AWARDS FOR DISTINCTION 2021
Kenny Ho CEO and managing partner, Carret Private
CARRET PRIVATE In a world where many of the major asset classes are teetering at record high valuations amid torrents of monetary stimulus, Carret Private is taking a very different approach to preserving and growing its clients’ capital. The independent wealth manager, which focuses on serving family offices across Asia, takes a client-centric approach to portfolio construction. Rather than drawing up a portfolio that takes a top-down view on asset classes, Carret Private instead amalgamates clients’ risk tolerance, return expectation and liquidity requirements to deliver customised portfolios that withstand drawdowns and deliver long-term returns. The investment team at Carret Private does not believe in market timing or individual stock picking, but rather shaping the equity portion of any portfolio around capturing alpha via secular trends such as the digital economy and ageing populations. For the fixed income components of its DPM offerings, Carret Private takes the view that structural near-zero interest rates have diluted not only return potential but also any diversification benefits and so instead uses low-cost ETFs to give clients exposure to quality Asian investment-grade issuers and select high-yield names. But it is on the alternative investments side that Carret Private has excelled in delivering alpha to clients. Through its industry network, the independent wealth advisor has been able to source private equity deals and hedge funds not typically available to traditional private bank clients. While Carret Private is strategy agnostic, it has consistently proved itself capable of sourcing hedge fund managers with a track record of outperforming the market and peers on a risk adjusted basis. Performance data shared with Asian Private Banker showed that a basket of hedge funds chosen by Carret Private delivered better annualised returns than a 50% global equity, 50% global bond portfolio with a much lower average drawdown and a higher Sharpe ratio.
“Strategically, Carret Private has been increasing the resources it invests in discretionary portfolio management, which has resulted in even better and more consistent, risk adjusted returns. As an added bonus, we are very excited to receive this tremendous honour from Asian Private Banker, the leading wealth management publication Asia.” - Kenny Ho, CEO and managing partner, Carret Private
By investing its own capital alongside that of investors, the approach of Carret Private’s management to DPM benefits from a significant alignment of interests. That philosophy helped to generate significant alpha for Carret Private’s DPM clients during the period under review. A global equity-focused portfolio constructed by the independent wealth manager significantly outperformed the MSCI World Index on time frames including one-, three- and five-years. A global multiasset portfolio built by the firm has likewise generated impressive relative returns for clients. According to figures shared with Asian Private Banker during the judging process, Carret Private’s penetration rate for its DPM strategy — both in terms of its client base and the AUM — was the highest among all submissions. The judging panel was equally impressed by the overall net inflows into Carret Private’s DPM strategy and its return on assets during the period under consideration. That is why Carret Private is named Asian Private Banker’s Best Independent Wealth Manager – Discretionary Portfolio Management at the 2021 Awards for Distinction.
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