Discover the top 20 investment funds from a money expert who has reviewed over 1,000 funds in 25 years

For the last 25 years, I have been writing a weekly feature for Wealth focusing on investment funds and trusts. Known as Fund Focus, the goal is to offer readers an understanding of some of the funds available to enhance their investment portfolios.

Although I haven’t sat down and counted how many Fund Focuses I have compiled (that’s a task for retirement), I reckon it’s at least 1,000.

Although I do revisit certain funds, each Fund Focus – with this week’s edition found on page 58 of the newspaper – entails interviewing the fund manager, evaluating the investment performance, and analyzing independent research reports on the fund.

Unfortunately, not all the funds I investigate manage to reach their full potential or deliver on the promises made by the manager. Nonetheless, many funds have delivered significant returns to investors who were impressed by what they read and decided to invest.

Yet Fund Focus is not a tipping column. Its objective has always been to give investors an insight into funds that might be on or off their radar. And I trust we achieve our mission.

A few weeks ago, I thought it might be a cathartic exercise to look back at the Fund Focuses I have written – and identify 20 funds which I think have shone the brightest. Not just in delivering satisfactory returns, but in terms of achieving results better than funds of a similar ilk.

The following 10 funds – a mix of investment funds and stock market-listed trusts – are my UK and European favourites. I will reveal the final 10 (rest of the world picks) next week. They are not recommendations, but funds which have shone for many years – and have the potential to do so for many more years yet.

If you have your own top fund list, and feel like sharing it, please send it to me at: [email protected]. Wishing you a profitable investment journey.

1. ABERFORTH SMALLER COMPANIES

Edinburgh-based Aberforth Partners is a specialist investment house which focuses on running money invested in UK smaller companies – quoted, not unquoted, businesses.

It’s a lean, mean machine built around a tight, six-strong investment team. In total, it manages assets of £1.9billion, primarily spread across two investment trusts and an investment fund.

The flagship is the £1.1billion Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust, which later this year will be 35 years old. It is invested in 79 companies, with some familiar names in its portfolio – annuity provider Just Group and food manufacturer Bakkavor.

I looked at this trust nearly ten years ago when it was riding high – five-year investor returns of 120 per cent. But the subsequent investment journey has been trickier as a result of a subdued market in UK smaller companies. Since December 2015, returns generated have totalled 60 per cent.

Yet there are few other trusts or funds I would back to extract gains from this slice of the UK stock market (the bottom 10 per cent based on the market capitalisation of companies).

Recent returns, relative to rivals, are outstanding – 94 per cent over the past five years against a peer group average of 60 per cent. The investment managers also invest heavily in the funds they run: ‘skin in the game’ is always a good signal to investors that their money will be keenly managed. In addition, the trust has delivered 14 years of annual dividend growth.

Aberforth doesn’t court publicity, preferring instead to concentrate on looking after the financial interests of their investors. Frustrating for inquisitive journalists, but as the late Alan Steel (a super financial adviser) told me ten years ago when I had failed to get an interview with Aberforth: ‘I’m happy for them [Aberforth] to remain silent as long as their performance numbers impress.’

Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust is a great way to get exposure to UK smaller companies. The trust’s annual charges total 0.78 per cent.

2. ARTEMIS INCOME

There are few better UK equity income funds than Artemis Income. This £4.9billion fund is 25 years old next month and its success is largely down to the enduring ability of long-standing manager Adrian Frost – aided by Nick Shenton and Andy Marsh – to identify outstanding investment opportunities.

When I interviewed Marsh and Shenton in May 2021, the fund was in recovery mode after the economic lockdown of 2020 and dividend cuts applied by most of UK plc. Since then, it has generated steady returns for its investors, knocking spots off many of its rivals: returns of 37 per cent, compared with an average 24 per cent recorded by its peer group.

Income is paid to investors twice a year and is equivalent to about 4 per cent per annum.

