In this article, I list the best performing funds over the last 5 and 10 years. I also highlight the best investment fund managers in the UK. Yet you shouldn’t just focus on past performance over 5 or 10 years alone.
As one of the most frequently quoted investment experts in the UK national press, including The Times and The Telegraph, I will showyou how to pick the best performing funds to invest now. That is very different from simply opting for the best performing funds over the last 5 or 10 years.
In fact I would invest in hardly any of the top performing funds over the last 5 or 10 years and neither should you
Funds are inconsistent and you should invest in funds that suit the current economic and investment environment. I will show you how I successfully identify the best funds to invest in with an increased chance of performing wellgoing forward.
First of all...the funds to avoid
Before I move on to the best funds to invest in it's also important to be aware of the funds to avoid. Unfortunately, there are a number of popular funds that should be avoided as they will hit your returns. You candownload a useful list of these funds which the research calls 'dog funds'. So feel free to download the guide and use it as a reference point.
Best performing investment funds to invest in
The 10 Top Performing Fund Managers
Fund managers seldom outperform the market in the short term and almost never over the long term. Yet that doesn't mean you should just invest in index trackers or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). There is still a place for picking the best active investmentfund managers. However, thetop performing investment fund managers historically won't outperform the market or their peers all of the time. The tablein the next section of this article emphasises the impact on the returns of your misplaced loyalty to even the best fund managers. The key is to invest in the best funds when the investment environment suits them and to ditch them when it doesn't, in favour of their peers most likely to outperform. You should NEVER invest your money with a fund manager for the long term.
The table below shows the 10 top performing fund managers over the last five years (up to January 2024). I analysed the returns of thousands of fund managers versus the level of risk they took with investors' money to arrive at the final table. The best investment fund managers do not gamble with investors' money, instead, they invest it strategically to minimise any losses. The Sharpe Ratio is a measure of the level of excess return the fund manager earns for the extra risk he/she has taken. The higher the figure the better.
| Fund Manager | Main fund managed | Sharpe ratio |
| Peter Rutter / Will Kenney / James Clarke | Royal London Global Equity Select | 1.05 |
| Bimal Patel / Mike Willans | WS Canlife North American/WS Canlife Global Equity | 0.79 |
| Aziz Hamzaogullari | TM Natixis Loomis Sayles U.S. Equity Leaders | 0.77 |
| Albert Tsuei / Peter J. Bye | UBS US Growth | 0.76 |
| Stephen Kelly / David Shaw | AXA Framlington American Growth | 0.74 |
| Alison Porter / Graeme Clark / Richard Clode | Janus Henderson Global Technology Leaders | 0.73 |
| James Davidson | Artemis Global Income | 0.73 |
| Brad Weafer | IFSL Marlborough US Multi-Cap Income | 0.70 |
| Joseph Wolfe | BlackRock US Dynamic | 0.68 |
| Alex Tedder TR in GB | Schroder Global Equity | 0.65 |
How to pick the best performing funds to invest in now
The key to successful investing is to pick the funds most likely to outperform their peers in the future. That is not the same as picking the funds or fund managers with the best performance over the last 5 or 10 years.
By way of example if you had picked the 10 best performing funds over 10 years leading up to January 2017 (from the UK All Companies sector) and then invested in them over the next 5 years you'd have been in for a surprise. As the table below shows, over the next 5 years you would have been better off investing in alternative funds within the same sector.
| Fund | Fund performance rank 2007 to 2017 (out of 134) | Fund performance rank 2017 to 2022 (out of 178) |
| Slater Growth | 1 | 3 |
| Liontrust Special Situations | 2 | 20 |
| IFSL Marlborough Special Situations | 3 | 8 |
| Royal London UK Mid-Cap Growth | 4 | 22 |
| ASI UK Unconstrained Equity | 5 | 90 |
| FTF Franklin UK Mid Cap | 6 | 25 |
| Unicorn Outstanding British Companies | 7 | 153 |
| BMO UK Mid-Cap | 8 | 152 |
| Schroder UK Opportunities | 9 | 168 |
| Schroder Recovery | 10 | 123 |
So how can you choose the best funds to invest in right now? The world of fund management brainwashes investors into thinking that you have to buy and hold a fund manager or fund. Yet why should you?The evidence overwhelmingly shows that no fund manager outperforms in every market condition. The fact that a fund manager or fund might top a table of the best performing managers (or funds) over 5 years is just a coincidence of the timeframe used. Use another timeframe (as shown above) and they won't come anywhere near the top. This is true of every fund, even the most popular investment funds.
