Consensus funds

[thatbeatsall]

I'm interested in investing some of my pension money in a consensus fund. I can choose between Irish Life's Consensus fund and Bank of Ireland's Consensus fund. Is there any difference? Which is better?

 

[peno]

Why a consensues fund? A consensues fund trackets the average fund manager so you get the average of the bad and the good.

You should try to select a "good manager" not a good "consensues fund". A good consensues fund will only give the average return of managed funds. But your return is being diminsihed by poor performing funds which the fund must track.

Baffles me why people still invest in these funds. People seem to go for them as they are perceived as safer funds. But they are only safe against tracking the market average. If the market performs badly so do you. So this theory shouldn't hold up.

Advice would be to consider waht asset class (bonds equities etc) is suited to your position and then pick a good active manager.

 

[jpd]

... then pick a good active manager.

I am very interested in how you go about doing this ?

 

[thatbeatsall]

There are no really good active managers in Ireland, that's why I'm driven to a consensus fund. There may be decent managers in the wider world but they're not available to me!

 

[upport]

A consensus fund avoids picking the worst performing fund manager.Irish life's cf is over 10 years in existance,I think BoI's was launched about a year ago.

 

[Cameo]

Irish Managed Consensus funds invest about 78% in equities, 14% in bonds, 6% in property and the rest in cash.

Is this asset mix appropriate given your investment objectives?

Decision as to which assets to invest in is much more important than which manager to choose. Asset mix is likely to affect your achieved returns far more than choosing manager A over manager B.