Your attitude to risk

We offer a wide range of funds that allows you to make a selection aligned to your investment aims and your appetite for risk. Before investing, it’s important to establish your attitude to risk, understanding that the potential for a good return should be balanced against the fact that you might not get back all of your money.

Risk-reward relationship

You need to achieve a balance between risk and potential reward that you are comfortable with. The riskier the asset, the greater the potential for high returns, but with this comes a greater probability that you could lose some or all of your investment.

Higher risk assets offer a better chance of good returns in the long run, but with a lot more volatility. Lower risk investments such as fixed interest and cash mean less risk to your capital, but also less potential for achieving a higher return.

Risk rating

We allocate a ‘risk rating’ to each of our funds to help you decide if they are suitable for your aims and attitude to risk. There are five grades as follows:

• Grade 1 – funds offering conservative return similar to money market rates
• Grade 2 – low-risk funds offering security and potential growth
• Grade 3 – these funds take a balanced approach to investment by holding a diverse portfolio of assets
• Grade 4 – a more focused asset exposure provides good growth potential with the risk of short-term volatility
• Grade 5 – these aggressive funds balance the risk of high volatility with the potential for high capital growth

Our factsheets show the risk rating for each fund, however we recommend that you discuss the specific risks associated with individual funds with your financial adviser before making any investment decisions.