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 show you 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 well going 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 can download 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 investment fund managers. However, the top performing investment fund managers historically won't outperform the market or their peers all of the time. The table in 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 to perform well in the future then how can you do it?
The key to investing is 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 series How 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 help investors 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 Investor as well as see the performance in the widget at the foot 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 Investor helps you to simply decide the funds to invest in via your existing fund platform. Find out more about how the service works and take advantage of a 30 day FREE trial.
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
If you want to put some of your cash into a Stocks & Shares ISA, you still might be unsure...
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