Module: Fund Management

Academic Year: 2020/2021

Level: 7
Module Code:44-701749-AF-20190

Module leader: John Parker

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Welcome to: Fund Management

The module’s team

Tutor E mail
John Parker j.parker@shu.ac.uk

This module is an integral part of your course

Fund management has become a very large industry, with no sign of that growth
slowing. It has also become a global industry, with the major players in the industry
now operating on a global basis. The range of institutions involved, or linked, with
fund management has grown correspondingly, with the consequence that fund
management has become a central element within the overall financial services
industry.

How you will develop the attributes and skills that graduate
employers are look for?
This module aims to provide a solid grounding in the key features of the global fund
management industry. Students will also develop industry skills and competencies
that will serve them well in their future career development, for example the module
focus on likely future changes and drivers of those change will help students develop
the ability to appreciate and anticipate industry trends/drivers of change.

This module aims at supporting the following general graduate attributes:

 Confidence
 Readiness
 Digital Literacy

This module also aims at support the following specific graduate attributes in line
with the finance and banking sector required attributes:

 Integrity
 Adaptability
 Emotional Intelligence

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How research informs what and how you study in this
module?
There is a wide range of research material on fund management; the list of
recommended texts provides an extensive list of references on individual aspects of
fund management research. You should use the books as the backbone for your
reading and then engage with journal articles to augment your thinking and to look
at particular areas of interest.

How this module supports your global and international

perspective?
This module is about the global fund management industry. We look at the structure,
operations, investment style and portfolios of funds around the world.

How this module adopts the Principles of Responsible

Management Education?

Ethical practice underpins the content and delivery of the module material.
Discussions around money laundering, ethics and ethical investment provide some
detail of the challenges in fund management for a wide range of stakeholders.

How the teaching and learning activities in this module are

designed to support your learning outcomes and success.
Lectures, which will be used to introduce and provide the foci for study of each of the
main areas within the module.

• Student-led seminars centred around key issues and developments within the
fund management industry.

• Group exercises and discussion, and group presentations, to promote in-

depth research and analysis into major areas of the fund management industry, and
to share the results of that research and analysis.

• In addition, students will be provided with detailed topic-by-topic reading lists

designed to provide initial sources of background material, more specialised texts
and articles, professional literatures along with on-line sources of information and
literature. These reading lists are designed to provide the basis for students' own
reading and research, which is an essential complement to the class-based activities.

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The information and resources you will find on the module
Blackboard site at the beginning and throughout the module
The module has a dedicated Blackboard site, which students are expected to access
on a regular basis. The Blackboard site is used to communicate information to
students outside of contact sessions (via the 'Announcements' page). In addition, the
blackboard site includes:
• An electronic version of the module guide
• Links to lecture/PowerPoint slides
• Details regarding assessments
• Additional topical and contemporary information with direct links to external
websites.

How your attendance and effective engagement with the

module will support your learning outcomes and success
We expect that students engage fully and proactively the learning and teaching
activities in this module.

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Schedule of study
Universit Date
y Week w/ Assessment & Feedback plan
com
Lecture /Seminar/Practical
(including formative
content and student activities assessment)
27 25- 1 Introduction: fund management -Seminar
industry structure, clients, operations
Jan
and activities, drivers of change, fund
manager profitability

28 01- 2 Setting investment objectives, -Seminar

asset allocation, portfolio structuring -Phase Test Prep 1
Feb
and review, evaluating fund manager
performance

29 8-Feb 3 Retail fund management products -Seminar

-Phase Test Prep 2

30 15- 4 Investment management: -Guidance on Assignment

equities.
Feb

31 22- 5 Investment management: bonds -Guidance on Assignment

and fixed interest, other asset
Feb
classes.

32 01- No class – Research Methods and

coursework preparation week.
Mar
33 08- 6 Private banking and wealth -Seminar
management -Phase Test Prep 3
Mar

34 15- 7 Hedge funds. Sovereign Wealth -Seminar

Funds -Phase Test Prep 4
Mar

35 22- 8 Pension funds. Check Assignment

submission date 26th March
Mar
2021

36 29- Spring Break: No Classes

Mar
37 05-
Spring break: No Classes
Apr
38 12- 9 Private Equity, global Cumulative practice for the
custody/asset servicing Phase test
Apr
39 19- Phase test week: No Classes Date 22 April 2021
Apr

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Your recommended reading list:

Main texts used

There are a number of texts which will be used on more than one occasion. These
are (in alphabetical order):-

Acharya, S. (2002), Asset Management, John Wiley & Sons Limited.

