The firm set up by a breakaway Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) team has become one of the fastest-growing investment start-ups in recent memory, Citywire can reveal.
Life Cycle Investment Partners, which was established by former RLAM equity head Peter Rutter in 2024, has seen assets under management swell to $15bn (£11.3bn) a little over a year after it launched its first strategies into the Australian market.
At the start of this year the business, which is backed by Australian investment firm Pinnacle, launched the Life Cycle Global Equity and Life Cycle Global Equity Select Ucits funds into Europe. This was complemented by the addition of a US Equity fund earlier this month.
According to Morningstar, the flagship $1bn (£763m) Global Equity Select fund has returned 4.2% in sterling terms since its inception on 23 January to 23 October. This compares to a 5.7% return for the MSCI World index and a 6.8% average gain for its Morningstar Global peer group. The smaller Global Equity fund has returned 4.1% over this period.
Figures provided by Pinnacle state the Ucits and Australian fund ranges account for $1.3bn and $1bn respectively of Life Cycle’s total AUM, the majority of which is held in the 200-stock global equity strategy. The remaining $12.4bn of assets sit within a range of segregated mandates.
The fact the Life Cycle team has not been able to approach any of its former RLAM clients due to a non-solicit clause makes this haul particularly impressive.
Life Cycle also did not get off to the best of starts, when Australian firm Ironbark pulled a £1.5bn mandate from the business in August 2024 after concluding the boutique was not ready to manage such a large slice of assets.
‘We’re thrilled that Life Cycle has been able to attract early capital from a global investor audience and it’s testament to the pedigree of the Life Cycle team,’ Pinnacle said in a statement sent to Citywire.
‘This fund raising success allows the Life Cycle team to continue to focus entirely on investing; with Pinnacle providing all of the non-investment capabilities around distribution, client service and operations.’
