A Decade of Active Multi Asset Management
- From zero interest rates to the pandemic to the interest rate turnaround: The Assenagon Multi Asset Conservative fund has successfully guided security-oriented investors through market upheavals for ten years.
- Active management with foresight: identifying risks, seizing opportunities, and maintaining true diversification.
- A fund with a history — and a future: stability through intelligent management in every market phase.
Ten years ago, in November 2015, the independent asset manager Assenagon laid the foundation for a success story with the launch of the Assenagon Multi Asset Conservative. Under the leadership of Managing Director Thomas Romig, the portfolio management team designed a fund for risk-averse investors that would prove to be a robust and performance-oriented anchor of stability over the following decade.
Since inception, the fund has delivered a Sharpe ratio of 1.02, a benchmark for above-average risk-adjusted returns. Investor confidence is reflected in consistently strong inflows. Across multiple market phases, the Multi Asset fund has recorded eight consecutive years of positive net inflows, with current assets under management approaching EUR 900 million (share class I2; as of 3 November 2025).
From Zero Interest Rates to the Interest Rate Turnaround – A Decade of Transformation
“Before markets began to fall, we had already reduced our equity exposure to around 10% in February 2020 — this foresight helped us navigate the crisis successfully,” explains Romig, who has served as Chief Investment Officer Multi Asset at Assenagon since that year. Following the intervention of central banks, Romig and his team swiftly increased equity positions again in March.
The strategy’s flexibility also shone through during the interest rate turnaround in 2022. As global bond markets came under pressure, the team cut fixed income exposure to nearly zero — only rebuilding it at the end of 2022 when running yields were significantly higher.
Flexibility and Diversification as Anchors of Stability
To this day, the award-winning Assenagon Multi Asset Conservative remains true to its core principles of activity, flexibility, and diversification. Independent of any benchmark and without fixed allocation limits for equities or bonds, the Multi Asset team manages exposures based on relative opportunities and risks.
Diversification extends far beyond traditional asset classes, sectors, and regions. Alongside equities and bonds, the fund selectively adds commodities and specialized niche themes with low correlation to conventional markets.
“At present, for instance, we see attractive valuations in Frontier and Emerging Markets, which remain under the radar for many investors,” says Romig. He adds that such niche investments can also serve as a hedge in the event of future U.S. dollar weakness.
The success of Romig’s active management approach led to an expansion of the product family in December 2021 with the launch of the Assenagon Multi Asset Balanced, designed for investors with a more balanced risk profile. With a return of nearly 43% over three years and a Sharpe ratio of 1.7, the sister strategy has seamlessly continued the flagship fund’s success story — and was awarded five Morningstar stars immediately upon reaching its three-year track record (share class R; as of 31 October 2025).
The Only Constant Is Change
“We are living through a period of profound transformation, in which many previously reliable market mechanisms — such as the negative correlation between equities and bonds — have lost their validity,” says Romig. “This makes active management, broad diversification, and adaptability more essential than ever. That will remain our guiding principle for the next decade. One thing is certain: the coming years in financial markets will be anything but boring.”
Here you can download a print-quality photo of Thomas Romig.
Munich/Frankfurt, 18 November 2025