Just under seven in ten users (68.42 per cent) responding to the poll said they thought the IMA was right to review its sectors classification system. Only one in ten (9.57 per cent) said they did not think it was the right decision, the remainder of the respondents said they were undecided.
Weekly poll result
| Q: Is the IMA right to review its sector classification system? |
% |
| Answer | |
| Yes |
68.42 |
| No |
9.57 |
| Undecided |
22.01 |
Source: Trustnet. Poll conducted 9-15 August 2010. Respondents numbered 209
The IMA announced at the beginning of August that it was undertaking a review of the structure of its current sectors classification system and were seeking the views of IMA member firms on these developments to help frame further discussions.
Keith Churchouse, director at Churchouse Financial Planning said he thought the IMA were making the right decision and believes all the sectors need reviewing.
"We seem to entering a new world across the board and I do not think it will be possible to review one area without reviewing others. From that point of view I think it is very sensible they have taken the opportunity to look at the sectors," he said.
"The reality is if they are going to look at a high number of sectors they may as well look at them all. I do not think there is any sector that has not been affected, either positively or negatively, by what has gone on in financials over the last two years."
Graeme Mitchell, managing director at Lowland Financial also agreed and said attention needed to be paid to the Cautious Managed and Balanced Managed sectors in particular.
"I think there is a lot that can still be done. If you had a conversation with somebody and asked them what they thought a balanced fund was, would you really think that 85 per cent of the stock market is balanced? No one has really addressed this and it is the same with Cautious Managed," he said.
Mitchell also suggested that the IMA should liaise with other trade bodies, such as the Association of British Insurers (ABI), when reviewing the sectors.
"There ought to be more consistency across the board, so that when you are looking at pensions for example and you are trying to see which is most suitable for your client, you can look across the board," he said.
"It would be good if when the IMA is doing the review that they could do this at the same time as the ABI and liaise with them so there is some consistency."
Data from Financial Express shows there are currently 33 IMA sectors. The best performing sector in terms of returns, over a three year period to 13 August 2010, was the IMA Global Bonds sector
which returned 36.86 per cent.
Performance of IMA sectors over 3-yrs
Source: Financial Express Analytics
Given the increased interest in emerging markets, it is no surprise that over a one year period the best returning sector was the IMA Global Emerging Markets sector which returned 23.80 per cent.
Performance of IMA sectors over 1-yr
Source: Financial Express Analytics
Jane Lowe, director of Markets at the IMA said the Trustnet results suggest other people think there is merit for looking outside the traditional asset sectors and said they would look to liaise with other trade bodies.
"Yes we do want extra input but equally we are a small organisation. What we do in sectors is a form of self regulation and because it is self regulation the people we rely upon for input is our members, because they are producing these funds for an audience and have to deal with the distributors," she said.
"So we will go out to other people, we have contacted AIFA for example and they have sent it round to other people. We would make it clear that we run it as a self regulatory activity, but having said that we do like to get other comments in," she added.
Lowe said that the IMA had received feedback from members and were drawing up an agenda for a members meeting in late September 2010.