Arnold, G. (2009), The Financial Times Guide to Investing: The Definitive

Companion to Investment and the Financial Markets, Prentice Hall

Cowdell, J, M., Billings & P.Cowdell (2001), Investment Management, Financial

World Publishing.

Cuthbertson, K. & Nitzsche, D. (2008), Investments, second edition, Wiley.

Fabozzi, F.J. (2009) Institutional Investment Management: Equity and Bond Portfolio
Strategies and Applications, John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Lofthouse, S. (2001), Investment Management, second edition, John Wiley & Sons
Limited.

Pickford, J. (ed.) (2002), Mastering Investment, Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Pinedo, M. & Walter, I. (ed.) (2013), Global Asset Management: Strategies, Risks,
Processes, and Technologies, Palgrave Macmillan.

Stanyer, P. (2006) Guide to Investment Strategy: How to Understand Markets, Risk,

Rewards and Behaviour, Economist.

All these texts (with the exception of the Fabozzi, Pickford and Pinedo & Walter texts)
have a UK focus, but are also of wider relevance.

Other useful reading

Two texts which we do not include as specific readings but which provide a basic
introduction to many of the topics:-

Hughes, D. (2002), Asset Management in Theory and Practice, Financial World

Publishing.

Russell, R. (2002), An Introduction to Fund Management, second edition, Securities

Institute (Services) Limited.

Also not specifically recommended, but containing some interesting material:-

Golding, T. (2001), The City: Inside the Great Expectation Machine, Pearson,
332.642 GO.

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Two official reports which deal with many relevant issues in a UK context (albeit a
little dated now):-

Myners, P. (2001), Institutional Investment in the United Kingdom: A Review, HM

Treasury - ‘the Myners Report’.

Sandler, R. (2002), Medium and long-term retail savings in the UK: a review, HM
Treasury, - ‘the Sandler Report’ - 332.6 ME.

Both these reports can be viewed and downloaded - although they are large
documents - at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/ - search on ‘Myners’ or ‘Sandler’ as
appropriate using the site search facility. Other reports from Paul Myners may also
be of use and interest.

H.M. Treasury (2006) Financial services in London: Global opportunities and

challenges. Can be viewed and downloaded from the H.M. Treasury website also.
Provides a useful overview of the UK financial services industry and of the position of
the fund management industry within that.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers 16th Annual CEO Survey: Asset Management, 2013. This

can be downloaded by going to:
http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/2013/pdf/pwc-global-ceo-survey-2013-asset-
management-industry-key-findings.pdf
to download the pdf. The report represents quite a useful insight into what senior
people within the global asset management industry believe are the major issues and
trends facing the industry. The Price Waterhouse Coopers website has a lot of other
reports and publications available which are worth accessing.

There are some useful journals available in the Learning Centre or by electronic
access-

Financial Analyst’s Journal

Global Investor

Journal of Asset Management

Journal of Wealth Management

There are, of course, a wide range of websites which provide a quantity of useful
information and analysis. Several of these are identified for particular areas in the
weekly schedule that follows, but include:

http://www.investmentfunds.org.uk – the website for the Investment Management

Association, a UK organisation for the fund management industry.

A regular commentary on a range of aspects of the Asset Management industry is

provided by Price Waterhouse Coopers in their regular Asset Management Insights,
accessible via
http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/asset-management/asset-management-insights/
index.jhtml

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Please note:

We have tried to ensure that all the website references in this Module Guide are
accurate and up-to-date – but please do recognise that sites do change, often quite
rapidly, and therefore the particular material may not be available any longer, or else
it will have been shifted to a different location.

This list is available on the module Blackboard site (module Home Page Section) or
through the Library Gateway link to reading lists on BB.

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Assessment brief for this module
Turnitin

You may be asked as part of your assessments to submit an electronic version of

your work through a system known as Turnitin. The Turnitin system will produce a
report identifying any similarities between the work and existing literature or other
sources and can be used to help students avoid plagiarism and assist with
referencing.

Your module tutor will give you guidance on how to submit work through the system
and how to act upon the report produced. Please note that any Turnitin submissions
will be in addition to the actual assignment submission, unless you are informed
otherwise by your tutor.

