St James’s Place (SJP) has been busy training dogs in the past six months, according to Bestinvest.
In its latest edition of its ‘Spot the Dog’ report - which identifies consistent underperformers in fund management – special mention was given to SJP’s improved performance in the past six months.
Six months ago, SJP came in second place in terms of its ‘dog funds’, with six funds totalling £5.74 billion in assets. Now it has just one dog fund, totalling £127 million.
Meanwhile, HBOS and Scottish Widows were two of the biggest offenders.
The worst offenders across HBOS and Scottish Widows are: the Halifax UK Growth; Halifax UK Equity Income; and Scottish Widows UK Growth funds.
Between them, there is over £6.7 billion held in these funds – an increase from £6.07 billion in February. These two brands account for 62 percent of assets held in dog funds.
Schroders manages the HBOS funds since agreeing a deal with Lloyds in 2018. These remain some of Spot the Dog’s most “persistent offenders” and the poor performance has persisted throughout a range of market conditions, Bestinvest said.
Jupiter also has three dog funds in the list this time round, with £774.7 million under management, a decrease from six funds in the last report.
However, Bestinvest noted these funds are all different to the funds that appeared in the last report, suggesting Jupiter has a large number of funds flirting with inclusion, even if the names vary.
Boutiques also featured on the list of dog funds.
Somerset Capital – Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg’s investment firm – has two funds on the list. These are the Global Emerging Markets fund and Global Emerging Markets Screened, which are 16 percent and 14 percent behind their peer group over three years.
Given the firm describes itself as an emerging markets specialist, this poses a potential problem.
In total, the report identified 31 dog funds, over a 50 percent decrease from the 86 in the last report and the 150 identified in January 2021.
The assets held in dog funds has dropped from £45.4 billion to £10.7 billion.
Jason Hollands, managing director of Bestinvest – Evelyn Partner’s investment platform, said: “The exceptional 12-year period of strong equity market performance that came to something of a halt at the end of last year meant that until very recently most funds investing in equities generated gains irrespective of the skill of their managers and this has helped to disguise poor relative performance and bad value for money.
“In a bull market when most funds rise in value with the upward tide, investing can seem all too easy but tougher times are a period to reflect on your approach. If you want to be a successful DIY investor, then periodically reviewing and monitoring your investments is absolutely vital and you need to be super selective in the funds or trusts you choose.
Bestinvest sources all data from Morningstar Direct. The data is as at the end of June 2022.
The report looks at equity funds with a minimum track record of at least three years. It must have delivered a worse return than the market it invests in for each one of the last three 12-month periods on the trot.
