Co-founder of Affari Miei Independent Financial Advisory Company
October 11, 2023
What are the NEF Funds? Do they agree? NEF funds are investment products that cover asset class main ones: stock funds, bond funds, balanced funds, and even those from ethical sectors are available.
Continue reading the article because I will tell you what it is, I will review some of the funds you can choose from and finally I will tell you mine opinions regarding them.
But now let’s get started!
This article talks about:
What is NEF: the characteristics
NEF is a mutual investment fund under Luxembourg law, multimanager and multi-fund, whose management company is PEOPLE (North East Asset Management SA). The latter does not directly manage the NEF sectors, having chosen to entrust the management to leading international companies.
NEAM was established on 19 May 1999 for an indefinite period to manage the assets of the Fund.
So who manages the fund? NEF is managed by some of the most prestigious Asset Management companies in the world, directly in the main economic capitals: the offer given to investors is precisely this, that is, the advantage of being able to count on qualified decisions, taken by a selection of the best international specialists .
One of the main concepts behind investing with NEF is that it is important to lose as little as possible when the market is negative.
Goals
The objectives of the Fund are to achieve capital appreciation and, with regard to a certain number of Sub-Funds, to pursue an optimization of investment income.
NEF offers a wide choice of different solutions, investing on the main world stock exchanges, in emerging markets and also in a specialized sector such as real estate, distributing any risks between multiple investments and different countries, thus allowing diversification in geographical and sectoral terms .
In fact, with its sub-funds, NEF offers savers the possibility of building a widely diversified portfolio depending on their investment strategy.
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NEF: Proposed Funds
As we mentioned previously, NEF offers the ability to invest across major asset classes.
Being an asset management company that offers many products, we are going to review some of the most searched for funds.
NEF Ethical Global Trends SDG R
This fund is part of the ethical sector. Companies that adopt sustainability principles are those that, in the future, will be structurally advantaged in terms of competitiveness and reliability.
The distinguishing feature of ethical finance is that it must direct investment flows towards activities that meet certain social and environmental responsibility requirements. This is a very widespread concept in finance, especially in recent years.
The Ethical sub-funds therefore allow you to aim to grow investors’ savings by choosing to invest in securities of companies and states that respect principles of social and environmental responsibility.
The fund invests mainly in shares of companies listed on world stock exchanges. The Sub-fund focuses its investments by mainly purchasing shares issued by companies with high quality environmental, social and governance (ESG) profiles and which contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations.
The manager is Niche Asset Management LTD.
The portfolio invests in companies involved in long-term market trends resulting from secular changes in economic and social factors.
A portion of the assets may be invested in equity-related securities, such as convertible bonds. The Fund may also invest in cash and cash equivalents or money market instruments (including third party deposits) in order to efficiently manage the Fund’s liquidity. The Sub-Fund may invest up to 10% in other UCITS or UCIs.
The fund was launched in 2019 and has no currency hedging.
The most important geographical area is Japan, with 16.95% even if the exposure to the Yen is rather limited. In fact, US dollars have the highest exposure: the currency in fact represents 36.81%.
The risk profile is high, equal to 6 on a scale of 1 to 7. As regards returns, we can say that the fund and the benchmark have been more or less equivalent since February 2021.
The fund has a maximum entry fee of 1%, while annual management costs amount to 1.55%.
Ethical Balanced Dynamic R
The bottom is balancedwith the aim of obtaining capital appreciation through active risk allocation.
The fund invests primarily in debt securities and equity instruments.
The bond component it may fluctuate between 40% and 75% (maximum 35% will be in non-investment grade corporate bonds), while the equity component ranges from 25% to 45%.
The risk profile stands at 3on a scale ranging from 1 to 7, so we are on a medium/low risk.
The fund was launched in July 2015, so it is a fairly recent fund.
The benchmark is made up as follows:
15% MSCI WORLD NET TOTAL RETURN EUR INDEX (EUR UNHEDGED);
20% MSCI EMU NET TOTAL RETURN EUR INDEX (EUR UNHEDGED);
15% ICE BOFA EURO CORPORATE INDEX (EUR UNHEDGED);
40% ICE BOFA GLOBAL GOVERNMENT EXCLUDING JAPAN INDEX (EUR UNHEDGED);
10% ICE BOFA EURO TREASURY BILL (EUR UNHEDGED).