Plagiarism

Your attention is drawn to the rules regarding plagiarism and you are reminded that
you must include a full reference section at the end of the assignment and also
include appropriate acknowledgements in the text of the assignment. You should
follow normal academic conventions e.g. the Harvard system.

It is very strongly recommended that you make yourself fully aware of what
plagiarism constitutes, and what the penalties for plagiarism comprise.

There are lots of sources of information about how the University treats plagiarism: -

 The Student Intranet includes information on Assessment Regulations, within

which is a sub-section on cheating, one form of which is plagiarism. See the
relevant pages on the SHU website for further information and guidance.
 The University’s Assessment Regulations.
 Your tutors.

Some important points about plagiarism and how to avoid it are repeated below: -

1. Please note that the University treats this matter very seriously. It goes without
saying that tutors may reasonably assume that all work submitted for marking has
been written only and entirely by the student submitting that work, unless there is
clear acknowledgement to the contrary. ALL students should familiarise themselves
with the rules relating to plagiarism in the University’s Assessment Regulations.

2. The rules are quite clear. The copying of ‘several sentences or more’ (from, for
example, a text book, journal article, or Government White/Green paper) whether
obtained in text form or via the internet, without acknowledgement of the source, may
be considered to be plagiarism. This applies whether plagiarism was intended or
whether it was ‘accidental’.

3. Material extracted from other sources should be properly referenced and placed in
quotation marks. Thus

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 “Some reservations must be expressed with regard to the choice of ratios. In
general they incorporate the failings of the accounting system on which they
are based.....” (Rees, p112).

The full reference should then be given in a bibliography or footnote. All references
should be complete, i.e., include the author’s name, title of the book or journal article,
publisher (for books) and the date of publication. References to journal articles
should also include the name of the journal, volume and number reference, and the
page numbers of the article in the journal. In this case

Rees W, ‘Financial Analysis’, Prentice Hall, 1994, p112.

4. The Assessment Regulations also notes that summarising the pages of a

book/article ‘by simply changing a few words or altering the order of presentation,
without acknowledgement’ may also be considered plagiarism. Utilising references
quoted in a text book without having looked at the original is also unacceptable.

5. Summaries of lectures, whilst not (strictly speaking) plagiarism, are not

considered acceptable at masters level and little credit will be given to students who
do this. Lectures cannot be included in the bibliography or directly referred to in the
text (however good they might be).

6. If you have any doubts whatever about these rules and their application please
consult the tutor for this module.

Task 1 Brief

Assessment title: 2000-Word Assignment

Individual/group: Individual
Format: 2000 – Written Word Assignment
2000 +/- 10%
Tables and Appendices should be used to provide data and
information as reference points. They should not be used to
Word count / Length present new information.
of …: The word count does not include Bibliographies, and
Appendices.

Weighting: 50%
Yes
In-Module Retrieval
IMR is offered on Task 1. The submission deadline is 2 weeks
(Yes/N0)
from the date the grade and feedback are released to the
students.

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For the Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust PLC

1. Critically evaluate the strategy and objectives of the fund;

2. Critically evaluate the approach taken by the fund management company to

the management of the fund;

3. Critically examine the investment performance of the fund over the past 10
years, and particularly the last 3 years.

Word limit: 2,000 words. The word count (excluding table of contents,
bibliography and appendices) must be stated on the front sheet of the
assignment.

Submission date: 26/3/21

Source material:

The information you will need about the Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust PLC is
obtainable from the fund’s website,

http://www.foreignandcolonial.com/

and in particular the most recent Annual Report & Accounts will be accessible there.
Other material will also accessible from the website, and not just from the ‘Library’
tab.

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Guidance for the Task:

Note the weightings for the different tasks in the Assessment Grid below.

The key piece of guidance and advice is to complete the tasks specified. It does
sound obvious, but it tends to be forgotten. Continually ask yourself whether what
you are writing for your assignment does, actually, address those tasks.

A second key piece of guidance and advice is to avoid just including descriptive
material in your assignment. Simply reproducing material from the website for the
fund will not address the task. You need to use that material (and other material, of
course) in order to complete the task – but do recognise the importance of the word
evaluate with respect to the first two parts of the assignment. In broad terms, what
you need to do is to identify the strategy, objectives, approaches to managing the
fund, the investment performance of the fund, etc, and then assess those, compare
them, examine the appropriateness of them, consider their advantages and
disadvantages, examine the extent to which they are effective, etc.

