Peer Groups FAQs
Our knowledge base for frequently asked questions.
Most peer groups charge contributing investment managers to supply their performance data and participate on a named basis in the index calculation. Enhance Peer Groups are constructed using the real portfolios that Enhance monitors across its Monitor and Select services. The outcome is an investment manager agnostic, unconflicted and objective assessment of the average performance of thousands of real portfolios managed by hundreds of investment managers for trustees.
We want to help trustee investors understand whether the investment managers they are using are delivering appropriately for their clients. The wealth management industry remains more opaque than the fund management industry, so this is our way of providing a helicopter perspective on what the average performance delivered by a broad sample of investment managers and portfolios looks like.
Enhance Peer Groups are built using real data from over 7,000 monitored portfolios, focusing on three currencies (GBP, USD, EUR) and three risk profiles (Cautious, Balanced, Growth). Only discretionary managed portfolios are included, with a minimum of three years of continuous data. Each portfolio within its respective Peer Group is given equal weighting to calculate an equally weighted average (arithmetic mean).
We calculate the peer groups as soon as we have an appropriate sample size, typically at the end of the sixth week of each calendar quarterly cycle when we have processed a majority of portfolio reviews. The data set is then interrogated, adjusted and approved by our independently chaired Investment Committee before being published on the Enhance website with an accompanying commentary from our Consultance team.
The great thing about Enhance Peer Groups is that our sample size continues to grow as we monitor more portfolios for trustees. The total addressable universe was approximately 7,000 portfolios as at the end of 2025. The number of contributing investment managers also depends on the risk and currency profile, with a total universe of approximately 800 different investment offices now in the data set.
Yes, we will launch additional peer groups as soon as we have a statistically robust sample size of monitored portfolios in a new currency and risk profile. However, other than CHF, we observe most trustees investing in GBP, USD and EUR base currencies and so we do not anticipate launching peer groups outside of these 4 currencies for the foreseeaable future. Watch this space for CHF though!
Enhance Peer Groups are completely free to access and are provided on our website to help improve wealth management industry transparency. They are not benchmark indices per se and serve to provide a general indication of average, net of fees performance of investment managers across the live portfolios that Enhance monitors on behalf of trustees. We compare this average to an investable benchmark portfolio to helpB1:B8 show whether active management is delivering net of fees value to investors.
We currently publish peer groups across three base currencies (GBP, USD and EUR) and three risk profiles (Cautious, Balanced and Growth), giving nine distinct peer groups. These represent the most common currency and risk profile combinations used by the trustee community globally. We plan to add CHF peer groups as soon as we have a statistically robust sample size of monitored portfolios in that currency.
Enhance Peer Groups provide a helpful reference point for trustees to assess whether the investment managers they are using are delivering appropriately for their clients compared to a broad sample of real portfolios. They can be used alongside your Monitor reviews to add context to individual portfolio performance, support board reporting by showing how portfolios compare to the wider market, and inform discussions with investment managers about the value they are adding relative to the average.
We use equally weighted averages so that each portfolio within the peer group has the same influence on the result, regardless of its size. An asset-weighted approach would allow a small number of very large portfolios to disproportionately influence the peer group average, which would not provide a fair representation of the typical investment experience across the broad sample of trustee portfolios we monitor. Equal weighting provides a more democratic and representative view.
Enhance Peer Groups are calculated using net of fees performance data, which means they reflect what investors actually receive after investment management charges have been deducted. We believe this is the most meaningful way to present the data because it shows the real-world outcome for investors. We also compare this net of fees average against an investable benchmark portfolio to help show whether active management is delivering net of fees value to investors.
Our independently chaired Investment Committee plays a critical role in the integrity of the peer group data. Once the peer groups are calculated at the end of each quarterly cycle, the data set is interrogated, adjusted and formally approved by the Investment Committee before publication. The Committee also provides an accompanying quarterly commentary that puts the peer group results into the context of prevailing market conditions. This independent oversight helps ensure the data is robust and the commentary is balanced. Check our our People page.
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