The best performing funds to invest in right now

8 min Read Published: 31 Mar 2023

The best performing funds to invest in right nowIn this article, I list the best performing funds over 10 years and 5 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 the start of April 2023). 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
Will Kenney/Peter Rutter Royal London Global Equity Select 0.71
James Carke Royal London US Growth Trust 0.65
Chris Ford/Tim Day SVS Sanlam North American Equity 0.64
Stephen Kelly/David Shaw AXA Framlington American Growth 0.61
Michael Clarfield/Peter Vanderlee FTF ClearBridge US Equity Income 0.57
John Bowler Schroder Global Healthcare 0.56
Robert Hay BNY Mellon Global Income 0.55
Mike Willans LF Canlife Global Equity Income 0.55
Joseph Wolfe/Todd Burnside BlackRock US Dynamic 0.55
Brad Weafer IFSL Marlborough US Multi-Cap Income 0.55

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 April 2023.

The top-performing funds over 10 years

Asia Pacific Excluding Japan

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Baillie Gifford Pacific 159.76
Invesco Asian (UK) 146.93
Fidelity Sustainable Asia Equity 136.64
JGF-Jupiter Merian Asia Pacific 129.28
Ninety One Asia Pacific Franchise 120.85
Average 87.31

Europe Excluding UK

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
IFSL Marlborough European Special Situations 237.73
BlackRock Continental European 214.15
BlackRock European Dynamic 212.80
SVM Continental Europe 201.57
Liontrust European Dynamic 196.44
Average 118.23

Japan

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
FTF Martin Currie Japan Equity 216.81
Baillie Gifford Japanese 141.42
Fidelity Japan 136.94
M&G Japan 133.67
Janus Henderson Japan Opportunities 132.70
Average 102.78

Mixed Investment 0%-35% Shares

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable Managed Growth Trust 50.86
Omnis Investments Ltd Omnis Managed Cautious 44.05
L&G Mixed Investment 0-35% 40.17
BlackRock Consensus 35 37.61
7IM Income Portfolio 36.73
Average 21.61

Mixed Investment 20%-60% Shares

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable Diversified Trust 105.84
Artemis Monthly Distribution 100.97
AXA Global Sustainable Distribution 83.19
Courtiers Total Return Cautious Risk 74.12
Huntress IFSL Ravenscroft Balanced 74.00
Average 36.89

Mixed Investment 40%-85% Shares

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable Diversified Trust 100.05
Artemis Monthly Distribution 80.70
AXA Global Sustainable Distribution 72.99
Rathbone Active Income and Growth Fund 65.78
Courtiers Total Return Cautious Risk 62.13
Average 63.32

North America

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
AXA Framlington American Growth 319.84
UBS US Growth 300.92
Ninety One American Franchise 295.45
JGF-Jupiter Merian North American Equity 278.42
CT North American Equity 278.22
Average 212.53

Sterling Corporate Bond

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond 41.17
Royal London Corporate Bond 34.27
Royal London Sterling Credit 31.17
BlackRock Corporate Bond 29.37
L&G Active Short Dated Sterling Corporate Bond 28.54
Average 17.71

Sterling High Yield

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Schroder High Yield Opportunities 58.40
abrdn High Yield Bond 42.65
AXA Global High Income 37.27
Invesco High Yield (UK) 35.65
IFSL Marlborough High Yield Fixed Interest 32.39
Average 28.50

Sterling Strategic Bond

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
AXA Framlington Managed Income 55.23
Artemis High Income 42.88
Invesco Monthly Income Plus (UK) 40.35
Schroder Strategic Bond 39.36
JGF-Jupiter Monthly Income Bond 36.80
Average 20.92

UK All Companies

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Slater Recovery 175.69
Royal London Sustainable Leaders Trust 162.25
Slater Growth 151.10
TB Evenlode Income 141.59
ES R&M UK Recovery 135.78
Average 67.28

UK Smaller Companies

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Liontrust UK Smaller Companies 200.43
Fidelity UK Smaller Companies 185.95
LF Gresham House UK Micro Cap 183.20
ES R&M UK Listed Smaller Companies 181.57
TB TB Amati UK Listed Smaller Companies 153.97
Average 99.80

The top-performing funds over 5 years

Asia Pacific Excluding Japan

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Fidelity Asia Pacific Opportunities 65.00
Schroder Institutional Pacific 48.37
Jupiter Asian Income 47.72
Baillie Gifford Pacific 47.22
BNY Mellon Asian Opportunities 45.07
Average 26.18

Europe Excluding UK

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
BlackRock Continental European 88.99
Liontrust European Dynamic 78.24
BlackRock European Dynamic 70.18
Premier Miton European Opportunities 69.83
LF Brook Continental European 69.38
Average 35.77

Japan

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Fidelity Japan 59.65
CT Japan 29.47
Janus Henderson Japan Opportunities 28.95
M&G Japan 25.39
FSSA Japan Focus 23.00
Average 17.38

Mixed Investment 0%-35% Shares

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
SJP Conservative International Growth 24.02
VT Chelsea Managed Cautious Growth 19.76
7IM Income Portfolio 15.66
True Potential Investments True Potential Close Brothers Cautious Income 14.21
Fidelity Multi Asset Open Defensive 13.81
Average 4.38

Mixed Investment 20%-60% Shares

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable Diversified Trust 35.01
VT Chelsea Managed Monthly Income 32.79
LF Ruffer Total Return 30.55
Schroder MM Diversity 28.17
SJP Balanced International Growth 26.33
Average 10.42

Mixed Investment 40%-85% Shares 

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable World Trust 60.09
COIF Charities Investment 53.25
BNY Mellon Multi-Asset Balanced 49.45
BNY Mellon Growth and Income For Charities 45.86
Thesis Juniper 45.41
Average 22.02

North America

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
AXA Framlington American Growth 110.50
Ninety One American Franchise 102.14
SVS Sanlam North American Equity 97.38
Natixis Loomis Sayles U.S. Equity Leaders 94.17
UBS US Growth 91.68
Average 71.86

Sterling Corporate Bond

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond 9.13
M&G Short Dated Corporate Bond 6.30
Fidelity Short Dated Corporate Bond 3.87
AXA Sterling Credit Short Duration Bond 3.07
L&G Active Short Dated Sterling Corporate Bond 2.74
Average -2.73

Sterling High Yield

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
M&G Global Floating Rate High Yield 11.27
abrdn High Yield Bond 10.7
Schroder High Yield Opportunities 9.02
AXA Global High Income 8.23
Invesco High Yield (UK) 5.79
Average 5.17

Sterling Strategic Bond

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
JGF-Jupiter Merian Global Strategic Bond 20.32
JGF-Jupiter Monthly Income Bond 18.03
Allianz Strategic Bond 16.11
Schroder Strategic Bond 14.85
Invesco Tactical Bond (UK) 14.56
Average 2.09

UK All Companies

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable Leaders Trust 54.76
VT Sorbus Vector 51.31
Allianz UK Listed Opportunities 46.90
Slater Recovery 46.05
VT Cape Wrath Focus 44.98
Average 17.67

UK Smaller Companies

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
VT Teviot UK Smaller Companies 54.64
Liontrust UK Micro Cap 54.60
Fidelity UK Smaller Companies 45.91
Liontrust UK Smaller Companies 31.72
ES R&M UK Listed Smaller Companies 25.57
Average 7.79