News: Yellow Brick Road's Smarter Money awarded investment rating upgrade

Yellow Brick Road's (ASX:YBR) active cash fund YBR Smarter Money has received an investment rating upgrade to “Highly Recommended” from “Recommended” by independent asset-consulting firm Atchison Consultants.

Since its launch over two years ago, Smarter Money has returned 5.9 per cent annually after all fees and raised over $150 million in new institutional and retail capital.

Smarter Money has outperformed the benchmark, the UBS Bank Bill Index and the peer group since inception.

Matt Lawler, chief executive officer for Yellow Brick Road, noted that with the RBA cash rate at a record 2.5% low, and banks seeking to tap cheaper wholesale bond markets for funding, depositors were finding it difficult to get cash returns above 3.5% annually.

Smarter Money targets returns that outperform the Reserve Bank of Australia’s official target cash rate by 1% - 2% annually after fees and usual expenses, over a rolling 12 month period.

Atchison’s report noted that “the Fund has achieved and surpassed its investment objective, generating strong performance over one and two year periods and since inception”.

A “Highly Recommended” rating means that “the manager and its product have excelled across all of our assessment criteria”.

Lawler said: “Deposit rates have been falling as banks have been able to source cheap money in the bond market.

“This has made the search for reasonable yield even more difficult for savers and retirees. We believe Smarter Money has an important role to play in helping investors earn superior returns with low levels of risk.”

Notably, this is the third independent asset consultant recommendation Smarter Money has received.  The fund is available on five different platforms.


How the fund works

The YBR Smarter Money Fund targets returns above the average returns of traditional cash products, after management and administration fees and ordinary expenses.

The Fund is registered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission under the Corporations Act.

YBR Smarter Money has an independent responsible entity and custodian, and all unit pricing is independently calculated by the fund administrator, FundBPO.

YBR Smarter Money is available through selected financial advisors, Yellow Brick Road branches, and online at ybr.com.au/savings. The investment manager is YBR Funds Management.