The portfolio has few surprises with income-friendly stocks to the fore: the likes of London Stock Exchange Group, Tesco and Imperial Brands.

The fund’s strength is its lack of surprises. It represents a Steady Eddie play on the UK stock market. Artemis is also an outstanding independent investment house where the fund managers (like Aberforth) put their money where their mouth is – investing in the funds they run.

Among its fans is scrutineer Fund Calibre. It says Artemis Income has been ‘a stalwart of the UK equity income sector for two decades and has an excellent team, a strong process and a long-term track record’. The result, it adds, is the delivery of a ‘sustainable and durable income’.

Hargreaves Lansdown also includes it on its wealth shortlist of top funds, describing it as a ‘great core to an equity income portfolio’. Annual charges total 0.8 per cent.

3. CITY OF LONDON

This £2.3billion investment trust is a dead cert for income seekers.

Run for the past 34 years by Job Curtis of investment house Janus Henderson, it invests more than 90 per cent of its assets in the UK stock market. Long-term growth in investors’ capital and income is the objective – and it delivers.

Dividends, paid quarterly, have grown annually for the past 58 years – an achievement only matched by two other funds: Bankers and Alliance Witan. In the financial year to the end of June 2024, the dividend paid to shareholders totalled 20.6p a share. To put this into context, its shares trade at around £4.70.

Given its income slant, the fund’s portfolio is not racy, but it comprises stocks you will be familiar with: the likes of HSBC, Shell, and British American Tobacco. It also has BAE Systems among its top holdings – a beneficiary of the push towards greater defence spending across Europe.

Returns since I looked at the fund in September 2019 are modest at just below 50 per cent, but this period embraces the sharp fall in stock markets as Covid forced most of the world into lockdown. Over the past five years (post the beginning of lockdown), returns are 78 per cent.

City of London’s appeal is four-fold: a Steady Eddie (we all need them in our portfolio); a fund manager who has been around the block more than once (backed by an impressive equity income team at Janus); low annual charges (0.37 per cent); and a stream of rising dividend income.

Both Fund Calibre and investing platform Interactive Investor include the FTSE250-listed fund in their respective top picks.

Fund Calibre loves its ‘conservative approach’, while Interactive describes it as a ‘compelling’ option for investors seeking a mix of income and capital growth from the UK stock market.

I love it. Rarely raved about, but the kind of fund you want at the heart of your investment portfolio.

4. FIDELITY SPECIAL VALUES

It’s been a hard gig for Fidelity’s Alex Wright since he stepped into the shoes of the great Anthony Bolton – one of the country’s best UK investment managers of all time. Yet he has done more than an adequate job.

He is manager of £1.1billion investment trust Fidelity Special Values, which he has run since 2012 – and he has done an exceptional job. He has grown the trust’s income every year since taking over while nurturing steady returns from a portfolio focused on the UK stock market. It hasn’t been plain sailing for Wright, far from it, yet he has stuck to his policy of investing in undervalued stocks in the hope that they will realise their true value in time.

When I looked at the trust in May 2021, its share price had enjoyed a strong bounce after the market carnage of 2020. Since then, it has quietly delivered returns, comfortably outperforming its UK all companies peer group. Indeed, it has posted positive returns of 32 per cent, compared with the zero-return recorded by the average of its peer group.

Both Interactive Investor and Fund Calibre include it among their top funds. Interactive describes it as a ‘strong option for investors seeking a contrarian and value orientated approach to investing across the market cap spectrum of the UK market’.

Fund Calibre says the trust should appeal to investors looking for a ‘value play in the UK market, with a medium to long-term time horizon’. Annual charges total 0.7 per cent.

5. JO HAMBRO CAPITAL MANAGEMENT UK EQUITY INCOME

Since launching 21 years ago, the £1.8billion fund has remained in the capable hands of managers Clive Beagles and James Lowen.

Between them, they bring 65 years of experience to the investment party. They know how to run a UK equity income fund.

