Hargreaves Lansdown has dropped Robin Geffen’s Neptune Balanced fund from its Wealth 150 list of recommended funds.
The discount broker said it was removing the fund because its performance has “gradually disappointed to a greater extent in recent years”.
The fund is currently in the bottom quartile for performance in the IMA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector in both one and three years, although it has still outperformed the sector average in the past 10 years, according to data from FE Analytics.
Hargreaves Lansdown investment analyst Kate Marshall said “disappointing stock selection has been a key factor behind the fund’s performance” and also highlighted the fund’s bias to emerging market-oriented stocks as being “a drag on returns”.
“While we believe Robin Geffen is a capable fund manager, over time, our conviction in this fund has diminished and, at present, we feel there are superior alternatives in this sector,” she said.
A spokesperson for Neptune said the firm was “disappointed” by Hargreaves’ decision but acknowleged the fund had “experienced some periods of underperformance in recent years, which were mainly related to the Fund’s exposure to emerging markets”.
The spokesperson said: “However, from 2013 onwards the geographic distribution of the Neptune Balanced fund has changed according to our global outlook, with an increased bias towards developed markets and away from emerging economies.
“The fund continues to be managed in the same manner and by the same people who are responsible for its strong long-term track record, and we remain confident that despite an interval of disappointing performance, the fund is positioned to provide significant relative returns in the future.”
The Neptune fund is the latest product to be removed from the rapidly shrinking Wealth 150 list, which now holds just 88 funds.
In September, Hargreaves dropped the Liontrust Macro Equity Income fund from the list, in part due to “high fees”, which prompted Liontrust chief executive John Ions to declare that he would not “bend pricing [on funds] to suit individuals”.
