I have the world (too much UK for my liking ).

I understand not being too UK bias but to dismiss it totally seems a bit strange. 

But what do I know haha 

Another thing I could do I guess is go with black rock ex UK and get my UK exposure on another platform but I'd have preferred to get this all sorted in my AVC. 
For the set & forget aspect.

leosayer

Venomspread3r said:

You're correct @Linton it's very strange that there is no All world alternative - I guess in the best case scenario here I go for blackrock ex UK and the UK Equity fund that insures I have the world (too much UK for my liking ).

I understand not being too UK bias but to dismiss it totally seems a bit strange. 

But what do I know haha 

Another thing I could do I guess is go with black rock ex UK and get my UK exposure on another platform but I'd have preferred to get this all sorted in my AVC. 
For the set & forget aspect.

The ex-UK fund allows investors to set their own international and UK equity allocations to cater for investors who have home bias. For example, home bias is built in to the equity exposure on Vanguard LifeStrategy funds at 20% UK.

Venomspread3r

I'm sorry @leosayer I'm not sure I understand ? I just thought the BlackRock ex UK was a set index ?? I don't want Home bias I just want a little bit of UK similar to a global all world cap %  I understand America is the powerhouse but just wanted a little bit of UK 

Sarahspangles

Venomspread3r said:

I'm sorry @leosayer I'm not sure I understand ? I just thought the BlackRock ex UK was a set index ?? I don't want Home bias I just want a little bit of UK similar to a global all world cap %  I understand America is the powerhouse but just wanted a little bit of UK 

Yes the individual funds can’t be tailored, there’s always a bit of blurb that explains the fund objectives and that tells you what the fund will invest in. From time to time if you click on the fund holdings you will see the top ten constituent funds or their proportions have changed, but always within the scope of the objectives.

If you are only wanting to choose a couple of funds then you could choose one that is a reasonable fit with your objectives, and have a smaller holding of another that gives the overall balance you want. You can use this sort of tailoring to achieve a specific risk profile (business in the front, party at the back!) or to skew holdings towards or away from a particular geography.

Most of my pot is in medium risk funds but I have my income for next year in a boring money market fund. If you’ve got a while before retirement you can be a bit more adventurous.