Fund investment advisory business “semi-annual exam”: more than 90% of strategies are profitable; multiple securities firms advance qualification applications

Author: Li Yu

Faced with the industry challenge of “funds make money, fund investors don’t,” the fund investment advisory (fund投顾) business—rooted in the buy-side perspective—has attracted significant market attention and is seen as an effective way to get out of this dilemma.

More than six years since the pilot launch, the fund advisory business has run steadily and achieved leapfrog development from scratch. It has shown notable results in enhancing clients’ investment experience, strengthening their sense of gain, and cultivating long-term funds. Meanwhile, supporting policies continue to be strengthened. The reporter from 21st Century Economic Herald learned that recently, multiple CSRC regional offices are actively promoting securities firms within their jurisdictions that meet the requirements to apply for fund investment advisory qualifications, and several securities firms are also accelerating the related application process.

Data from Guangzhou Multithreading Technology, a third-party institution, shows that as of June 22, among 1,240 fund investment advisory strategies with available data, 1,144 achieved positive returns in the past six months; the proportion of strategies with positive returns exceeds 90%.

In the first half of 2026’s technology-driven one-sided market, all of the top ten strategies by return over the past six months focus on the technology sector. In particular, China International Capital Corporation (CICC) Wealth’s “Technology Boost,” China Europe International (CE) Wealth’s “Invest in Hard-Tech with You—CE” and “Invest in AI Tech with You—CE,” GF Fund’s “Take You into Tech,” and Southern Fund’s “Silan Technology Fund Selection” performed especially strongly, ranking among the top five in the entire market. By contrast, some fund advisory strategies with negative returns are mainly concentrated in healthcare and consumption-related directions.

Long-money active strategies take the performance high ground

Fund investment advisory strategies mainly cover five categories: long-money active, long-money balanced, stable-money steady advancement, stable-money steady, and active-money money market. Judging from the latest performance, long-money active strategies have strongly occupied the performance high ground. All of the top ten strategies by return over the past six months belong to this category.

CICC Wealth’s “Technology Boost” has a return over the past six months as high as 86.57%, ranking first. It is also the only fund advisory combination in the entire market with a six-month return exceeding 80%. This strategy has been in operation for three years, with cumulative returns of 192.96%. CE Wealth’s “Invest in CE” series lays out two major themes—hard technology and AI. Within the portfolio, “Invest in AI Tech with You—CE” and “Invest in Hard-Tech with You—CE” both have a six-month return of 66.5%, tying for second place in the industry ranking. Following closely is GF Fund’s “Take You into Tech,” with a six-month return of 66.34%. Southern Fund’s “Silan Technology Fund Selection” ranks fifth with a six-month return of 66.32%.

Yimi Fund’s “Technology Hero,” Huaxia Wealth’s “Huaxia Helps You Select New Tech,” Industrial Securities Schroders Fund’s “ICBC Schroders All-Star Biweekly Investment,” CICC Wealth’s “Growth Boost,” CE Wealth’s “Invest in China’s Intelligent Manufacturing with You—CE,” and other strategies have shown strong performance over the past six months, with returns all exceeding 50%. WanJia Fund’s “WanJia Exceptional New Quality Driving,” Ping An Securities’ “Technology Primeslection No.1,” and Shenwan Lichxin Fund’s “Star Bright—Selected Equity” all recorded six-month returns above 40%.

While pursuing positive returns, leading fund advisory institutions are also improving service experience through model innovation. According to relevant personnel at CE Wealth, in August 2022, the company launched the “Invest with You—CE” service, building three differentiated follow-investment plans: first, the “All-Star Intelligent Follow-Investment Plan,” which combines a quantitative model based on market valuations and clients’ portfolio cost basis to provide scientific, personalized asset allocation solutions; second, the “Industry Follow-Investment Plan,” which uses objective data and scoring across multiple dimensions to provide clients with guidance on investment value-for-money across industries; third, the “Happy Weekly Invest Follow-Investment Plan,” in which the advisory team dynamically adjusts investment targets and allocation ratios according to weekly market changes. These measures further enrich the service content of buy-side fund advisory.

On the other hand, fund advisory strategies in the medical and consumption sectors are under overall pressure, and institutions including Guolian Securities, Yimi Fund, Huabao Securities, and CICC Wealth have recorded strategies with negative returns.

