What is multi-management?

Multi-management strategy is based on the age-old wisdom of not investing all your eggs in one basket. Asset managers tend to have differing views of the investable universe and therefore they will outperform or underperform at different times.

Multi-managers specialise in constructing portfolios using a number of different specialist asset managers and combine these appropriately into one composite multi-manager portfolio. By spreading your investment across a number of asset managers, multi-managers reduce the risk that investors who invest solely with one asset manager are exposed to.

One of the key potential disadvantages inherent in certain multi-manager portfolios is that an additional layer of fees is charged by the multi-manager which may increase the total cost of your investment. However, this is generally only the case with smaller multi-managers as larger multi-managers are able to negotiate favourable fees from asset managers due to the size of the investments placed. In many cases these discounts can actually lead to an effective reduction in the total cost to you when compared to the cost you would have been exposed to if you had invested directly with the asset manager.

Ci only provides hosting and co-naming services to multi-managers who have at least R500 million worth of investments under management. Furthermore, the Ci institutional portfolios are specifically designed to take advantage of the aggregate value of assets that Ci and its partners manage with a view to reducing the total expense ratios that investors are exposed to.