Although the fund’s portfolio comprises the usual income-friendly UK stocks – banks such as Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds and insurers Aviva, Legal & General and Phoenix – the managers run their fund better than many rivals.

Since I took a look at the fund back in November 2022, JOHCM UK Equity Income has generated a return of 30 per cent for investors – better than the 22 per cent for the average of its peer group.

Beagles and Lowen don’t bury their heads in the sand, regularly opining on prospects for the fund, the UK stock market and equity income investing.

I get more updates on their fund than any other: the latest telling me that the fund was the 13th best performing fund in the UK equity income sector over the past year; ranked in the second decile (top 10 to 20 per cent of UK equity income funds) over both three and ten years; the first decile over five years; and the best in its sector since launch in 2004.

Beagles is a delight to interview. His enthusiasm is infectious and, for investors, reassuring. Dividends are paid quarterly and the income on offer is just short of 5 per cent a year. A class fund.

6. JPMORGAN CLAVERHOUSE

This trust should appeal to those who like a mix of long-term capital growth and a rising income from their investments.

To date, it has notched 52 consecutive years of annual dividend increases and it doesn’t seem in a hurry to end this record. In the last financial year, it paid quarterly dividends totalling 35.4p a share (34.5p in the year before) and it has already declared a first quarter dividend for 2025 ahead of last year.

The fund’s overall returns are ahead of its UK equity income peer group over three, five and ten years. Respective returns over these time periods are 27, 75 and 90 per cent. When I looked at the trust more than ten years ago, it was managed by William Meadon and Sarah Emly, who sadly died in late 2017.

Today, Anthony Lynch, Callum Abbot and Katen Patel are at the helm, but it’s very much business as usual, carving out returns from a portfolio built around familiar income-friendly UK stocks (the likes of AstraZeneca, Barclays, HSBC, and Shell).

For the record, the fund has registered a 95 per cent return since my review in February 2015. Annual fund charges total 0.63 per cent and the trust has assets valued at £420million.

Like many of my favourite UK funds, JPMorgan Claverhouse is more steady than racy.

7. LAW DEBENTURE

This trust is a portfolio diversifier. Indeed, I would say there is little in the investment world that comes close to matching its offer: a portfolio comprising income-friendly UK stocks which sits alongside its ownership of successful unlisted business Independent Professional Services (IPS).

In simple terms, the equity portfolio (accounting for around 80 per cent of the trust’s assets) provides a mix of capital and income return – and is managed by James Henderson and Laura Foll at Janus Henderson.

IPS, a provider of services to companies – such as company secretarial duties and pension trusteeship – throws off a revenue stream which helps boost the trust’s ability to furnish shareholders with dividends.

For the past 15 years, the £1.2billion trust has grown its annual dividend. For the past 46 years, it has either maintained or grown it.

Since my report on the trust in July 2019, the trust has generated total returns approaching 100 per cent – twice better than the average for its UK equity income peer group. Over the past five years, returns have totalled 126 per cent.

It’s a trust that you need to get your head around. But once you do, it makes perfect sense. Dividends are paid quarterly and in the last financial year (to the end of 2024) totalled 33.5p a share. To put this income into perspective, the shares trade at around £9.15. Annual total charges are reasonable at 0.5 per cent.

Quirky? Yes, and maybe that explains why it doesn’t register on the ‘best buys’ of most investment platforms. But is it good? Not half.

8. TEMPLE BAR

Under the stewardship of asset manager Redwheel, investment trust Temple Bar is enjoying a rich vein of form – and there is little reason to see why it can’t continue.

In Ian Lance and Nick Purves, the £850million trust has a pair of shrewd managers at the wheel. Their modus operandi is to bargain hunt – find undervalued companies, invest in them, and then patiently wait for the value to come through.

When I reviewed the trust in January 2021, Lance and Purves had been in situ for two months. They had inherited a portfolio badly impacted by lockdown and they hadn’t hung around changing it.

