Managing Partners Limited (MPL), the boutique fund manager, has appointed Graeme Duncan as Financial Director as the company continues its expansion spurred by growing investor interest in its traded policy funds (TLPs), which offer steady, predictable returns. 

Graeme Duncan has joined from asset management group SGI-management in Hong Kong, where he was Finance & Operations Director. Between 2001 and 2005 he was financial services audit manager for KPMG in Hong Kong.

He qualified as a chartered accountant with Simpson Forsyth in Aberdeen.  Graeme will divide his time between MPL’s Hong Kong and

London offices, reporting directly to the company’s Managing Director, Jeremy Leach. 

Jeremy commented: “MPL is a fast expanding business, spurred by growing interest in TLPs as an asset class. Investors are increasingly looking to TLPs to provide steady predictable returns and give their portfolios stability after the severe losses they have suffered in the mainstream asset classes in recent years.

Graeme is highly talented and will play a key part in our continued expansion at a time when many other asset managers have seen sharp falls in their assets under management.” TLPs are US-issued whole of life policies sold before their maturity date to allow the original owners to enjoy some of the benefits during their own lifetimes. By building diversified portfolios of them and carrying out the right actuarial analysis, fund managers can use them to deliver steady, incremental returns that are uncorrelated to other financial asset classes. 

For example, the GBP Growth share class in MPL’s Traded Policies Fund, which is available to retail investors, returned 10.47% net of all charges in the 12 months to 1 January 2009. The GBP Institutional share class delivered 10.56% net of all charges over the same period. The returns make the fund one of the outstanding performers of 2008, which saw many funds deliver double-digit losses as their underlying asset classes plummeted for the second year in a row. 

This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 6:01 am and is filed under Managing Partners News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.