Investment management company Legal & General Investment Management has released a new sterling income share class of its Multi-Asset Target Return Fund to address growing client demand.

The share class will be available in the UK and is targeted at investors pursuing a regular cashflow from their investment while consolidating capital growth, such as during retirement.

The fund aims to provides capital preservation with minimal focus on market direction This is accomplished through a firm focus on risk management and keeping the equity beta below 0.4 per cent on average over a three-year rolling period. In order to achieve this, the fund seeks to reduce overall volatility, limit the correlations between the performance of the fund with global equities, and reduce the losses of the fund from equity market falls.

The fund has regularly outperformed rival funds in the sector, posting 7.2 percent returns, comfortably surpassing its 5.5 percent target, since its launch while offering a 3 percent yield.

An additional aim of new the share class is to create a smooth income profile over the longer term by sating client appetites by paying out the fund’s natural income to investors on a quarterly basis.

James Crossley, LGIM’s head of UK Retail Sales believed that the increasing popularity of low-risk funds emphasized the importance to investors of consistent income streams.

He said, “With continuing market volatility our wealth and intermediated clients have increasingly demanded cost effective low beta strategies. Generating a consistent income can be really important for investors, especially those preparing for or already in retirement. This fund does exactly that and we expect it to be a core holding for clients with higher return targets.”