The number of stocks had been reduced from 50 to 30, with the emphasis on holding companies whose share price did not reflect their ability to generate earnings over the next few years. Current holdings total 35. The results have been outstanding: a subsequent return in excess of 80 per cent – compared with 35 per cent from its UK equity income peer group.

Financial stocks dominate the portfolio: Barclays and NatWest are among the trust’s biggest holdings. These banks, says Lance, have turned a corner and he believes they will ‘continue to compound significant value for shareholders over time’.

This trust is the antithesis of growth investment funds with exposure to US tech companies. It makes a great piece of an investment jigsaw. Ongoing charges are reasonable at 0.61 per cent.

9.FIDELITY EUROPEAN

Since I reviewed this investment trust in August 2019, it has undergone a name change: from European Values to plain old European. But under its bonnet, little has altered with Sam Morse continuing to pull the fund’s strings, assisted by Marcel Stotzel (appointed in September 2020). Morse has run the fund for more than 14 years.

Many of the top 10 holdings of more than five and a half years ago are still dominant in the portfolio – the likes of Swiss food and drinks giant Nestle, Dutch semi-conductor company ASML and French cosmetics company L’Oreal. This reflects Morse’s preference to stick with strong corporate brands that have resilient balance sheets and a capacity to pay dividends. Sticking, rather than twisting, is his investment mantra.

It’s working, judging by the 14 years of annual dividend growth that the trust has under its belt – and its strong performance. Since August 2019, it has recorded overall returns in excess of 80 per cent. Over the past five years, it has made total gains of 95 per cent.

Interactive says the trust is an ‘attractive option’ for investors wanting exposure to European shares. Fund Calibre describes it as a ‘very solid core fund’. This £1.6billion fund is a portfolio mainstay which will appeal to those wanting a steady stream of income (paid twice a year) – plus capital return – from a portfolio of quality European companies. Total annual charges are 0.77 per cent.

10. JPMORGAN EUROPEAN GROWTH & INCOME

When I reviewed this £490million trust in October, it was two-and-a-half years into a radical makeover. This had resulted in a simplification of its share structure (two classes consolidated into one); the ongoing charges taking a haircut; and a name change from European to European Growth & Income.

Today, the fund is in rude health. Since October, it has generated returns of 18 per cent and, post makeover, it has registered gains in excess of 50 per cent. Against rival European trusts, its performance numbers look impressive.

The portfolio is managed by Timothy Lewis, Alexander Fitzalan Howard and Zenah Shuhaiber, who use a mix of in-house quantitative research and qualitative analysis to buy and sell stocks. As Lewis told me last October, the result is a clearly defined investment process. ‘The quantitative research,’ he said, ‘is an ideas generator which then allows us to do some digging into the stocks we like.’

Top-ten holdings include German software company SAP and Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche.

Dividend payments are designed to rise as the trust’s assets increase in value. In the financial year to the end of March just gone, it paid quarterly dividends totalling 4.8p a share, compared with 4.2p in the previous year. A trust redesigned to give it wider income appeal. Ongoing charges are a tad under 0.7 per cent.

11. ALLIANCE WITAN

Alliance Witan is one of the country’s largest investment trusts with a portfolio valued at £4.7billion. It’s a constituent of the FTSE100 Index and only trusts Scottish Mortgage (run by Baillie Gifford) and F&C (managed by Columbia Threadneedle) are larger.

Although its size is a comfort blanket for investors, it’s the way the trust is managed that stands it apart from rivals. Its portfolio is parcelled out to external investment houses to manage, most running 20-stock mini-portfolios and each bringing something different to the Alliance Witan party in terms of investment style or specialism.

The managers are chosen (and fired) by financial consultants Willis Towers Watson and are drawn from all four corners of the globe. The resulting combined portfolio comprises more than 200 stocks with nearly 60 per cent of the holdings listed in the United States.