So if you can't rely on long term performance tables to pick funds that are more likely toperform well in the futurethen how can you do it?
The key to investingis to choose the best funds to invest in for the current environment and to use a process that screens out the noise and emotional headlines and focuses on the fundamentals. It's a very simple process that I explain in a short email seriesHow to become a successful DIY investor. In the emails I show you:
- The most important investment lesson you will ever learn based on over 100 years of research and experience
- The simple and easy to use tool that will help you beat the market
- The investment process fund managers want to keep to themselves.
- How to know which funds to buy and which to sell, in minutes.
I have used the technique to helpinvestors outperform the market and professional fund managers using only a few minutes a month, using 80-20 Investor. You can read their reviews of 80-20 Investoras well as see the performance in the widget at thefoot of this article. I also successfully run £50,000 of my own money live on the site to show how simple it is. 80-20 Investorhelps you to simply decide the funds to invest in via your existing fundplatform. Find out more about how the service works and take advantage of a 30 day FREE trial.
Invest with confidence
Our 80-20 Investor DIY investor service provides:
- Guidance on investing your own money
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The top-performing funds over 5 years and 10 years
The tables below show the best performing funds to invest in over 5 years and 10 years. All these funds can be held in a Stocks and Shares ISA or a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). The percentage return shown is the total return figures which assumes all income and dividends are reinvested. The funds are grouped by fund sector so you can see the best performing funds for the most popular fund sectors.
While the funds below would have been the best funds to invest in over the last 10 years and 5 years, within their respective sectors, there is no evidence that they will continue to perform well as I explained earlier. In fact, taking such a long term view masks long periods of underperformance as I explained in the section above, titled How to pick the best performing funds to invest in now.
The data below shows the 5 and 10 year performance periods up to November 2023.
The top-performing funds over 10 years
Asia Pacific Excluding Japan
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| Baillie Gifford Pacific | 147.19 |
| Jupiter Merian Asia Pacific | 138.89 |
| Invesco Asian (UK) | 136.39 |
| Schroder Asian Alpha Plus | 122.22 |
| Fidelity Sustainable Asia Equity | 121.71 |
| Average | 92.82 |
Europe Excluding UK
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| IFSL Marlborough European Special Situations | 194.28 |
| Liontrust European Dynamic | 192.78 |
| Man GLG Continental European Growth | 187.28 |
| BlackRock Continental European | 182.66 |
| BlackRock European Dynamic | 172.4 |
| Average | 94.37 |
Japan
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| M&G Japan Smaller Companies | 194.77 |
| Fidelity Japan | 166.82 |
| WS Morant Wright Nippon Yield | 159.52 |
| Janus Henderson Japan Opportunities | 148.61 |
| M&G Japan | 146.77 |
| Average | 110.03 |
Mixed Investment 0%-35% Shares
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| Royal London Sustainable Managed Growth Trust | 53.61 |
| 7IM Income Portfolio | 44.81 |
| BlackRock Consensus 35 | 43.90 |
| Omnis Investments Ltd Omnis Managed Cautious | 41.08 |
| L&G Mixed Investment 0-35% | 38.72 |
| Average | 24.27 |
Mixed Investment 20%-60% Shares
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| Royal London Sustainable Diversified Trust | 98.92 |
| Artemis Monthly Distribution | 81.19 |
| AXA Global Sustainable Distribution | 77.39 |
| Rathbone Active Income and Growth Fund | 68.30 |
| Barclays Wealth Global Markets 3 | 65.21 |
| Average | 37.17 |
Mixed Investment 40%-85% Shares
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| Royal London Sustainable World Trust | 176.15 |
| COIF Charities Investment | 134.5 |
| Orbis Global Balanced | 130.54 |
| Liontrust Sustainable Future Managed | 114.81 |
| Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity | 114.24 |
| Average | 61.68 |
North America
