In the back
[ PLATFORMS & PENSIONS ]
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UK small & mid cap
Youinvest and Barclays are the only platforms to agree on a fund in this
area, Merian UK Smaller Companies – ranked ninth of 47 over five-years – both
ignoring its sister fund, Merian UK Smaller Companies Focus, rated number-
one, with five FE Crowns. The only other buy-list fund in the top-10 by five-year
performance is Marlborough Nano-Cap Growth, selected by Hargreaves.
Hargreaves
Lansdown AJ Bell Youinvest Barclays Fidelity Interactive
Investor
The Wealth 50 Favourite Funds Barclays Fund List The Select 50 Super 60
Franklin UK Mid
Cap Franklin UK Mid
Cap - - -
Marlborough Nano-
Cap Growth Man GLG
Undervalued
Assets - - River & Mercantile
UK Recovery
Marlborough UK
Micro-Cap Growth Merian UK Smaller
Companies Merian UK Smaller
Companies - Marlborough UK
Multi-Cap Growth
HSBC FTSE 250
Index Vanguard FTSE 250 - Marlborough Multi
Cap Income - - - -
- SPDR FTSE UK All
Share - - -
FE TRUSTNET
Fidelity Index UK
So, what have we learnt?
First off, this is far from a detailed and
forensic study. However, there is a
surprising lack of agreement between
analysts and when compared with
five-year performance figures, there
are surprises.
It is clear that further research is
necessary and exercising blind trust
in these lists may put your portfolio in
mild peril.
However, they do represent an
excellent starting-point for investors
who are considering a particular fund
and want to see if something better is
available.
There is also the thorny issue of past
performance being no guide to the
future. Although this is true, these
buy-lists should be searching out
consistent top performers and while
you can’t expect a fund to top the
tables all of the time, it shouldn’t be
sliding into the second or even the
third quartile over five years.
Limiting selections to unit trusts
and OEICs is also restrictive and I
applaud the use of low-cost ETFs by all
platforms and commend Interactive
Investor on its inclusion of investment
trusts.
Overall, these lists do offer value to
private investors trying to pick their
way through the myriad of choice out
there, particularly for novices who
must feel a little overwhelmed.
Assumptions
Only five platforms were included
in this study, but others do provide
buy-lists, including Bestinvest’s Top
Rated Funds, Charles Stanley Direct’s
Foundation Funds (60 to 70 funds)
and The Share Centre’s Platinum 120
fund list.
Not all funds from every list have
been included as some platforms don’t
categorise their funds in the same way,
which makes comparisons difficult.
Performance data was sampled from
FE Analytics to the end of January
2019, using the latest FE Crown
Ratings.
Buy-lists from each of the five
platforms were sampled on 28 January
and are subject to regular change.
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