While six of the ‘magnificent seven’ stocks are among the trust’s top 20 holdings – Tesla is the absentee – Willis keeps a lid on the exposure by capping all individual stock positions at 5 per cent. The trust’s biggest current stake is in Microsoft (4.1 per cent of assets).

When I looked at Alliance in late October 2018 (it became Alliance Witan in October last year after it consumed rival trust Witan), Willis was just bedding in as the trust’s overseer and the verdict was out as to whether its appointment would be to the benefit of shareholders.

But Willis’s appointment has been a resounding success. Since then, the fund has generated a total return of 90 per cent. Over the same period, the average global trust has registered a 50 per cent return.

Willis has ensured the trust’s record for delivering annual dividend has remained intact. It now stands at 58 years.

Annual charges are a tad below 0.6 per cent. An ideal core investment holding.

12. ARTEMIS GLOBAL INCOME

The manager of this £1.6billion fund, Jacob de Tusch-Lec, is one of the investment industry’s unsung stars. He has run it since it was launched in July 2010 and has delivered investors an intoxicating mix of capital and income return.

Back in March 2013 when I first interviewed him for Fund Focus, he told me that his aim was to ‘build a diversified portfolio where we can maintain and increase the dividends payable to our investors’.

He has been true to his word, in the process delivering average annual income growth of 8 per cent and capital returns on top. Total returns since then have topped 240 per cent against an average return for the global equity income peer group of 160 per cent.

Tusch-Lec has never changed his spots, building the fund’s portfolio around quality companies that are attractively priced and pay dividends.

But he always ensures the fund’s asset allocation acknowledges the state of the world economy. The result is a fund which has nearly a third of its assets in European listed companies – he thinks US equities are too expensive.

Annual fund charges are just under 0.9 per cent. A super fund and a top-drawer investment manager.

13. BANKERS

This £1.2billion global trust lives up to its name. It’s a banker in terms of providing ballast to any portfolio.

Managed by Janus Henderson, this fund will never set the investment world on fire but equally it won’t let you down.

For income seekers, it’s a dream, with 58 years of consecutive increases in annual dividend under its belt. Dividends are paid quarterly.

Since I analysed the trust in February 2019, it has performed respectably, delivering total returns in excess of 50 per cent (better than its global peer group). Over the past one and five years, it has slightly outperformed its peer group.

The fund has more than 100 holdings with a bias to the United States (more than 60 of per cent of its assets are invested there). It has top 10 holdings in US tech companies Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.

The fund has been managed by Alex Crooke for nearly 22 years. His management is unusual, with Crooke responsible for setting the trust’s asset allocation – and the various Janus Henderson investment desks then responsible for running slices of the fund’s portfolio.

As Crooke told me back in 2019: ‘The managers pick the stocks, and I ensure the jigsaw pieces come together and make a good fit.’

Ongoing annual charges are competitive at 0.51 per cent.

14. BLUE WHALE

Investment fund Blue Whale Growth has been a success story since launching in 2017.

Backed by billionaire Peter Hargreaves, co-founder of investing platform Hargreaves Lansdown, the fund has grown in size to just above £1billion under the stewardship of Stephen Yiu.

Over the past five years, it has generated investor returns of 67 per cent – ahead of the average for its global peer group (60 per cent).

When I looked at the fund in July 2021, it had enjoyed two calendar years of strong returns – 27 per cent in 2019 and 26 per cent in 2020. Yet, progress since then has been slower as the result of the market wobbles of 2022 and more recently as a result of President Trump’s arrival at the White House and his decision to impose tariffs on nations trading with the US. Total returns since July 2021 have been just above 20 per cent – higher than the average for its peers.

Yiu’s portfolio comprises big companies that he believes have the ability to grow and increase profits over the long term. Top ten holdings include renowned growth stocks such as Nvidia – as well as lesser-known ones such as German pharma giant Sartorius and US tobacco company Philip Morris.

