A multi asset fund is a single fund which includes within it a ready-made portfolio of funds from two or more of the 4 key asset classes: Equities, Bonds, Alternatives and Cash.
One way to imagine them is a Burrito with a little bit of everything: meat, veg and sauce (a diversified meal), wrapped up in a tortilla (a single fund wrapper) for convenience and ease of transportation!  Read Henry Cobbe’s view on where ETF asset raising will be strongest in 2026:
https://etfexpress.com/2026/01/11/chapter-2-geographical-split/ 
Find out more about the Elston Smart-Beta UK Dividend Index (ticker: ELSUKI)
For latest UK Equity Income index factsheet click here
Equities have recovered strongly from the tariff shock earlier in the year. Dollar weakness vs Sterling has weighed on the relative performance of US equities; however, this was a step-change and there are concerns for Sterling too. Gold has continued to perform very strongly on the “debasement trade” and Central Bank buying. Within Bonds, Emerging Markets are in better shape than Developed Markets, in our view.
The “Donroe doctrine” marks a new era. And a return to spheres of influence
On 4th December 2025, the Trump administration published its 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS).
The strategy envisages, accepts and even promotes return to great power diplomacy, realpolitik and spheres of influence. The NSS was controversial primarly for its criticism of European allies that made Vance’s 2025 Munich Security speech seem less like of an aberration and more of stated policy. The NSS is the stated intention of the Trump administration and actions will continue to follow policy.  Elston has launched the UK’s first smoothed MPS, available on Aberdeen, Hubwise, Nucleus and Wealthtime.
Read More: https://www.professionaladviser.com/news/4523751/elston-unveils-uk-multi-platform-smoothed-mps  Henry Cobbe shares Elston’s annual fund wishlist with Professional Adviser, looking at which ideas have been granted, which remain outstanding, and how collaboration between advisers and fund houses can lead to better outcomes for portfolios.
Read more: https://www.professionaladviser.com/opinion/4522770/dear-santa-henry-cobbes-festive-fund-wish-list 
In our suggestions to the FCA for the MPS review published this summer, we called for greater standardisation of rules between Multi-Asset Funds (MAFs) and Managed Portfolio Services (MPS). While the two formats differ in delivery, legal format, and tax treatment, they are similar in scope and function. Funds require: KIID, factsheets, benchmarks, and standardised performance reporting. MPS, by contrast, have no such requirements. This makes comparison difficult and transparency challenging.
So we very much welcome the FCA’s proposals in DP25/3 to align MAF and MPS disclosure and reporting standards. Greater alignment would help advisers and therefore their clients in three critical areas: consistency, comparability, and transparency.  Our founder Henry Cobbe was invited to speak to the key clients of Jupiter Asset Management on the future of multi-asset and MPS investing at their event at the National History Museum.
Full article to follow. 
What a budget. Our initial reaction is that the process leading up to it has been nothing short of shambolic. Endless leaks, speculation, and U-turns have exhausted everyone. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned purdah? Instead, we’ve had a free-for-all of briefings, capped off by a leak on the morning of the announcement - an extraordinary embarrassment that moved bond markets and undermined confidence in the OBR.
 Elston Consulting has launched the Elston World Equity Factor Equal Weight Index (ticker ELSFEW).
The index represents an equal weight allocation to six London-listed world equity factor-enhanced ETFs from BlackRock’s iShares:including world equity exposures for six different factors: Value, Quality, Size, Momentum, Minimum Volatility and Yield. The index is available for research purposes and also for potential fund manufacturing by asset managers looking to enter the systematic investing space as a half-way house between traditional active and traditional (market-cap) passive. An active factor allocation strategy is one of the fund innovations featured on Elston’s Research & Development Wish List, the firm writes. The fund format is more readily accessible than ETFs to the approximately GBP900 billion AUM platform-based UK IFA market – a fact lost on many US-based ETF issuers who have been waiting over a decade for ETF connectivity on UK platforms to be resolved to unlock that market. Elston was an early pioneer of “fund of ETFs” to resolve this, with its first fund-of-ETFs launched in 2020. The new factor index is a sibling index to the Elston World Equity Sector Equal Weight Index launched in 2022 (ticker ELSWES) which was built with London-listed sector ETFs from SPDR. This sector equal weight index is used as a benchmark for an active sector allocation fund launched by Foster Denovo in 2023 and managed by State Street Global Advisers. Henry Cobbe, Founder & Head of Research at Elston Consulting, says: “Many UK advisers are aware of the Fama-French three factor model, and see that as a so-called “evidence-based approach”. The reality is that there are more discernible factors beyond the Fama-French model alone. So, if advisers are looking at the evidence, they need to consider all the evidence. Whilst some factors like Value may show strong performance over the very long run, the performance gap between best (Momentum) and worst (Value) factors over the last five and 10 year performance has been huge. Active factor selection, and “tilting” to prevailing market regimes is key. A buy and hold approach is really unhelpful if you’ve “set and forget” the wrong factor for a decade or so.” Hoshang Daroga, Investment Director at Elston Consulting, says: “The concentration issues for traditional world equity indices are well documented. We see active factor and sector selection as having a key role to play in tilting portfolios to different styles and exposures in different market regimes, and for style diversification purposes. The challenge is how to evaluate those factor and sector selections given market-cap weighted indices have high concentrations and a resulting inherent bias. We built the World Equity Factor and Sector Equal Weight indices to help asset allocators evaluate to what extent their active factor or sector selections have added value against a simple equal weight approach.” Scott Adams, Head of Adviser Relations at Elston Consulting, says: “Elston was one of the early pioneers of index-of-ETFs in 2014 and fund-of-ETFs in 2020. A rules-based systematic index-of-ETFs helps asset allocators readily evaluate strategies in real time via their preferred data vendor or analytics provider.” Read the article in ETF Stream
 We were honoured to see Elston Portfolio Management recognised with a 5 star award for Best Discretionary Fund Manager at the FT Adviser Service Awards 2025!
A huge thank you to all the advisers who voted! DFM services provided by Elston Portfolio Management using research, analytics and insights from Elston Consulting. Read the intereview with Henry Cobbe 
The US equity market has pushed on higher this year fuelled by the AI boom, and investors are beginning to question whether the environment resembles the latter half of the 1990s with its dotcom boom (and subsequent April 2000 bust). While valuations in certain areas look stretched, the broader market picture is more mixed.
Read more to watch The UK's largest dividend payers: a systematic approach to UK Equity Income with Henry Cobbe, CFA and Robert Davies.
 Elston Consulting has designed the Elston Smoothed MPS solution that has been manufactured by Elston Portfolio Management for UK advisers.
The full article is in Money Marketing |
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