Baillie Gifford and BMO Global Asset Management are the biggest climbers in Boring Money’s customer value ratings.
The fund houses recorded the biggest positive shifts in customer sentiment in Q1, with Baillie Gifford making the biggest jump from 15th to 4th in the rankings and BMO Gam climbing from 16th to 8th place.
Boring Money’s value ratings are based on an Investor Tracker survey sent to more than 1,500 UK investors during the last month of every quarter. Respondents are asked which fund groups they invest in offer “good value” by scoring them on factors ranging from performance, charges, trust and quality of service.
Vanguard and HSBC are the only firms to have consistently held their place in the top three since the value tracking project launched in 2019.
Lindsell Train being judged harsher on performance
Holly Mackay, CEO of Boring Money said the findings indicate that brands closely linked with performance will see the biggest shifts in their rankings, while those that depend more on factors like cost and service will see steadier customer value scores.
“Some brands are almost exclusively being judged on performance and their value rankings tend to be more volatile,” Mackay said. Lindsell Train is one such brand, having plunged from 4th in 2019 to 16th in the latest survey following a tough year for its quality growth-biased strategies.
Over the last two years Mackay said the research has shown it takes around six to 12 months for relatively stronger or poorer performance to translate into higher or lower value scores respectively.
Baillie Gifford’s ascendancy linked to changing customer base
However, other brands do not rely on performance alone. Mackay said: “Those managers with less confident investors who tend to place more emphasis on clarity, communication and brand, will typically see less fluctuation over time in investor value assessment”.
Boring Money also identified an element of ‘Grumpy Old Man’ syndrome.
Mackay said: “Those firms with an older, more confident male investor audience tend to get more harshly judged when it comes to overall delivery of value. So in part, Baillie Gifford’s ascendancy is not just about performance – its relative increase also nods to a changing customer base which includes younger and less confident investors.”
