SLI tops Investment Adviser 100 Club Awards

The group also picked up two more awards at the event last night, for its UK Equity Income Unconstrained fund run by Thomas Moore and its Property Income Trust run by Jason Baggaley.

The judging panel, which consisted of leading discretionary fund managers, said the group had showed “deep commitment to understanding its clients’ needs” as well as being able to boast a “plethora of sector-leading products”.

The awards come in what has been a busy year for the group, which recently acquired rival fund group Ignis.

Royal London Asset Management, the investment arm of insurance behemoth Royal London, snapped up the award for Small to Mid Investment Group, with the judges praising its “broad range of highly attractive product options”, including Martin Cholwill’s UK Equity Income fund, Derek Mitchell’s UK Mid-Cap Growth fund and its bond products.

In the passive category, Pennsylvania-based Vanguard was chosen as the top exchange-traded fund and tracker provider, beating off stiff competition from rivals including iShares, Legal & General and ETF Securities.

Scottish-based Baillie Gifford and Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) both won two categories.

James Anderson’s Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, and Sarah Whitley and Matthew Brett’s Japan Trust scored wins for the Edinburgh-based group.

OMGI’s quant-based team led by Ian Heslop was responsible for the City-based asset manager’s double gong win, with his North American Equity and Global Equity Absolute Return funds winning the judges’ favour. The panel said the US equity fund was the “only” quantitative fund they would buy.

While Henderson Global Investors had the most members in the 100 Club as a whole this year, just one of its funds was picked as a category winner by the judges. Its European Focus Trust, run by John Bennett, who the judges deemed “a steady and safe pair of hands”.

Kames Capital’s Ethical Cautious Managed fund run by Audrey Ryan and Iain Buckle was also a repeat winner in the Mixed Asset category.

In fixed income, the stalwarts showed their power, with Franklin Templeton’s Michael Hasenstab picking up the Specialist Bond Funds category award with his Templeton Global Bond fund and Invesco Perpetual’s Paul Causer and Paul Read bagging the Sterling corporate Bond Fund category with their Corporate Bond fund.

The judging panel consisted of Whitechurch Securities’ managing director Gavin Haynes, head of managed funds at Sanlam Paul Surguy, Hawksmoor Investment Management’s head of research Jim Wood-Smith, Brooks Macdonald Asset Management’s head of research Jonathan Lau and City Asset Management’s research director James Calder.