Configure Bespoke Portfolios in Minutes. Model Portfolios are Passé.

Synonyms

custom–made (also bespoken), custom, customized, custom-tailored, made-to-order, tailored, tailor-made

Related Words

particular, special, specialized; custom-built, handcrafted, handmade; made-to-measure

Every investor has preferences such as tolerance for risk, investment horizon, liquidity requirements, aspirations for a targeted return, choice of alternative assets as well as levels of annual portfolio turnover for tax planning purposes amongst others. A bespoke asset allocation approach takes these into account. ActiveAllocator allows for:

Selecting portfolio risk target range – whether one has a low, medium or high risk tolerance or one can specify a clear number.

Specifying maximum levels of illiquidity – the level of illiquidity a client is comfortable with.

Setting limits on alternative investments and types – some investors believe in passive management while many others see value in actively managed Alternative Investments as well as actively managed funds are valuable complements to traditional stock and bond holdings for affluent investors. However, including them in portfolios is extremely difficult. One reason is their heterogeneity and complexity. Another is that Modern Portfolio Theory or MPT, does not work in holistic asset allocation. But simply excluding them in model portfolios curtails investor choice and their potential benefits.

Providing for maximum turnover – some prefer to own allocations that remain largely static while others are comfortable with higher levels of turnover.

Targeting returns – clients often have a general expectation of expected target return. Most clients see historical realized returns but wish they had a way to automatically calculate the target return of their existing holdings as a useful starting point.

Setting an investment horizon – clients have different investing horizons which can heavily influence choices in both asset allocation and portfolio construction.

Asset class exposure constraints – the maximum or a minimum amount of exposure to any asset class.

 

Author: Sameer_Jain

Partner. Sameer Jain is founder of FinTech ActiveAllocator.com, the world’s first portal that seamlessly integrates traditional, illiquid and alternative investments within portfolios. Prior to this he was Chief Economist & Managing Director at AR Capital. Before that he headed Investment Content & Strategy at UBS Alternative Investments. At UBS, he served as a non-voting member of the Wealth Management Research investment committee, and as a capital allocator was responsible for all illiquid investing including fund manager selection and due diligence across the platform. Prior to UBS he headed product development & investment research at Citigroup Alternative Investments that managed over $75 billion of alternative investments across hedge funds, managed futures, private equity, credit structures, infrastructure and real estate. Here he led a team that developed proprietary models for portfolio strategy and asset allocation with alternative investments, provided investment support and research to pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, endowments as well as internal clients including Citi Private Bank. Before this he was with Cambridge Alternative Investments and SunGard (System Access) where he travelled to over 80 countries for work across Europe, Asia, Middle-East and Africa. He has written over 30 academic and practitioner articles on alternative investments with thousands of downloads at SSRN, presented at over a hundred industry conferences and has coauthored a book, Active Equity Management. Mr. Jain has multiple degrees in engineering, management, public administration and policy and is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. He is a recipient of the Alfred Sloan Fellowship and subsequently was a Fellow of Public Policy and Management at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government for a year. He holds Series 7 and 66 securities licenses.

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