Boutique investment house, Downing Fund Managers, is delighted to announce that, as of 1 April 2022, Simon Evan-Cook has been appointed by Johnston Financial as Investment Adviser to the VT Johnston Financial Multi Asset funds. The £149 million fund range, which was launched in 2020, consists of two funds: The £80 million VT Johnston Financial Multi-Asset Cautious Fund and the £69 million VT Johnston Financial Multi-Asset Balanced Fund¹.  

Both funds are currently listed in the IA Unclassified sector, but the expectation is that the Cautious Fund will be moved to the IA Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares sector, and that the Balanced Fund will join the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares Sector.  

Since the start of April, the funds are being advised by Simon Evan-Cook according to the Downing Fox investment process, which focuses on identifying outstanding active funds at reasonable charges.  

Johnston Financial is an Edinburgh-based firm of Chartered Financial Planners. Established in 1987, they are now one of Scotland and the UK’s leading financial services businesses and currently advise on over £420 million of clients’ assets. 

Simon Evan-Cook said; “I’m delighted to be back working with the team at Johnston Financial. They’re a first-class firm of advisers, and are exactly the sort of long-term, high-quality partners we’re looking to work with as we build the Downing Fox multi-asset business.” 

John McArdle, Managing Director of Johnston Financial, said; “It’s tremendous to reunite with Simon. We created the Johnston Multi-Asset Portfolios in 2020 to drive down traditional investment management fees for our clients and gain access to institutional investment funds. Partnering with Simon will allow us to build on these strong foundations, and we’re looking forward to growing our clients’ wealth together.”  

Judith MacKenzie, Head of Downing Fund Managers, said “This alliance reflects quality of the strategic relationships we’re building with investors. Johnston Financial provide their clients with an innovative and bespoke service and we’re proud to be part of this. It’s encouraging that Simon is attracting new assets, as we believed he would when he joined the Downing Fund Managers team earlier this year to launch the Downing Fox multi-asset business.” 

Simon Evan-Cook joined Downing in March 2022. He was previously a AAA-rated manager of multi-asset funds of funds at Premier Miton, having joined in 2006. There he was a senior member of a multiple-award-winning team that managed over £4.5 billion of assets. 

The VT Johnston Financial Multi-Asset Cautious Fund and the VT Johnston Financial Multi-Asset Balanced Fund are currently available on the Aegon, Fidelity, Nucleus and Utmost platforms.  

Capital at risk, returns not guaranteed. Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.