Yiu is one of the country’s most transparent fund managers who keeps investors abreast of portfolio changes. As the fund grows, he has also promised to chip away at its annual charge (currently 1.08 per cent). A lovely investor-friendly touch.

The icing on the cake is Hargreaves’s support. Peter has a big slug of money in the fund – a feather in Yiu’s cap – and only backs winners.

Fund Calibre gives the fund an elite rating, applauding Yiu’s ‘willingness to be pragmatic’ as an investment manager.

15. FUNDSMITH EQUITY 

I last took a Fund Focus look at Fundsmith Equity nearly eleven years go – the day before Neil Woodford’s launch of his doomed Equity Income fund.

At the time, the fund had assets of £2billion and had delivered returns since launch in November 2010 of 67 per cent.

Today, the fund has grown to £20billion and since writing about it in June 2014, it has generated returns of close to 300 per cent, compared to the average for its global peer group of just over 150 per cent.

Terry Smith, manager of the fund and chief executive of investment house Fundsmith, has delivered in spades.

Although the fund’s relative performance has tailed off in recent years, underperforming the average for its peer group over both three and five years, Smith has built an astonishingly successful fund. Only in one calendar year – 2022 – has the fund failed to generate a positive return for investors.

Smith is a long-term investor who invests in high quality businesses which are valued attractively. He prefers companies that generate lots of cash and whose business model is difficult for rivals to replicate.

The fund currently has stakes in 28 companies with Meta, Microsoft, and Visa among its top 10 holdings. Total annual charges are a tad over one per cent.

Judging by his recent appearance on Radio 4’s Today programme to talk about the retirement of investment legend Warren Buffett, Smith is determined to keep doing what he does best: making money for patient investors. A Warren Buffett in the making?

My top 20 fund list would be incomplete without Fundsmith Equity. Fund Calibre says Smith’s ‘clear, straightforward process of finding easy-to-understand businesses without overpaying for them has proved a hugely successful and resilient approach’.

16. GUINNESS GLOBAL INNOVATORS 

I love the approach that Guinness Global Investors takes with many of its funds.

For a start, it sticks to its knitting, running portfolios in three broad churches: global equities, energy, and Asia.

It is also highly disciplined in how it runs these portfolios, ensuring none are overdependent on one particular stock.

In simple terms, regular profits are taken from the fund’s best performing holdings and recycled back into stocks that are not doing as well. By doing this, a fund captures investment gains rather than blindly running with winners.

It has worked well on Guinness Global Innovators, a £950million fund that invests in companies benefiting from innovation: be it in technology, management, or other business areas.

Amongst its 30 stocks are US payment processing giants Mastercard and Visa. These sit alongside the likes of US tech company Ametek and Netflix. More than 70 per cent of the portfolio comprises companies listed in the US.

I took a look at the fund in December 2020 when it had made five-year gains for investors of 139 per cent. Although returns since then have been modest, no investor can scoff at a 40 per cent return, against the 25 per cent return from the average global investment fund. The Guinness formula obviously works.

The fund is still run by Doctor Ian Mortimer and Matthew Page – managers who are not frightened to go out and meet investors at specially organised events. I attended one of these gatherings and I was rather impressed (more managers should do it).

Total annual charges are 0.81 per cent.

 17. JPMORGAN GLOBAL GROWTH & INCOME

This £2.7billion investment trust has performed quite brilliantly since I took a look at it in October 2019. It has delivered a total return just short of 100 per cent – way above its global equity income peer group (just above 50 per cent).

It ticks many boxes, including low annual charges (0.48 per cent) which will reduce as the fund grows in size.

It is income friendly with dividend payments paid quarterly. It also lays down a quarterly payment at the start of its financial year – which it then tries to stick to for the remaining three quarters. So, for the current year ending June 30, shareholders know for near certainty that their annual income will be 22.8pence a share (four payments of 5.7pence).

