When you invest in the FlexInvest plan through Smart Invest, one of the three Irish Life MAPs fund options will be recommended for you depending on your attitude to risk. The Irish Life MAPs funds are managed by Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM) and have different levels of investment risk, designed to suit different attitudes to risk.
They aim to create a diversified portfolio, investing in hundreds of companies across a broad range of markets. This helps to ensure that you do not put all of your eggs in one basket, and reap the potential benefits of growth across many different economies.
For example, if you put all your money into oranges, but oranges have a bad season and the crop fails, you lose all your money. However, if you invest in oranges and pears, you can still gain from a good pear season, even if you lose money on oranges.
This diversification aims to ensure that the performance of the funds is not dependent on any one asset type, sector, geographical region, investment manager or investment style. Removing this dependence aims to produce a smoother investment journey over the longer term.
Each of the Irish Life MAPs funds is diversified across a range of assets with different risk profiles. These include shares, bonds, property, cash and external managers/alternatives. Within each of these different asset types, there is even further diversification. The type of assets that the MAPs funds invest in can include:
Global Shares: Track the performance of a large, customised, global share index with sustainability characteristics and alignment to the low carbon transition economy. This index aims to have a more positive impact on the environment and society compared to a standard index. It has shares across a number of geographies, including the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, China and France.
Global Low Volatility Shares: ILIM chooses shares from a broad global share index which have shown lower volatility in the past. There are about 200 shares selected for the Global Low Volatility Shares.
Emerging Market Low Volatility Shares: ILIM chooses shares from a broad emerging markets share index which have shown lower volatility in the past. There are about 200 shares selected for the Emerging Markets Low Volatility Shares.
Emerging Market Shares: Track the performance of a broad Emerging Markets share index, which includes over 1,400 companies operating in 26 different markets, including China, South Korea, Taiwan, India and Brazil.
Infrastructure Shares: Track over 100 individual companies across sectors such as airports, toll roads, railways, ports, water and gas. These shares come from mainly developed market economies but also some emerging markets, including the United States, Canada, France, the UK, Spain, China, Italy, Australia and Japan.
Government Bonds: Provide exposure to shorter-dated government bonds. These bonds include bonds from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Ireland.
Corporate Bonds: Track the performance of a recognised and leading corporate bond index to provide exposure to private company debt. Industries include automotive, banking, consumer goods, energy, financial services, healthcare, real estate, telecommunications, and transportation.
Emerging Market Bonds: Tracks the performance of recognised and leading emerging-market bond indices, both local and hard currency (denominated in US dollars), to provide exposure to emerging-market bonds. The geographic split of these bonds includes bonds from China, Brazil, Hungary, Indonesia, Mexico, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Romania, and South Africa.
High Yield Bonds: Offer a higher rate of interest as they are higher risk. They cover numerous geographies including the US, UK, Italy, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland and Spain.
Property: Each Irish Life MAPs fund currently has an allocation to ILIM’s Pension Property fund. The portfolio includes approximately 70 individual property assets that are leased to over 300 tenants, as well as a broad mix of commercial property, including offices, retail and industrial properties.