As regards the management fees, they are equal to 1.30% per year.
Euro Short Term Bond R
This fund is part of the bond sector and seeks to achieve a medium-term return by investing mainly in transferable money and bond market securities denominated in Euro and investment grade.
The portfolio will be invested exclusively in securities and debt instruments, including bonds, certificates of deposit, depository receipts and all other similar instruments, provided that at the time of purchase by the sub-fund their initial or remaining maturity does not exceeds 36 months, taking into consideration the financial instruments linked to them, and provided that they are governed by terms and conditions which provide that the interest rate applicable to them is adjusted at least annually based on market conditions.
The objective of the sub-fund is to achieve a short-term return through an investment made mainly in transferable securities denominated in euro. The portfolio will be invested in securities with initial or residual duration in line with the benchmark.
The fund is very mature having been launched in 1999, and has no currency risk, so offers currency hedging.
The portfolio’s breakdown by currency is entirely in euros, while the geographical breakdown sees Italy in first place with 29.29%, Spain in second place with 11.05% and France in third place with 10%. ,16%.
The risk profile is low, equal to 2 on a scale of 1 to 7, as it is a fund that invests mainly in bond instruments.
As regards returns over the last year or so, the fund has always overestimated the benchmark.
The fund has a maximum entry fee of 1%, while annual management costs amount to 0.55%.
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Global Equity R
This fund is part of the equity sector. The main characteristic of this sub-fund is that it represents the solution for a highly diversified equity investment.
Management is entrusted to DWS specialists, chosen by NEF administrators both for their professional standards and for their direct presence in the main global financial centers.
Stock selection is based on fundamental data and the analysis of the growth potential of companies to achieve strong sector and currency diversification.
The fund is very mature having been launched in 1999, and is not currency hedged.
The distribution of the portfolio by currency is predominantly towards the US dollar, with 66.44%: the geographical distribution also sees the USA in first place with 62.73%, Germany in second place with 5.51% and third place goes to Japan with 4.59%.
The risk profile is high, equal to 6 on a scale of 1 to 7.
As regards returns over the last year or so, the fund has always overestimated the benchmark.
The fund has a maximum entry fee of 3%, while annual management costs amount to 1.65%.
Savings Italy PIR
This fund is part of the balanced sector, a zero-tax sector that invests in the Italian economy with NEF management quality.
To invest in a balanced fund that is among the qualified investments intended for long-term savings plans (PIR), with the possibility of benefiting from the exemption from taxation on financial income. The Fund adopts an active management style which aims to achieve moderate growth in invested capital, pursuing an investment policy mainly oriented towards financial instruments of Italian companies.
The portfolio combines two components, a bond component, which is prevalent, and an equity component, expected to account for up to 40%. The bond component of the Fund is characterized by an active and diversified management strategy.
The fund was launched in 2017, and has no currency hedging. The portfolio’s breakdown by currency is 100% in the euro currency.
The geographical distribution sees Italy in first place with 77.99%, the USA in second place with 13.65% and Japan in third place with 2.20%.
The risk profile is high, equal to 4 on a scale of 1 to 7, so we are talking about a medium risk.
As for returns, the one-year fund has 16.39% on its side.
The fund has a maximum entry fee of 1%, while annual management costs amount to 1.30%.
NEF Investments: Opinions
Now that you have an idea about NEF Funds, you will surely be wondering if it is an investment that is right for you.
From the analysis we have seen that the annual management costs are quite high: in fact, in most cases we are talking about costs higher than 1.30%, without counting the entry fees which range from 1% to 3%.
As regards the returns, they are also not exactly exciting; doing a quick calculation, investing directly in the ETF that clones the benchmark could have been a better choice, also from a cost point of view. In fact, there are many ETFs that replicate certain benchmarks and have annual commissions of 0.30%.
Analyzing specifically, NEF Funds are passively managed instruments, i.e. they tend to faithfully replicate the reference benchmark: precisely in light of this characteristic we can assert that the costs are decidedly very high for an instrument of this kind.
Overall, therefore, if you want to invest, perhaps it would be better for you to point the finger at ETFs: there too, in fact, you will find ethical funds or funds that invest in shares, bonds, and you can decide which sector to believe in most: furthermore, the management costs will certainly be much lower than these funds.
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I greet you and hope you make the right choice for your budget. See you soon!
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