Evelyn Partners adopts active-passive indexing

Evelyn Partners uses an active-passive indexing approach in its five Index MPS model portfolios launched in August 2022. The firm says the strategy is intended to widen regional, sector and style exposure, manage bond duration and reduce concentration risks while keeping costs low. Evelyn Partners reports each risk profile has outperformed Asset Risk Consultants (ARC) comparators since launch, over the past 12 months and in the first quarter of 2026.

Dan Caps, lead portfolio manager for the Index MPS range, described the approach as a blend of low-cost index-tracking and factor funds with tactical asset allocation and targeted style tilts. The portfolios were made available to the firm’s direct clients in August 2022 and to advisors a year later.

Evelyn Partners starts with market-cap indices as a base and then applies techniques such as equal weighting, value tilts, duration control and broader diversification beyond traditional equity and bond allocations. The firm reports an average ongoing charges figure (OCF) of 0.10% and an annual management fee of 0.15% for the range. Research from Defaqto places the suite among the cheapest 10% of model portfolio services on the market.

Performance figures supplied by the firm show each risk profile significantly outperforming ARC comparators since the August 2022 launch, across the most recent 12-month period and in Q1 2026, a quarter the firm describes as choppy after the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

Caps warned that long-term reliance on market-cap-weighted benchmarks can hide concentration and valuation risks when a small number of large companies dominate indexes. He pointed to the lack of a prolonged market downturn since 2007–09 and noted that in 2025 U.S. equities underperformed other regions by the largest margin in 32 years.

The firm cites 2022 as a year that exposed limits of broad benchmark exposure, particularly in fixed income. Evelyn Partners says its asset allocation framework reduced exposure to duration in fixed interest and increased equity diversification during that sell-off, which the firm reports helped protect its Index MPS portfolios from part of the downturn.

Caps outlined a wider change in passive investing, saying product innovation has expanded the set of index-tracking and factor funds available to portfolio managers. He added that some longer-running passive multi-asset funds have kept older implementations and therefore have not incorporated newer index-tracking options. Caps said he hopes the Index MPS program can encourage wider participation in investing and reduce barriers for new investors.

Caps is scheduled to appear on a panel at Fund Forum later this year to discuss passive investing and portfolio construction.