UK wealth manager St James's Place, which has more than £190.2 billion ($240.5 billion) funds under management, has just handed over its fund for RLAM to manage.

St James’s Place (SJP) has appointed Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), a UK fund manager with £169 billion ($214 billion) of assets under management, to run its £4.6 billion Strategic Managed fund.

The move comes after the multi-asset fund was shown to be underperforming last March in SJP's value assessment report.

Royal London Asset Management will run an active asset allocation mandate, comprising low active risk strategies which minimise tracking errors. The multi-asset strategy will be adjusted through time in line with the fund manager’s active strategic and tactical asset allocation views, the firm said in a statement. This will help to maintain access to a range of asset classes, but at a lower cost than is typically associated with active management.

The fund’s objective will remain the same by investing at least 60 per cent in quoted securities worldwide. It will invest, at Royal London Asset Management’s discretion, in UK and overseas equities, UK and overseas fixed interest and index linked securities, units and/or shares in other collective investment schemes, cash and near cash.

“We are committed to continuously improving our funds to ensure they deliver the best value for clients. The change increases the choice available to our investors – accessing different types of strategies across our multi-asset range of funds,” Justin Onuekwusi (pictured), chief investment officer at St James’s Place, said. “The disaggregation of platform and advice charges from our funds later in the year will mean that our investment proposition will be priced on a like-for-like basis and be extremely competitive versus other funds in the market. The Strategic Managed Fund is an example of this.The increased use of low active risk strategies means the fund will respond differently to various market conditions, offering clients greater choice and enhanced diversification."

The move comes after St James's Place gave its £5.2 billion ($6.3 billion) Sustainable & Responsible Equity (SRE) fund to investment manager Schroders to manage, after terminating its contract with investment manager Impax in December last year.