IDAD Performance Report – Q1 2026

Another great quarter with 167 product maturities and 245 new
products launched . This reflects the continued growth of our
structured product business – the average of 4 new products a day is
also a result of the large number of maturing products delivering great
returns for clients around the World who then want to reinvest . Not
only do they reinvest the proceeds, but the confidence they’ve gained
in the products, and their advisers, often encourages them to invest
more . Product launches for the quarter have definitely taken account
of prevailing market conditions, with a stronger focus on capital
protected products – we expect this to continue based on current
market conditions.

Returns on IDAD structured products remain very strong at 8.6% per
annum and the great run of maturities has slightly reduced the
percentage of products that haven’t delivered positive returns -minor
changes on last quarter though in both instances . Stockmarket
performance has been broadly down for the quarter – S&P 500 -5.3%,
Eurostoxx 50 -4%, Hang Seng -3.3% but FTSE 100 up 2.4% – partly due
to a strengthening dollar over the quarter, which helps the index .
Nikkei 225was up 1.4%, again, partly due to a strengthening dollar .
March saw exceptional market volatility as a result of perhaps the
most pointless and bizarre war in living memory . Quite aside from the
human costs, which seemed entirely unnecessary, the cost to global
economies and the inconvenience and costs to people around the
World were significant . And seemingly all of this was for no material
political or philosophical gain at all. Tellingly, there seem to be serious
rifts opening up in both the US president’s administration and his
supporter base – it may be there are some adults in the room who are
prepared to steer [insert favourite nickname for President Trump here]
towards more appropriate policies and actions . We’ll see what the rest
of 2026 brings .

Future Wealth Fund had a bad quarter, in line with general ‘future
focused’ tech companies – down 7% and The Refined Growth Fund
had a down quarter (market volatility really hitting hard in March) –
down 4% over the 3 months . The Smoothed Growth Funds continued
in line with their Expected Growth rates and also benefited from an
upward price adjustment during the quarter . Timing on the launch of
these funds seems pretty good and they are being made available
more widely . They seem to be the perfect solution for investors who
can’t afford, or don’t want too much risk to their investments . If you’d
like to know more about this do visit www.wealthguardfunds .com or
get in touch with your usual sales contact . We remain broadly
optimistic for major stockmarket performance during the rest of 2026
but it’s very unlikely to be a smooth road