The fund benefits from JPMorgan’s global presence with managers located in both New York and London deciding upon the portfolio’s composition. The trust’s strings are primarily pulled by Helge Skibeli in London with James Cook (London) and Timothy Woodhouse (New York) adding support.

The trust is 70 per cent invested in the US with the four biggest positions being Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Nvidia. Yet it’s the quality of the company rather than where it is listed which the managers are most interested in.

A super investment.

18. STS GLOBAL INCOME & GROWTH 

This global investment trust has undergone a big makeover in recent years, appointing new managers in Troy Asset Management, and changing its name (it was previously called Securities Trust of Scotland).

It’s a transformation that was in its early stages when I interviewed Troy’s James Harries, manager of the trust, in February 2021.

Back then, Harries said the focus would be on delivering a mix of income growth and security of capital in recognition of the elderly shareholder base. He has not disappointed.

Total returns have been just short of 40 per cent, compared to an average return from the global peer group of seven per cent.

The £290 million trust is conservatively managed, a feature of all funds run by Troy. The result is a global fund that is short on US tech companies with the only exposure to the ‘magnificent seven’ US stocks being in Microsoft.

In other words, it is more defensive than attack-minded, providing a rising flow of income to shareholders while gently enhancing the value of investors’ capital (and preserving it when stock markets plunge).

Dividends are paid quarterly, delivering an annual income in the region of 2.75 per cent.

The fund is a portfolio backstop – important ballast. Solid rather than sexy.

IN ASIA, LOOK AT…

19. JUPITER ASIAN INCOME 

This £1.8billion fund draws heavily on the experience of manager Jason Pidcock who has been at the helm since its start in March 2016.

Pidcock knows Asian stock markets like the back of his hand – and it shows in the results for Jupiter Asian Income: gains of 140 per cent plus since launch, 73 per cent over the past five years and 65 per cent since my review of the fund in March 2019.

The manager’s trump card lies in his investment approach. He prefers large, capitalised stocks (the likes of tech giants TSMC and Mediatek in Taiwan) which pay dividends – while concentrating the portfolio in Asia’s more established economies (Taiwan, Australia, and Singapore). He then backs his choices – the portfolio comprises just 27 stocks.

Income is equivalent to around four per cent a year (payments are quarterly) and total annual charges are around one per cent.

The fund gets the thumbs up from both Hargreaves Lansdown and Fund Calibre. Hargreaves includes it on its wealth list of top funds, based on Pidcock’s ‘good stock picking,’ the fund’s income bent (unusual for an Asian fund), and the manager’s long and successful record investing in Asia.

Fund Calibre labels Jupiter Asian Income an ‘elite’ fund, describing it as ‘a relatively defensive Asia Pacific option.’

I met Pidcock a while ago at a Fund Calibre investment dinner and was impressed with the grasp he has of his investment brief. Nothing suggests his grasp remains anything but firm. One of the best Asian focused fund managers in the business. He is assisted on the fund by Sam Konrad.

20. SCHRODER JAPAN TRUST 

When I had a look under the bonnet of this investment trust in July 2021, it was in recovery mode – having generated a 26 per cent return in the previous twelve months.

Under the watchful eye of London based manager Masaki Taketsume, the £280million trust has continued to deliver positive returns for shareholders, albeit at a slower rate. Since July 2021, it has recorded total returns in excess of 30 per cent, stealing a march on many of its rivals. For example, Baillie Gifford Japan Trust has delivered losses of 20 per cent plus over the same period.

The trust underwent a name change in 2023, dropping its ‘growth’ label. It now delivers an attractive dividend, paid quarterly, which is equivalent to an income of around 4.3 per cent.

This stream of income, a reflection of Japanese companies becoming more shareholder-friendly, is a feature Taketsume referred to in 2021 and thought would play to the trust’s advantage. He has been proved right.

The annual ongoing charge is a tad over 1.1 per cent.

• All figures correct at the time of writing.