Latest ‘Best Funds List’ from Bestinvest highlights the funds favoured by its investment research team

The end of the tax year is less than two weeks away and DIY investors looking for ideas on where to put their ISA or Self-Invested Personal Pension to work before the deadline at midnight on April 5 might value some guidance to help them along. Deciding where to invest your money from the thousands of funds, investment trusts and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) available can feel overwhelming, particularly for those without time or specialist knowledge to delve into the finer details of a particular fund.

Once again online investment platform and coaching service Bestinvest has done the hard work for DIY investors, unveiling the latest edition of its Best Funds List to narrow the field and offer ideas across a wide range of asset classes, markets and sectors. With more than 3,500 investment options available on Bestinvest alone, it is easy to see why rookies and seasoned pros can suffer from ‘analysis paralysis’ when deciding how to position their portfolios.

That’s why taking advantage of the expertise of the more than 300 investment management professionals at Evelyn Partners – one of the UK’s leading wealth managers with £59.1 billion assets under management and the parent company behind Bestinvest – can ease the decision-making process for those flummoxed by the dizzying array of investment choices.

The Best Funds List highlights our sector specialists’ preferred picks in each area and typically includes a range of investment approaches. Our latest batch of 122 ‘Best Funds’ features 92 actively managed and 30 passive options. Of the List’s best-of-breed actively managed funds and investment trusts, where a fund manager strives for market-beating returns, the 92 funds and trusts chosen represent just a tiny fraction of the many funds available to retail investors. This reflects Bestinvest’s view that savers must be ultra selective when choosing actively managed funds because many fail to deliver over the longer term.

The 30 low-cost passive funds featured on the List, a mix of traditional index trackers, ‘factor funds’ and Exchange Traded Funds and Exchange Traded Commodities, gives fee-conscious investors some options. The List also includes 30 listed investment companies – with both these inclusions setting the Best Funds List apart from some other platform ‘best buy’ lists that typically only feature open-ended funds rather than Investment Trusts and ETFs. We don’t want investors to miss out on investment companies, which offer access to alternative asset classes such as property or infrastructure, as well as the chance to pick up a portfolio at discount to its net asset value, or low-fee Exchange Traded Products. In addition, there are 16 investments choices for investors wanting to include environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations in their investment portfolio.

Jason Hollands, Managing Director of Bestinvest, said: “Selecting funds and trusts for an investment portfolio, particularly so close to the end of the tax year when the focus is on maximising tax-free allowances, can feel like a daunting task.

“That’s why our Best Funds List offers DIY investors a snapshot of the funds and trusts in each of the main sectors chosen by our research teams, to help them narrow down their choices. Each sector typically has a dedicated team of half-a-dozen investment managers involved in researching and monitoring the investment options available – that is a huge amount of time and expertise focused on finding the right funds.

“Our investment specialists meet the fund managers to grill them, understand their philosophy and approach, and the type of market environment that would favour their style. They also scrutinise the risk management process, what might trigger a sale of holding, and evaluate what resources are available to support them as well as assess whether there are any size or liquidity constraints around how scalable the strategy of the fund is.

“With 122 investment options on the latest Best Funds List across a wide range of sectors, investors must still decide what works for their own portfolio, time horizon, goals and risk profile – but we hope this acts as a launch pad for those looking for ideas and inspiration to spruce up their portfolios.”

For an investment to be included on the Best Funds List, we analyse each sector carefully. When considering actively managed funds we apply a clear set of principles to each investment included in the Best Funds List.  Our ‘10 commandments’ (on page 6 of the report) detail the key qualities our investment teams seek out when choosing funds, such as a clear process, favouring funds where the managers have invested their own money into the fund, taking a high-conviction approach rather than hugging the benchmarks and being prepared to limit the size of the fund.

The Best Funds List is published twice a year, but it is not a static list: investments are added or removed throughout the year. This can happen if a manager changes and we feel the replacement is unproven, or we believe changes in fund size mean the fund will need to be managed differently. Any alterations to our list are reflected as they are made on the Bestinvest website, with clients able to see which of their funds are on the Best Funds List and which are rated as Dogs, each time they log in to review their portfolio. Details of the newcomers and dropouts on the List since the last edition can be found on Page 5.

The new Best Funds List comes hot on the heels of the latest Spot the Dog report, published earlier this month, which highlighted 151 consistently poor performing equity investment funds holding £95.26 billion of investors’ wealth. This represents a 170% jump on the 56 funds featured in the previous edition in mid-2023.