The AJ Bell FIT awards cover 15 categories. To make the voting process accessible to investors an expert panel* was enlisted to put forward their nominations in each category. The panel could nominate any investment fund (including OEICs, Unit Trusts, Investment Trusts and Exchange Traded Funds). The panel was asked to look beyond simply investment performance, but also consider how well the fund/trust delivers what it sets out to achieve and how well positioned it is for the future.
Financial advisers and retail customers that use AJ Bell’s Investcentre and Youinvest platforms were then invited to vote for their winner during August 2017.
In total, 6,600 votes were cast. The winners are all actively managed funds and comprise eleven funds and four investment trusts. The most popular individual fund was the Fundsmith Equity fund, which won the Global Equity category. First State Investments** was the only fund group to win more than one award.
The winning funds are all strong performers in their category. A £15,000 investment, split equally across the 15 winners would have more than doubled in value to £31,628 over the past five years.
The full list of winners (see table below) will be given their trophies at an awards presentation 29 September 2017.
Andy Bell, chief executive of AJ Bell, comments:
“The AJ Bell FIT awards were born out of an observation that there are an increasing number of people looking for help and guidance when it comes to fund selection. So we set out to harness the power of the 11,000 financial advisers and 150,000 customers that use our platform to see what their preferred funds are. We are not aware of any other fund awards where the people actually investing in the funds are asked their opinion.
“Although past performance was not the primary focus, it is telling that the portfolio of winners has doubled its money over the past five years. We hope the winners list will be able to help people with their research and encourage more people to engage in fund investing.”
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CATEGORIES | WINNERS | 3 year annualised return | 5 year annualised return | Value of £1,000 invested 5 years ago |
UK Equity | Liontrust Special Situations Fund | 12.55% | 13.30% | £1,867 |
European Equity | Jupiter European Fund | 19.51% | 18.11% | £2,298 |
North American Equity | Schroder US Mid Cap Fund | 19.34% | 19.21% | £2,407 |
Asian Equity | Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders Fund | 12.02% | 12.12% | £1,772 |
Japan Equity | Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon PLC | 32.62% | 31.85% | £3,984 |
Emerging Markets Equity | JP Morgan Emerging Markets | 14.77% | 11.17% | £1,698 |
Global Equity | Fundsmith Equity Fund | 25.20% | 22.23% | £2,782 |
UK Smaller Companies | Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust PLC | 17.69% | 17.60% | £2,249 |
Commodities/ Resources | BlackRock Gold and General Fund | 8.51% | -3.37% | £843 |
Technology/ Biotech | Polar Capital Global Technology Fund | 28.27% | 23.52% | £2,875 |
Property | F&C Commercial Property Trust | 10.62% | 12.95% | £1,838 |
Bonds | M&G Emerging Markets Bond Fund | 14.04% | 9.78% | £1,595 |
Income | City of London Investment Trust PLC | 8.33% | 11.42% | £1,717 |
Ethical | Kames Ethical Cautious Managed Fund | 6.15% | 9.09% | £1,545 |
Specialist | First State Global Listed Infrastructure Fund | 17.79% | 16.62% | £2,158 |
Total return on £15,000 split equally across all funds |
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| £31,628 |
Source for performance data: Financial Express to end August.
*The expert panel consisted of:
Richard Romer-Lee, founder, Square Mile Reserarch
Joel Adams, co-founder, Life Financial
Dennis Hall, MD, Yellowtail Financial Planning
Daniel Coatsworth, editor, Shares Magazine
Ryan Hughes, head of fund selection AJ Bell
**Including Stewart Investors