Intelligent Investment Strategy (IIS) is a unique, automated investment service developed and managed exclusively by Mediolanum since 2016 and made available to clients across Europe.
Designed for clients who have accumulated significant savings and wish to invest them in a disciplined way, without having to make difficult decisions about the right moment to enter the market.
Rather than investing a lump sum into equity markets all at once, IIS follows a pre-planned investment journey over three, four or five years. The investment starts in a low-risk, euro-denominated short-term fixed income fund and is then gradually transferred into growth-oriented strategies with greater exposure to equity markets. The objective is not to predict market movements, but to provide a structured path towards long-term growth — combining prudence in the early stages with increasing participation in market opportunities over time.
Each service is built around a specific client situation. The principles behind them — cost averaging, compounding and multi-manager diversification — are the same.
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1
Your money starts working from day one
The lump sum is initially invested in a euro-denominated short-term bond fund designed to offer a low level of risk while seeking attractive returns. While invested there, the money remains productive as the transition begins.
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2
You choose the pace of the journey
Three, four or five years. As a general rule, the more important the investment is to overall wealth, the more gradual the transition should be. Higher market valuations may favour a longer transition; market declines may create the opportunity for a shorter one.
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3
A fixed amount transfers automatically
Every two weeks from the short-term bond fund into the chosen growth strategy. A longer transition period results in smaller, more frequent investments, allowing capital to enter the market across a wider range of conditions.
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4
When markets fall, IIS invests more
The larger the fall, the larger the additional investment.
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When markets rise, IIS can secure gains
Transferring them back into the short-term bond fund and keeping that capital available for future opportunities.
When markets fall, IIS may increase the next scheduled transfer from the short-term bond fund into the chosen growth strategy, following rules agreed in advance. This step-in mechanism moves more money into the growth strategy as prices fall, but it does not guarantee better returns or prevent losses. When the investment reaches the gain level selected at the outset — either +10% or +20% — the step-out mechanism automatically transfers gains back into the short-term bond fund. These rules do not remove investment risk.
During extended periods of market weakness, the strategy can complete the transition earlier than originally planned.
Disclaimer: Past performance may not be a reliable guide to future performance. An investment can go down as well as up and that the return upon the investment will therefore necessarily be variable.
If the market falls | The next investment is |
5% | doubled |
10% | tripled |
15% | quadrupled |
20% or more | multiplied by five |
When the value of the investment reaches a predefined gain level — the client chooses either +10% or +20% at the outset — IIS automatically transfers any gains back into the short-term bond fund. This helps preserve part of any gains already achieved, while keeping that capital available for reinvestment if markets become volatile again.
Think about how people behave in everyday life. When a product they value goes on sale, they often see it as an opportunity to buy. When the price rises, they may become more cautious. IIS applies a similar principle to investing, using a disciplined and automated approach that helps remove emotion from the decision.
The method in action
Imagine investing €1,000 into IIS on a five-year plan on 1 January 2008 — immediately before the global financial crisis.
As markets fell sharply during 2008, the step-in mechanism was triggered thirteen times, increasing the pace of investment into equities and allowing more units to be purchased at lower prices. When markets recovered, the step-out mechanism activated twice, locking in gains and moving part of the investment into the short-term fixed income fund.
Even though the investment was made close to a market peak and was immediately followed by a decline of around 50%, the IIS investment would have grown to approximately €1,290 by January 2013. A €1,000 lump sum invested directly into equities at the same moment would have been worth around €850.
What actually happened to clients
Among Italian clients who adopted IIS between June and December 2016, 72% remain fully invested by end June 2026. By contrast, only 17% of investors who started with a lump-sum equity investment remain invested — most redeemed at various points, often reacting to short-term volatility.
By the end of June 2026, clients who chose IIS achieved an average return of 54%, compared with 26% for those who initially chose a lump-sum approach. Average portfolio volatility fell from 14.61% to 9.51%.
Source: Mediolanum International Funds. Italian-market data used for illustration purposes only.
Disclaimer: Past performance may not be a reliable guide to future performance. An investment can go down as well as up and that the return upon the investment will therefore necessarily be variable.
Market history shows that some of the strongest gains often occur shortly after periods of decline. Missing just a handful of the market's best days can have a significant impact on long-term returns.
A $10,000 investment in the S&P 500 from 1995 to 2024 would have grown to approximately $225,000 if it remained fully invested throughout. Missing only the ten best trading days would have reduced the final value to around $105,000; missing the fifty best days would have reduced it to approximately $15,000.
The lesson is simple: long-term investment success is often less about timing the market and more about giving investments the time to grow.
Source: FactSet and Edward Jones calculations, S&P 500 TR USD Index. An index is unmanaged and not available for direct investment. Calculations exclude trading costs, fees and taxes. Figures are in US dollars; returns to a euro investor would differ. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
The mechanism is sophisticated. Using it is not. Everything below happens automatically, to rules agreed at the outset.
No. The service invests gradually and automatically to a schedule you set at the outset. There are no month-to-month decisions to make.
The service buys more, not less. A larger transfer is made at lower prices, which is how the strategy improves your average entry price over time.
They are moved automatically into a low-risk short-term fund, where they are held ready to be reinvested when markets become volatile again.
No. You and your adviser agree the duration and the destination strategy at the start. After that the rules run on their own, and you receive regular reporting on the movements between funds.
These are long-term arrangements, designed to run through one or two full market cycles, and the flexibility to switch and to change the target funds is built in.
It is the opposite. Timing the market means deciding that today is the right day to invest. This service assumes nobody can know that, which is why capital is committed gradually and to a rule rather than to a judgement.