Which will lead: securities firms vs. public funds in advisory strategies?

From the institutional lineup, in the top-ten return list for long-money active strategies, only the first-place combination belongs to a securities firm; the other nine seats are occupied by public fund entities such as CE Wealth, Southern Fund, and GF Fund. It is not hard to see that in the high-volatility technology sector, public funds’ strategy deployment is broader.

Relying on investment research resources and systematic investment research frameworks, multiple advisory combinations under fund companies precisely capture the technology main theme’s行情 (market trend) in the first half of the year, showing strong performance.

Balanced-type strategies fully demonstrate the anti-volatility value of a balanced equity-and-bond allocation. In the long-money balanced strategy track, Yimi Fund takes the top three spots: “Fund Cultivation Camp No.3” ranks first with a six-month return of 20.84%; “Rising Star Assault Combination” and “Rising Star SIP Combination” follow closely with 18.91% and 16.73%, respectively.

In addition, strategies such as Tiantian Fund’s “East Money Balanced, Worry-Free,” Southern Fund’s “Silan Equity & Bond Active Blue-Chip Combination,” Yimi Fund’s “Rising Star Selection Combination,” Yimi Fund’s “Yimi Steady Eight Hearts and Eight Arrows,” Minsheng SG Fund’s “Minsheng SG 80s Retirement Portfolio,” Invesco Great Wall Fund’s “Invesco Great Wall Attack-Defense All-Star—Yimi Premium,” Xingzheng Global Fund’s “Xingquan Balanced Faction,” and others all achieved six-month returns exceeding 10%.

With the industry developing rapidly, leading institutions’ advisory businesses are gradually taking shape at scale. According to relevant personnel at Southern Fund, the company has built a dedicated “Silan Advisory” brand. Relying on a multi-party cooperation model, it continues to expand business boundaries and broaden service coverage. By the end of 2025, Southern Fund had implemented cooperation on more than 60 managed fund advisory projects, cumulatively serving over 500k clients.

In building an open ecosystem, securities firms are also actively exploring new models. Ping An Securities’ head of product and wealth management, Gao Pang Liu, said that a single institution cannot meet all clients’ needs. Ping An Securities is building an open online operational platform that aggregates content and strategies from multiple fund companies, integrates data and tool capabilities from third-party service providers, and actively explores AI applications.

Multiple securities firms are actively advancing qualification applications

Since the first batch of 18 institutions received approval to pilot fund investment advisory in 2019, a total of 60 institutions—including securities firms, public funds, banks, and third-party fund sales institutions—have participated in the fund advisory business pilot.

At the policy level, the top-level design continues to be improved to promote standardized industry development. In February 2025, the CSRC first clearly proposed “promoting the pilot of fund investment advisory business to become regular practice.” In August of the same year, fund investment advisory business was included in securities firms’ classification and rating indicators, forcing the industry—at the institutional level—to improve service quality.

In April 2026, the CSRC issued the 2026 legislative plan, listing the “Administrative Measures for Securities and Fund Investment Advisory Business” as a project that needs to be studied urgently and rolled out when the time is right; the pilot-to-regular transition is entering the countdown period.

In June, CSRC Chairman Wu Qing publicly stated that it will accelerate the transformation of buy-side investment advisory in the capital market. At the 2026 Lujiazui Forum, he announced that the CSRC will clearly support licensed foreign institutions to participate in the expansion of the fund investment advisory pilot, further broadening the industry’s development landscape.

At the same time, industry infrastructure is also being sped up. On July 1, the China Securities Investment Fund Industry Association disclosed that on June 24 it organized a launch meeting for compiling teaching materials for publicly offered funds’ investment advisory. Construction and cultivation of talent in fund investment advisory have been further accelerated.

Recently, multiple CSRC regional offices are actively promoting securities firms within their jurisdictions that meet the requirements to apply for fund investment advisory qualifications. The reporter from 21st Century Economic Herald learned that several securities firms are accelerating the related application work. A securities firm insider said: “The company is pushing it forward.” Another listed securities firm insider also disclosed: “During the previous conventional pilot, the company applied; for this round, it is preparing to apply as well.”

Industry consensus is that after the pilot transitions to regular practice, the industry will move from simply “selling products” to professionally “managing accounts,” pushing wealth management to return to the root of asset allocation.

(Editor: Xu Nan Nan)

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