International Sustainable Model Portfolios
Investing with purpose: four actively-managed portfolios with people and planet in mind. Available in sterling share class.
Actively managed
Four portfolios spanning different assets, managers and styles - all in line with our commitment to sustainable values; available in sterling base currency.
Sustainability reporting
Our reporting highlights the potential costs and benefits that your clients’ investments have on people and planet.
A focus on cost
Our Ongoing Charge Figure (OCF) includes our model portfolio fee of just 0.15%.
A wide range, a clear objective
From green funds to impact investing, our sustainable model portfolios give your clients exposure to a diverse range of purposeful investments – multi-asset, multi-manager, multi-styled.
Certain funds in the portfolios also screen out investments like fossil fuels, weapons and tobacco.
"These portfolios appeal to resident non-domiciled investors who want to leave a positive mark on the world while meeting their financial goals.”
Portfolio Manager, Schroder Investment Solutions
Risk considerations
Counterparty risk: The portfolios may have contractual agreements with counterparties. If a counterparty is unable to fulfil their obligations, the sum that they owe to the portfolios may be lost in part or in whole. Credit risk: A decline in the financial health of an issuer could cause the value of the instruments it issues, such as equities or bonds, to fall or become worthless. Currency risk: The portfolios may lose value as a result of movements in foreign exchange rates, otherwise known as currency rates. Derivatives risk: Derivatives, which are financial instruments deriving their value from an underlying asset, may be used to manage the portfolios efficiently. The portfolios may also materially invest in derivatives including using short selling and leverage techniques with the aim of making a return. A derivative may not perform as expected, may create losses greater than the cost of the derivative and may result in losses to the portfolios. Equity risk: Equity prices fluctuate daily, based on many factors including general, economic, industry or company news. High yield bond risk: High yield bonds (normally lower rated or unrated) generally carry greater market, credit and liquidity risk meaning greater uncertainty of returns. Interest rate risk: The portfolios may lose value as a direct result of interest rate changes. Leverage risk: The portfolios use derivatives for leverage, which makes them more sensitive to certain market or interest rate movements and may cause above-average volatility and risk of loss. Liquidity risk: In difficult market conditions, the portfolios may not be able to sell a security for full value or at all. This could affect performance and could cause the portfolios to defer or suspend redemptions of its shares, meaning investors may not be able to have immediate access to their holdings. Money market & deposits risk: A failure of a deposit institution or an issuer of a money market instrument could have a negative impact on the performance of the portfolios. Negative yields risk: If interest rates are very low or negative, this may have a negative impact on the performance of the portfolios. Performance risk: Investment objectives express an intended result but there is no guarantee that such a result will be achieved. Depending on market conditions and the macro economic environment, investment objectives may become more difficult to achieve. Sustainable investing risk: The portfolios apply sustainability criteria in its selection of investments. This investment focus may limit the portfolios’ exposure to companies, industries or sectors and the fund may forego investment opportunities that do not align with its sustainability criteria chosen by the investment manager. As investors may differ in their views of what constitutes sustainability, the portfolios may invest in companies that do not reflect the beliefs or values of any particular investor.
The three pillars of investing
We need to go further than the classic risk and return paradigm when weighing up an investment. Impact is the third pillar that helps us assess the broader consequence an investment has on society and the environment. This includes both positive effects, such as contributing to sustainable development, and negative ones, like potential environmental damage. This approach allows us to better align investments with your clients' objectives.
Finding leading, sustainability-focused managers
We pool knowledge from across Schroders to pinpoint the best active managers with defined sustainability or impact goals. On top of that, we look for:
- a repeatable investment philosophy
- a sound risk management process
- a strong and incentivised investment team
- a record of consistent outperformance.
This means your clients get diversified, multi-asset portfolios spanning different risk levels and investment styles – but all with sustainable objectives in mind.
Finding leading, sustainability-focused managers
- Our first step is to look through all the funds available in the UK
- We assess them quantitively and qualitatively:
- on performance, risk and asset allocation
- on their team, philosophy and processes
- We take a firm-wide look at their sustainability credentials, for example:
- what does their thought leadership say on the topic?
- how do their voting records look in the annual report?
- do they have a sustainable investment policy?
- At a fund level we evaluate:
- the fund’s objectives and goals
- the investment style and process
- how the fund compares up to its peers
A finely-tuned balance
To help us make the right decisions with strategic asset allocations, our extensive asset class research forms the base of our investment philosophy. By understanding how assets typically behave over time, we can build portfolios that maximise returns for each level of risk.
There is a choice of four portfolios. At one end is the Cautious Portfolio, which is designed to be more defensive with a higher weight to assets such as bonds and cash. At the other end there is the Adventurous Portfolio, which is designed to deliver longer-term returns through a higher holding in growth assets like equities. Each of the portfolios in the range takes a different level of risk, which means you can choose the one that best meets your clients' needs.
An illustration of how our strategic asset allocation may look is below.
Platform availability
Here’s where you can access our International Sustainable Model Portfolios. We don’t endorse or recommend these platforms.
