We have qualitatively reviewed the JPMorgan Investor funds target-risk series and reaffirmed its Process and People ratings. Tenured, well-resourced managers wield this straightforward process, giving investors a steady ride. The following text is from Aug. 2, 2023.
The JPMorgan Investor funds target-risk series benefits from the firm’s deep resources, a stable and experienced management team, and solid underlying funds, supporting a People Pillar upgrade to Above Average from Average.
Ove Fladberg leads this series and the nine-person Asset Management Solutions, or AMS, team who are based in Columbus, Ohio. Fladberg has worked on these funds since 2010, taking over as lead in 2014. Joining him are four portfolio managers that average nearly a decade managing this strategy. The managers, and four supporting analysts, each have clearly defined roles around asset allocation, manager selection, and implementation.
The AMS team leverages experts from around the firm that specialize in quantitative research, qualitative research, and manager research. The team uses insights from these specialists and conduct their own research before making asset allocation and manager selection decisions. The portfolios tap exclusively J.P. Morgan funds that management deem to have attractive risk/reward profiles and diversifying characteristics. The underlying funds are a highlight; each portfolio has between 50% to 78% of its assets in funds earning Bronze to Gold Medalist Ratings as of June 2023.
The firm’s long-term capital market assumptions coupled with three-to-five-year asset class and business cycle forecasts produced by the AMS team inform the series’ strategic allocations. The long-term assumptions are updated annually, while the team revisits their own forecasts more frequently to determine any portfolio adjustments. The managers stick closely to the funds’ strategic allocations and prefer to make small, gradual updates to the portfolios.
The four funds in this series are built for investors seeking to build and preserve wealth with a focus on downside risks. And the team emphasizes risk-adjusted results (measured by Sharpe ratio) and low volatility over other metrics as a result. Over Fladberg’s tenure as lead manager through June 2023, all four funds produced Sharpe ratios that topped their respective allocation Morningstar Category averages and category index benchmarks. The Growth, Growth & Income, and Conservative Growth portfolios each landed in the best quartile of their peer groups.