Ann Rafferty Gillespie

NWD's asset allocation approach is top-down and based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative criteria. Three key aspects determine the ranking of equity markets: interest rate prospects, earnings prospects and the valuation background. Significant allocation shifts are made when conviction levels are strong. There are monthly meetings for ideas generation, including the macroeconomic team, regional equity and fixed-income teams. Regional equity teams provide economic and market forecasts for each market supported by written documentation andanalysis. These forecasts are the result of bottom-up analysis of individual securities within the research universe to generate target price and rate of return forecasts, which are then aggregated to provide overall rolling twelve-month country return forecasts. NWD uses a combination of in-house and Wall Street research.

abrdn utilizes various investment approaches when managing discretionary client accounts and providing recommendations to non-discretionary clients. The firm utilizes a bottom-up, fundamental stock-picking approach, where sector, regional and country allocations are a residual of their bottom-up stock selection decisions, constrained by appropriate risk controls.