As part of Royal London’s ongoing governance reviews, the insurer has announced changes to its Governed Portfolio fund range, taking effect from 18 November 2024. The rationale is to make the Governed Range easier to understand to investors, as well as to align the funds better with advice processes.
What are the changes?
Royal London has announced that some of its Governed Portfolios (GP) will be merged where they have similar objectives and portfolios, as well as the same risk profiles, whilst the fund’s names will also be changed to better reflect their respective level of investment risk. The changes are as follows:
- GP 3 to be renamed as GP Defensive
- GP 6 to be renamed as GP Conservative
- GP 9 and GP 2 to be merged and renamed as GP Moderate
- GP 1 and GP 5 to be merged and renamed as GP Growth
- GP 8 and GP 4 to be merged and renamed as GP Enhanced
- GP 7 to be renamed as GP Dynamic
Royal London’s simplified Governed Portfolio range
Source: www.royallondon.com
Origen comments
It is important to note that there will be no changes to the underlying investments or portfolios, and the investment style and management will also remain the same. As a result, the risk profile of each fund also remains unchanged. Each Governed Portfolio will continue to be actively managed by the same specialists, with ongoing governance still being provided by the independently led Investment Advisory Committee.
The changes to fund names is sensible, as the new names provide much greater clarity around their level of risk, particularly as the former numbered approach was much less clear, notably as it didn’t represent a sliding scale across the range. For example, GP 6 was higher risk than GP 3 but lower than GP 2. Furthermore, there are no issues with funds being merged as in each case they are very similar, if not the same.
As there are no changes to the investment portfolios, process or risk profiles, the renaming of the funds should mean the range is easier to understand. Therefore at this time we do not have any concerns over Royal London’s changes to its Governed Portfolio range. CA12514 Exp:11/25
