How have private bank and wealth manager predictions of individual fund performance actually turned out? FSA’s Fund Management Awards have data that can be something like a report card for the region’s fund selectors.
FSA’s annual fund awards are free of charge (no pay-to-play) and emphasise objective methodology:
Fund selectors from banks and wealth managers are given a shortlist based on quantitative criteria, crunched by data partner FE. Using the shortlist, fund selectors and their teams choose the fund they believe will outperform peers in the next 12 months.
The 2019 awards voting finished in December. Seven months later, we looked at the returns of the award winners and found almost every fund selected as the future out-performer has beat both the sector and benchmark year-to-date (table below).
The singular exception was the Invesco Consumer Trends Fund, which has returned 21.95% versus the sector (22.91%). However, the product did beat the benchmark return of 21.05%.
The time frame for predicted out-performance — 12 months — has another volatile five months to go.
However, the preliminary results highlight the regional expertise of the fund selectors and their teams, as well as the substance of the FSA fund awards.
Fund award winners in Hong Kong, YTD*
|
Category
|
Platinum winning fund
|
Fund | Sector | Benchmark |
| Asia Pacific Equity | Schroder ISF Asian Opportunities | 15.3% | 12.6% | 9.94% |
| Emerging Market Bond | T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Bond | 12.2% | 9.24% | |
| European Equity | MFS Meridian European Value | 17.03% | 13.8% | 15.6% |
| Global Bond | Pimco GIS Global Investment Grade Credit | 9.28% | 6.14% | 9.06% |
| Global Emerging Market Equity | HSBC GIF Emerging Wealth | 20.26% | 12.9% | 18.26% |
| Global Equity | Morgan Stanley Global Opportunity | 26.6% | 16.7% | 18.26% |
| Greater China/China Equity | Investec All China Equity | 23.7% | 19.6% | 21.1% |
| High Yield | Value Partners Greater China High Yield Income | 8.52% | 7.8% | |
| Japanese Equity | Fidelity Japan Aggressive | 13.8% | 8.75% | 7.95% |
| Mixed Asset | Capital Group Global Allocation (LUX) | 13.16% | 9.66% | 18.26%/5.05%* |
| Regional Bond | BEA Union Investment Asian Bond and Currency | 7.8% | 7.79% | |
| Regional/Single Country Emerging Market Equity | J.P. Morgan Vietnam Opportunities | 11.5% | 11.35% | |
| Sector Equity | Invesco Consumer Trends** | 21.95% | 22.91% | 21.05% |
| US Equity | Morgan Stanley US Advantage | 30.29% | 21.49% | 21.86% |
