FTAdviser’s annual list of the top retail investment funds of the past 12 months brings together new names with familiar faces.
The top retail investment funds of the past year, revealed here today, have to contend with a slightly different set of circumstances in the 12 months since last May.
While risk assets quickly resumed their ascent in the aftermath of March 2020’s pandemic-induced panic, recent months have seen a shift in tone. After years in which growth and tech funds ruled the roost, attention has turned to the prospect of a global economic upswing – and an accompanying inflationary spike. That’s meant a return to form for the likes of value funds and commodities, as well as a brief if notable blip for government bonds this spring.
So the funds that have made this year’s FTAdviser Investment 100 Club have had to show their ability to outperform across these different periods.
The list is a quantitative assessment of the best funds and investment trusts of the recent past. An individual standout from each category will be selected by our panel of judges later this year.
In order to qualify for the club itself, funds’ performance was assessed both one and five years, relative to the total returns of the broadly relevant benchmark index or sector.
Candidate funds were first ranked by their outperformance of these benchmarks in the year to May 31, 2021.
To show it has long-term staying power, funds were also required to put a double-digit gap – 10 percentage points or more – between its own performance and that of its index in the past five years.
The full methodology and inclusion criteria can be found here.
The list also highlights the asset managers with the most high-ranking funds in the list, as well as the five passive providers judged best by a panel of fund selectors.
Last year's winners in these categories - Baillie Gifford, Liontrust and L&G - all make repeat appearances this year. But there are also names making their debut on the list, such as Pictet among the large providers, and returns for the likes of Polar Capital in the small-to-mid-sized group category.
