As opposed to traditional funds that buy into direct securities such as equity and bonds, a fund of funds (FOF) selects and buys into established funds to achieve its investment objective.

FOFs have enjoyed double-digit growth for the past five years in the developed markets of the US, UK and Australia. This is due in part to the appealing proposition of the product structure in allowing investors to take the guesswork out of geographical allocation of their portfolio as well as fund selection. More importantly, wealth advisers are fast realising the benefits of centralising the task of portfolio management and rebalancing at either the fund managers or FA firm level while they focus on assessing client's risk profile, product mix matching and bringing up their level of service.

Given the relative infancy of Singapore's FA industry, it is not surprising that this sophisticated product has yet to find itself on the shelves of most distributors. In anticipation of demand, iFAST has taken the lead to carry FOFs on the iGP platform, so that our wealth advisers can leverage on various fund managers' expertise.

Here are the unique features of a fund of funds:

• Meaningful diversification across asset classes and investment styles
• Potential consistency in returns and lower volatility
• Ease of management and active rebalancing at fund manager level