When is the cash component invested?

When do you invest the 'cash' component of my balance? - Submitted by Jason

We are commonly asked by new clients browsing their holdings in the Portfolio Manager why they have physical cash sitting in their investment portfolio, surely it should be invested in more shares? 

There are four reasons why this may be occurring: 

Cash Component

As referenced in our Product Disclosure Statement every Professionally Managed Account (PMA) will hold, at the very least, 1% of the total account value in a cash component at all times.

InvestSMART draws upon this cash component to cover management fees and brokerage costs (if required) removing the need to unnecessarily sell down investments to cover the aforementioned expenses, which would be counterproductive to the progress of your investment. 

Portfolio Manager Discretion

At any point in time, the Portfolio Manager of any Model Portfolio has the discretion to adjust the holdings and weightings held including physical cash. While this is more likely to impact active stock-picking portfolios rather than our capped-fee investment portfolios, it's not unusual to see 5% physical cash held by some models. 

Contributions or Income 

Over time your investments will pay dividends or distributions with the proceeds deposited into your cash component and dependent on your income setting it will either be accumulated and paid to your nominated bank account or held for reinvestment at the next rebalance. 

Contributions are also held in a similar manner, they will be initially deposited into the cash component until there are enough available funds to trigger a rebalance of your holdings. 

Myth of "Full Investment"

Lastly, there is a common sense reason why there might be a little more physical cash in your account. We aren't able to necessarily deploy every cent we'd like to due to the fluctuations in the price of underlying holdings on any one day i.e. if we want to purchase $500 of ABC to rebalance your portfolio but only have $100 available, then we will have to hold fast for the time being. 

If you have any further questions, or want clarification on the above topics then please feel free to email us at invest@investsmart.com.au