Although the assignment has been split into three parts, you should appreciate that
those three parts are not completely separate. You will, for example, need to use
the information and conclusions from part 2, the approaches to managing the fund, in
explaining and critically examining the performance of the fund in part 3.

As a conclusion to your assignment, it might be worth identifying the key (maximum

3) good points and the key bad points of the fund from the viewpoint of a retail
investor.

The use of charts and tables is a very effective means of presenting some data, as
well as saving your word count for genuine assessment, analysis, evaluation and
discussion rather than simple description. If you are copying charts and tables from
websites, do make sure that they are clear and legible – there is no point including
them otherwise.

In accordance with the University’s assessment regulations, we are not prepared to

read complete draft assignments. This is for reasons of equity across the student
group, and in addition submitting a draft is close to submitting an assignment twice.
We are, however, very happy to answer any specific queries relating to the
assignment, to look at draft outlines, etc.

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Assessment Grid – Task 1

Assessment Below 50% 50-59% 60-69% Distinction - 70% and

criteria above
Overall criteria:
Presentation of Presentation is Presentation shows an Presentation carefully and Presentation shows a polished
assignment and clarity of disorganised/incoherent attempt to organise in a logically organised. and imaginative approach to
expression . Purpose and logical manner. Meaning Thoughts and ideas clearly the topic. Thoughts and ideas
(5%) meaning of assignment generally apparent. expressed. clearly expressed. Fluent
unclear.. academic writing.
Use of references and Inadequate or improper Some referencing in an Good use of referencing in Comprehensive and appropriate
bibliography use of references, appropriate fashion, some an appropriate fashion, good use of referencing throughout,
(5%) inadequate bibliography. bibliography. comprehensive bibliography.
bibliography.

Specific criteria:
Evaluation of the strategy Limited identification of Clear identification of the Good identification of the Good identification of the
and objectives of the the strategy and strategy and objectives of strategy and objectives of strategy and objectives of the
fund objectives of the fund. the fund. the fund. fund.
(35%) Evaluation is narrow Generally sound and Good, balanced evaluation Excellent, thorough evaluation
and limited. reasonably balanced of the strategy and of the strategy and objectives.
Conclusions lack clarity. evaluation of the strategy objectives. Clear and Very convincing conclusions
and objectives. convincing conclusions reached. Contradictions and
Reasonably clear and reached. Some of problems with the strategy and
convincing conclusions problems with the strategy objectives explored and
reached. and objectives explored. analysed effectively.

Evaluation of the Inadequate evaluation Satisfactory evaluation of Very good, balanced Excellent, well-balanced
approach taken by the of the approach taken the approach taken by the evaluation of the approach evaluation of the approach
fund management by the fund fund management taken by the fund taken by the fund management
company (F & C management company company (F & C management company (F & company (F & C Investment
Investment Management) (F & C Investment Investment Management) C Investment Management) Management) to the
to the management of Management) to the to the management of the to the management of the management of the fund.
the fund. management of the fund. fund. Excellent use of available data
(25%) fund. Reasonably effective use Very effective use of within a broad-ranging
of available data and available data within a evaluation.
reasonably broad range of broad-ranging evaluation.
considerations utilised.

Page 13
Assessment Below 50% 50-59% 60-69% Distinction - 70% and
criteria above
Critical examination of Inadequate and/or Generally sound Very good examination of Excellent examination of the
the investment incomplete examination examination of the the investment performance investment performance of the
performance of the fund of the investment investment performance of the fund over the past 10 fund over the past 10 years,
over the past 10 years, performance of the fund of the fund over the past years, and particularly the and particularly the last 3
and particularly the last 3 over the past 10 years, 10 years, and particularly last 3 years. years.
years. and particularly the last the last 3 years. Effective use of available Very effective use of available
(30%) 3 years. Reasonably effective use data to explore reasonably data to explore full range of
Ineffective use of of available data to full range of aspects of the aspects of investment
available data to explore some aspects of investment performance of performance of the fund.
explore aspects of the the investment the fund.
investment performance performance of the fund.
of the fund.

Page 14
Task Brief 2: Phase test

Module Title: L7 Fund Management

Assessment Title: Coursework : Phase Test
Individual/Group: Individual
Weighting: 50%
Submission Date: 22/4/2021
IMR No

Task Details

A one-hour on - line test.

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