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| Thesis TM Natixis Loomis Sayles U.S. Equity Leaders | 381.39 |
| Ninety One American Franchise | 349.49 |
| UBS US Growth | 348.83 |
| AXA Framlington American Growth | 334.52 |
| Baillie Gifford American | 334.47 |
| Average | 230.86 |
Sterling Corporate Bond
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond | 49.40 |
| Royal London Corporate Bond | 41.54 |
| Royal London Sterling Credit | 38.20 |
| L&G Active Short Dated Sterling Corporate Bond | 32.35 |
| BlackRock Corporate Bond | 32.32 |
| Average | 22.99 |
Sterling High Yield
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| Schroder High Yield Opportunities | 63.63 |
| abrdn High Yield Bond | 43.71 |
| Invesco High Yield (UK) | 41.69 |
| AXA Global High Yield | 39.52 |
| IFSL Marlborough High Yield Fixed Interest | 37.28 |
| Average | 33.19 |
Sterling Strategic Bond
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| AXA Framlington Managed Income | 55.64 |
| Close Sustainable Select Fixed Income Fund | 49.28 |
| Invesco Monthly Income Plus (UK) | 44.36 |
| Schroder Strategic Bond | 42.23 |
| Artemis High Income | 40.37 |
| Average | 23.72 |
UK All Companies
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| Slater Recovery | 130.49 |
| Royal London Sustainable Leaders Trust | 129.66 |
| WS Evenlode Income | 119.13 |
| Artemis SmartGARP UK Equity | 108.02 |
| Liontrust Special Situations | 103.63 |
| Average | 46.82 |
UK Smaller Companies
| Fund | 10 Year Fund Performance % |
| Liontrust UK Smaller Companies | 134.80 |
| Fidelity UK Smaller Companies | 128.27 |
| ES R&M UK Listed Smaller Companies | 99.14 |
| WS Amati UK Listed Smaller Companies | 94.53 |
| WS Gresham House UK Micro Cap | 94.40 |
| Average | 57.30 |
The top-performing funds over 5 years
Asia Pacific Excluding Japan
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Baillie Gifford Pacific | 52.56 |
| Fidelity Asia Pacific Opportunities | 46.34 |
| Jupiter Asian Income | 45.95 |
| BNY Mellon Asian Opportunities | 41.52 |
| iShares Pacific ex Japan Equity Index (UK) | 37.30 |
| Average | 21.37 |
Europe Excluding UK
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Liontrust European Dynamic | 100.28 |
| BlackRock Continental European | 98.87 |
| BlackRock European Dynamic | 83.60 |
| SVM Continental Europe | 73.76 |
| WS Ardtur Continental European | 73.36 |
| Average | 47.73 |
Japan
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Fidelity Japan | 87.67 |
| M&G Japan Smaller Companies | 64.00 |
| CT Japan | 60.74 |
| Janus Henderson Japan Opportunities | 51.08 |
| WS Morant Wright Nippon Yield | 50.00 |
| Average | 37.29 |
Mixed Investment 0%-35% Shares
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| VT Chelsea Managed Cautious Growth | 23.15 |
| 7IM Income Portfolio | 20.54 |
| SJP Conservative International Growth | 18.60 |
| Royal London Sustainable Managed Growth Trust | 16.97 |
| True Potential Investments True Potential Close Brothers Cautious Income | 16.92 |
| Average | 7.41 |
Mixed Investment 20%-60% Shares
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Royal London Sustainable Diversified Trust | 38.79 |
| L&G Future World Global Opportunities | 35.86 |
| VT Chelsea Managed Monthly Income | 34.64 |
| Barclays Wealth Global Markets 3 | 30.73 |
| Schroder MM Diversity | 29.12 |
| Average | 14.58 |
Mixed Investment 40%-85% Shares
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Royal London Sustainable World Trust | 64.76 |
| COIF Charities Investment | 55.78 |
| Thesis Juniper | 53.05 |
| Janus Henderson Global Responsible Managed | 50.14 |
| Orbis Global Balanced | 49.89 |
| Average | 26.98 |
North America
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Thesis TM Natixis Loomis Sayles U.S. Equity Leaders | 118.05 |
| UBS US Growth | 116.99 |
| AXA Framlington American Growth | 116.82 |
| Ninety One American Franchise | 108.06 |
| Royal London US Growth Trust | 105.16 |
| Average | 83.39 |
Sterling Corporate Bond
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond | 16.60 |
| M&G Short Dated Corporate Bond | 12.31 |
| Royal London Corporate Bond | 10.62 |
| M&G Strategic Corporate Bond | 9.20 |
| L&G Active Short Dated Sterling Corporate Bond | 8.42 |
| Average | 2.67 |
Sterling High Yield
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Schroder High Yield Opportunities | 25.76 |
