MLC Investment Management has said goodbye to three of its global equity managers and added four new managers after a review of its strategy.

The wealth manager terminated mandates with Bernstein Value Equities, Alliance Growth Equities and Fortis Investments in January this year. The transfer of most funds was completed by mid-February.

At the same time, it added Mondrian Investment Partners, Harding Loevner, Sands Capital Management and Tweedy Browne Company.

MLC global shares portfolio manager Paul Duncan said the main reason there was a parting with the fund managers was because he saw better diversification with other funds.  

"When you go through a really tough bear market, crash, or something similarly savage, you do need to keep an eye on cushioning it somehow. You don't really want to underperform a falling market," Duncan said.

In order to counter sharp falls in markets, Duncan uses a number of value and growth funds that invest outside the common indices.

"Previously, we were relying predominantly on Walter Scott and Bernstein to perform that role," Duncan said.

"But the difference with Mondrian and Tweedy is that both those managers have an explicit capital preservation objective that is embedded in their process, whereas Bernstein didn't have that."

Two of the mandates were with AllianceBernstein, whose funds have suffered high redemption rates since October last year. The funds saw negative investment returns of more than 50 per cent over the last twelve months.

"They've had more issues in terms of the results that they have produced compared to what people were expecting," Duncan said.

"Most [value managers] have kept their head above water and tend to have more of a growth band, or a quality band," he said.