Wesleyan‘s smoothed fund platform proposition has reached its fifth anniversary in the independent advice market, and the mutual’s managing director of intermediary distribution, Karen Blatchford, says adviser attitudes have shifted considerably since the fund first launched. What began as an unfamiliar brand name in intermediary circles has evolved into a proposition now available on four platforms, with two new fund options added to meet demand across a wider range of client risk profiles.
How the Wesleyan Smoothed Fund Platform Broke New Ground
When Wesleyan first made its smoothed fund available to independent advisers, it was entering largely unfamiliar territory, both for the market and for itself. According to Money Marketing, the fund was the first smoothed product of its kind to be listed on an independent platform when it launched on Wealthtime in 2021. That distinction mattered: smoothed funds carried residual associations with traditional with-profits products, which Blatchford acknowledges were perceived as opaque by many advisers.
The Wesleyan fund was designed deliberately to address those concerns. It offers daily pricing, carries no terminal bonus in its platform version, and operates as a multi-asset fund with smoothing applied over the top. ‘People can really understand how the fund works,’ Blatchford says. Transparency, she argues, is what separates this product from the with-profits arrangements that left a generation of advisers wary of the whole category.
The timing of the launch also worked in the proposition’s favour. Retirement planning has moved to the centre of adviser conversations, and the regulatory focus on suitability has intensified. Smoothed funds, which aim to reduce the visible impact of short-term market volatility on a client’s stated portfolio value, fit naturally into that environment, particularly for clients approaching or already in drawdown.
Adviser Sentiment and the Volatility Conversation
Blatchford points to research Wesleyan conducted earlier this year in which more than 90% of advisers thought 2026 was likely to be even more volatile than the past two years. That finding sits alongside data from a white paper produced with the lang cat, ‘Smoothing the Way’, which found that more than 60% of advisers agreed smoothed funds are suitable and help manage risk and volatility. Neither figure represents universal enthusiasm, and Blatchford is candid that some persuading still needs to be done, particularly around the differences between the various smoothed products in the market.
For a client in accumulation with a ten-year or longer horizon, the argument for a smoothed fund rests primarily on behavioural grounds: the risk that a client sees a drawdown on their phone and acts on it, rather than holding through the cycle. Blatchford notes that cashflow modelling allows advisers to stress-test scenarios and demonstrate resilience to shocks, which she regards as an underused tool for managing sequence-of-returns risk in the years around retirement.
It is worth noting, from a portfolio construction perspective, that smoothing is not the same as capital protection. A smoothed fund adjusts the price clients see, not the underlying asset returns. Over a sufficiently long period, the smoothed and unsmoothed versions of a multi-asset fund should converge. The benefit is behavioural and, for clients in decumulation, it can reduce the probability of panic selling at precisely the wrong moment.
Platform Expansion and What Comes Next
Wesleyan is now present on four platforms and has partnered with FNZ, which, according to Money Marketing, works with more than 650 financial institutions and 12,000 wealth management firms worldwide. That partnership broadens the potential distribution reach considerably. The mutual has also worked with Elston and Copia to develop model portfolio solutions incorporating smoothed funds, responding to adviser demand for blended retirement propositions that combine growth assets with smoother elements.
Two new funds, the With Profits Cautious Fund and the With Profits Adventurous Fund, have been added to address a broader spread of client risk profiles. The Cautious Fund targets clients with a lower risk appetite; the Adventurous Fund is aimed at those seeking greater growth potential within a smoothed wrapper.
Blatchford says Wesleyan, which has been operating for 185 years, remains fully committed to the intermediary channel and intends to continue expanding platform access as adviser and client interest in smoothed investing grows.
