12:12 EDT, 24 December 2020
For portfolio managers and investors alike, 2020 is likely to have been as turbulent a year as most in the asset management world have ever experienced.
Whilst the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt ubiquitously across global markets, income-seekers have suffered particularly severely as a consequence of recent corporate dividend-cutting and suspensions, with non-financial considerations widely impacting dividend decisions, which have served only to accentuate an already challenging climate of record-low interest rates and collapsing government bond yields.
This unique investing environment has mandated a large degree of fresh thinking and, inevitably, UK investors – seeing their traditional sources of income, such as bank deposits and gilts, undermined – have sought alternatives in equity income funds.