The research looked at 497 track records of fund manager across a range of equity sectors where a minimum of five years of data was available.
Neil Woodford took first place, followed by Royal London’s Martin Cholwill, with Liontrust duo Anthony Cross and Julian Fosh in third. European equity veteran Richard Pease of Crux took fourth followed by Unicorn’s Chris Hutchinson in fifth.
The top 50 can be viewed here and here.
“The differences in return between the best and worst performing actively managed funds is enormous and simply cannot be explained by variations in fund costs but rather are the result of the investment decisions made,” said managing director Jason Hollands. “If you are going to invest with actively managed funds it is therefore vital to select the right managers and to always reassess the case for continuing to hold a fund when the manager or team changes as they inevitably do in a highly competitive industry.”
“The dilemma for investors is that fund performance data is typically provided for a period of just five years, which is barely an economic cycle and in any case such data may be of very limited relevance if it relates to the tenure of a manager who is no longer at the helm,” Hollands continued. “We therefore believe it is vital to assess the relevant, full career track record of the current manager in a sector which may span multiple employers.”