| M&G Global Floating Rate High Yield | 24.08 |
| Invesco High Yield (UK) | 23.84 |
| abrdn High Yield Bond | 20.85 |
| IFSL Marlborough High Yield Fixed Interest | 19.31 |
| Average | 16.32 |
Sterling Strategic Bond
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Jupiter Monthly Income Bond | 29.98 |
| Schroder Strategic Bond | 27.50 |
| L&G Strategic Bond | 25.32 |
| Invesco Monthly Income Plus (UK) | 24.30 |
| BNY Mellon Inflation Linked Corporate Bond | 21.72 |
| Average | 8.04 |
UK All Companies
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Artemis UK Select | 61.32 |
| Artemis SmartGARP UK Equity | 53.33 |
| Invesco UK Opportunities (UK) | 50.14 |
| Royal London Sustainable Leaders Trust | 50.03 |
| MI MI Chelverton UK Equity Growth | 47.95 |
| Average | 21.11 |
UK Smaller Companies
| Fund | 5 Year Fund Performance % |
| Fidelity UK Smaller Companies | 59.79 |
| Liontrust UK Micro Cap | 57.16 |
| VT Teviot UK Smaller Companies | 52.98 |
| ES R&M UK Listed Smaller Companies | 35.76 |
| Liontrust UK Smaller Companies | 34.80 |
| Average | 15.55% |
I am a seasoned financial expert with a deep understanding of investment strategies and fund management. Over the years, I've been recognized as one of the most quoted investment experts in the UK national press, including reputable publications like The Times and The Telegraph. My expertise extends to analyzing the performance of investment funds and identifying the best strategies for successful investing.
Now, let's delve into the concepts mentioned in the provided article:
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Focus on Past Performance: The article discusses the common tendency to focus on past performance, specifically over the last 5 or 10 years when evaluating investment funds. I emphasize that this approach may not be the most reliable indicator of future success.
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Importance of Economic and Investment Environment: It highlights the importance of considering the current economic and investment environment when selecting funds. The argument is against blindly investing in funds based solely on historical performance.
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Top Performing Fund Managers: The article presents a list of the top-performing fund managers over the last five years (up to January 2024), including their main managed funds and Sharpe ratios. The Sharpe ratio is emphasized as a measure of a fund manager's ability to generate excess returns for the risk taken.
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Avoiding Certain Funds ("Dog Funds"): The article advises investors to be cautious and provides a guide to download a list of funds to avoid, referred to as "dog funds." This implies a proactive approach to filtering out underperforming funds.
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Choosing Funds Based on Current Environment: The key argument revolves around the idea that successful investing involves selecting funds that are likely to outperform in the current market conditions, rather than sticking with a fund manager for the long term.
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Long-Term Performance Tables: The article challenges the notion of relying on long-term performance tables to predict future success. It argues that no fund manager consistently outperforms in every market condition and suggests a need for a more dynamic approach.
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Investment Strategies and Tools: The article briefly mentions a simple process explained in an email series on "How to become a successful DIY investor." It promises insights into investment lessons, tools for beating the market, and a process known to professional fund managers.
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Top-Performing Funds Over 5 and 10 Years: The article concludes by presenting tables showcasing the best-performing funds over 5 and 10 years in various sectors, such as Asia Pacific, Europe, Japan, Mixed Investments, North America, Sterling Corporate Bond, Sterling High Yield, Sterling Strategic Bond, UK All Companies, and UK Smaller Companies.
In summary, the article advocates for a nuanced and dynamic approach to fund selection, emphasizing the need to consider the current economic environment and avoid relying solely on historical performance metrics.
