Benefits of investing in the MLC Wholesale Index Plus Balanced Portfolio

The Trust is diversified across a range of asset classes and investment managers. You can use it for your whole portfolio or add it to your other investments.

Experience and track record

We use a market-leading investment approach to design and manage the Trust. Our investment experts have been successfully managing portfolios for over 30 years, helping clients achieve their investment goals.

Risk-management focus

The Trust's risk is actively managed using a unique Investment Futures Framework (Framework), which guides our forward looking approach to managing risk. In an unpredictable and constantly changing world, the Framework helps continually identify the very wide range of potential market scenarios - good and bad - that could occur. The Framework also helps our investment experts analyse how these scenarios could affect the risks and returns of the asset classes in the Trust. The insights from this analysis are used to work out the combination of asset classes that they believe will best achieve the Trust's objective. This helps prepare the Trust for future market ups and downs.

Defined asset allocation

MLC manages the Trust's growth and defensive assets within defined ranges. See Benchmark asset allocation and ranges' in section 5 of the PDS.

Multi-manager approach

We use specialist investment managers from around the world to choose investments for the Trust and manage risk. We combine investment managers with index, index enhanced and active approaches to select investments. We use active managers where we believe it makes the greatest difference to the Trust's risks or returns.

Keeping costs down for investors

To keep costs down for our investors, we tend to use lower cost investment managers, including index and index enhanced investment specialists.

Broad diversification

The Trust is diversified across a wide range of mainstream asset classes, with some exposure to alternative assets and strategies to reduce the Trust's exposure to risk. Our specialist investment managers invest widely across countries, industries and companies.

Investor suitability

The Trust may be suited to you if:

• you want a diversified portfolio that has a strong bias to growth assets

• you want to rely largely on the market for returns

• you want long-term capital growth, and

• you understand that there can be large fluctuations in income and the value of your investment.

About MLC Index Plus

The MLC Index Plus portfolios are low-cost, diversified investment solutions, plus more.

Each portfolio gives your client access to returns from investment markets through an intelligent blend of index and active investment strategies. They're invested across a wide range of assets in and outside Australia.

Plus, the asset allocation of the portfolios is actively managed by MLC's experienced investment team using their market-leading investment approach.

It's an effective combination: MLC's expertise in managing multi-asset portfolios, and carefully chosen index and active investment approaches, to provide low-cost market returns.

Each portfolio has a different asset allocation, designed to deliver a different level of return and volatility.

Key features

• Complete diversified solutions: Exposure to a range of investment managers and asset classes, including Australian and global shares and fixed income and global property securities.  Use as your client's complete investment portfolio or as its core.

• Cost-effective investing: To keep costs low, we use mainly index and index-based strategies to select investments. We actively manage some asset classes, like fixed income, where an active approach can make a real difference and is worth paying for.

• Active management of the asset mix: Our investment experts can adjust the asset allocations, within defined limits, to help manage risk and returns as markets change.

• MLC's expertise: Your clients benefit from the insights of the experienced investment team that manages all of MLC's multi-asset portfolios.

Investment objective

Aims to provide a return that meets its benchmark, before fees, over 4 year periods.

At the same time, we aim to reduce risk in the Trust if market risk is high by changing the Trust's asset allocation. As a result of reducing the allocation to higher risk assets, there may be smaller losses than the benchmark in weak or falling markets and potentially lower returns than the benchmark in strong markets.

While the Trust isn't managed to achieve a particular return above inflation, an average return of 4.25% pa above inflation (before fees) is consistent with historical long-term returns from investment markets, using an asset allocation similar to the Trust's.

Benchmark

A combination of market indices, weighted according to the benchmark asset allocation. This composite benchmark' is explained in the Product Guide.

How we invest your money

Investment markets are the main driver of the Trust's investment returns. The Trust's returns are benchmarked against a combination of investment market indices. To meet the benchmark return while reducing the Trust's exposure to market risks, our investment experts:

1. Actively manage the Trust's exposure to risk by adjusting the allocations to the asset classes away from the benchmark asset allocation, while aiming to remain within the defined ranges shown below.
2. Research and select mostly mainstream asset classes, with some exposure to alternative assets and strategies.
3. Research investment managers from around the world and select the managers they believe are the best for the portfolio. We use specialist index and index enhanced managers in certain asset classes, and selectively use active managers where our investment experts believe it makes the greatest difference to the Trust's risks or returns. Our managers choose many companies and securities in Australia and overseas for investment.

The asset allocation has a strong bias to growth assets and some exposure to defensive assets. The Trust uses all aspects of MLC's approach to investing, outlined in the Product Guide.

Asset allocation ranges

(Asset: Benchmark asset allocation / Range)

• Cash: 3% / 0-20%

• Fixed income: 26% / 10-40%

• Defensive alternatives and other: 2% / 0-10%

• Growth alternatives and other: 4% / 0-10%

• Global shares: 33% / 20-45%

• Australian shares: 28% / 15-45%

Defensive assets: 31% / 20-40%

Growth assets: 69% / 60-80%

The Trust's asset allocation will move around the benchmark asset allocation, while remaining within the ranges for the asset classes, defensive and growth assets. Changes in asset values, which may be due to market movements, can result in an asset allocation temporarily moving outside these ranges. The most up to date information is available at mlcam.com.au/MLCWholesaleon our Fund Profile Tool.

In addition, some global assets are not hedged to the Australian dollar. For benchmark currency hedging levels for global assets please refer to our Fund Profile Tool at mlcam.com.au/MLCWholesale.