Royal London and J.P. Morgan Asset Management were the big winners in this year’s Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards for the UK, the results of which were revealed today. Royal London won the Overall Large Group accolade, in addition to being judged Large Equity Group and Large Bond Group, while J.P. Morgan AM picked up 18 individual category awards, across the three separate timeframes under consideration.
For more on the 2023 Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards, please click here
Julius Baer won the Overall Small Group accolade while DWS and Courtiers picked up the two big multi-asset awards – respectively for Large Mixed Assets Group and Small Mixed Assets Group. Completing the roll of honour for the eight group awards, Waverton was named Small Equity Group and Rubrics Small Bond Group.
Among funds to win individual awards for their showing over three years were Kopernik Global All-Cap Equity (Equity Global), Artemis SmartGARP UK Equity (Equity UK), Sanlam Centre American Select Equity (Equity US), Liontrust European Dynamic (Equity Europe ex UK), IFSL Church House Investment Grade Fixed Interest (Bond GBP Corporates), Merian Global Strategic Bond (Bond Global GBP) and Courtiers Total Return Balanced Risk (Mixed Asset GBP Balanced).
The winners of the 20 largest award classifications by assets under management (AUM) on a three-year timeframe can be viewed in the table below. You can find all the winners of the 2023 Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards here.
‘Truly worth a prize’
In total, 240 funds won individual awards across three, five and 10-year timeframes. “Objectivity and rigour are vital in an industry that is saturated with accolades,” said the group’s head of research, UK & Ireland Dewi John. “How else can investors verify a fund has consistently outperformed its rivals? How can they ensure an award-winning fund is truly worth a prize and that it has been assessed solely on robust quantitative performance data?”
Refinitiv Lipper has been running its fund awards for more than three decades, in that time extending its coverage to nearly 20 major markets around the world. The process is underpinned by Refinitiv Lipper’s fund data and proprietary quantitative methodology.
The universe for the awards is made up of mutual funds from across the asset classes: equity, bond, mixed-asset, commodity and alternatives. To be eligible, funds must demonstrate a minimum of three years’ performance history and be registered for sale in the UK. “To ensure we compare like with like, we classify funds by type, asset class, country, currency, term and more,” said John. “Each fund award is based on one of our granular and clearly defined Lipper Global Classifications.
“The group awards, meanwhile, are won by those fund providers who have scored the highest across their fund ranges in each asset class, and overall. We recognise excellence both in large providers and small, so that the skill demonstrated in the latter is not swamped by the larger providers. Taken together, this allows investors to make like-for-like comparisons between funds that share meaningful characteristics.”
Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards 2023 – 20 largest award classifications, over three years, by AUM
| Award | Fund | Provider | Fund count |
| Absolute Return GBP High | LF Brook Absolute Return Sterling Rtl Acc | Brook Asset Management | 12 |
| Absolute Return GBP Medium | LF Ruffer Total Return C Acc | Ruffer | 12 |
| Bond GBP Corporates | IFSL Church House Inv Grade Fixed Interest Inc | Church House Investments | 57 |
| Bond Global GBP | Merian Global Strategic Bond Fund L GBP Inc | Jupiter | 48 |
| Bond Global High Yield GBP | M&G Global Floating Rate High Yield Stg A-H Acc | M&G Investments | 18 |
| Equity Asia Pacific ex Japan | Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Sust. A Acc GBP | Stewart Investors | 145 |
| Equity Emerging Mkts Global | Redwheel Next Generation EMs Equity R GBP | Redwheel | 185 |
| Equity Europe ex UK | Liontrust European Dynamic Fund R Inc | Liontrust | 81 |
| Equity Global | Kopernik Global All-Cap Equity A USD Cap | Heptagon | 517 |
| Equity Global Income | JPM Global Dividend A Acc USD | J.P. Morgan Asset Management | 74 |
| Equity Japan | Lazard Japanese Strategic Equity BP Acc USD | Lazard | 88 |
| Equity Sector Information Tech | Fidelity Funds – Global Technology A-EUR-DIS | Fidelity International | 39 |
| Equity UK | Artemis SmartGARP UK Equity R Acc GBP | Artemis | 150 |
| Equity UK Income | Merian UK Equity Income Fund L GBP Acc | Jupiter | 69 |
| Equity UK Sm&Mid Cap | LF Gresham House UK Smaller Companies C Acc | Gresham House | 61 |
| Equity US | Sanlam Centre American Select Equity C USD | Sanlam | 200 |
| Mixed Asset GBP Aggressive | Orbis OEIC Global Balanced Fund Standard SC Acc | Orbis | 212 |
| Mixed Asset GBP Balanced | Courtiers Total Return Balanced Risk Acc | Courtiers | 286 |
| Mixed Asset GBP Conservative | 7IM AAP Balanced C Acc | 7IM | 89 |
| Mixed Asset GBP Flexible | Ruffer Sicav-Ruffer TR International-O-GBP-Cap | Ruffer | 92 |
Note: ‘Fund count’ refers to the number of funds under consideration for a particular award classification. Source: Refinitiv Lipper
