No other group with at least four funds on its books has achieved this – not even popular boutiques such as Ruffer, Troy and Liontrust.
Performance of funds vs sectors over 10yrs
| Name | 1m returns (%) |
3m returns (%) | 6m returns (%) | 1yr returns (%) | 3yr returns (%) | 5yr returns (%) | 10yr returns (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McInroy & Wood - Balanced |
5.15 | 11.35 | 14.41 | 13.7 | 33.89 | 61.04 | 214.27 |
| McInroy & Wood - Income | 4.17 | 9.15 | 11.08 | 14.92 | 31.32 | 49.28 | 192.81 |
| IMA Mixed Investment 40%-85% Shrs | 3.97 | 9.71 | 12.25 | 12.97 | 21.97 | 30.1 | 129.88 |
| McInroy & Wood - Smaller Companies |
2.06 | 11.75 | 14.93 | 13.89 | 42.33 | 80.41 | 355.96 |
| IMA Global | 6.35 | 15.66 | 18.2 | 16.21 | 24.33 | 38.64 | 154.76 |
| McInroy & Wood - Emerging Markets |
3.51 | 11.7 | 19.03 | 19.87 | 39.91 | 97.25 | n/a |
| IMA Global Emerging Markets |
5.7 | 12.06 | 18.19 | 9.71 | 15.74 | 40.71 | 406.2 |
Source: FE Analytics
Despite McInroy & Wood’s strong long-term track record, the group has never attracted a huge amount of media or investor attention.
The four funds have combined assets under management (AUM) of £590m and only two of the four have more than £50m under management.
McInroy & Wood Income, Balanced, Global Smaller Companies and Emerging Markets all have at least four FE Crowns, and all but the last have at least one FE Alpha Manager at the helm. Victor Wood, who heads up the Balanced and Income funds, has been an FE Alpha Manager in every year since the rating started back in 2009.
His colleague and fellow FE Alpha Manager Tim Wood (pictured), who heads up the £37.5m McInroy & Wood Smaller Companies fund, says the firm has never really embraced the marketing side of pooled investments.
"We are primarily a discretionary and private client investment company that has been running money for over 20 years," he said.
"We started utilising unit trusts just under 20 years ago, via our Balanced and Income funds. Those were very successful so 10 and six years ago, respectively, we launched the Smaller Companies and Emerging Markets funds."
"However, we still used the funds for our discretionary side, but because of the success and public record of the unit trusts, external investors started to become more interested."
"We have been approached by a number of platforms and if there was a real increase in interest, we would certainly look into it. However, we are not really a marketing- or demand-led company," he added.
McInroy & Wood Smaller Companies is a top-decile performer in its IMA Global sector over three, five and 10 years.
It is number-one in the sector – which comprises more than 250 portfolios – over the last decade, with returns of 355.96 per cent.
Performance of fund vs sector over 10yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Although the fund has been slightly more volatile than the sector, it has beaten its peers by 201.2 percentage points over the decade.
The fund invests almost exclusively in developed markets, split equally between the US, UK and Europe. It is a very diversified portfolio, with only one holding accounting for more than 4 per cent.
Victor Wood’s Balanced fund has also been a top-decile performer in its IMA Mixed Investment 40%-85% Shares sector over the three time frames. The £258m portfolio is number-one over five years, with returns of 61.04 per cent.
Performance of funds vs sector over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Wood’s more yield-aware Income fund finishes sixth in the sector over the same period.
Both funds have around a 75 per cent weighting to equities, and 22 per cent to fixed income assets.
The Balanced fund is more globally diversified, with 32 per cent in the UK, 31 per cent in North America and 19 per cent in Europe. The Income fund – which has a yield of 3 per cent – has a higher weighting to the UK, at 8 per cent of total assets.
The £45.4m McInroy & Wood Emerging Markets fund has been run by the trio of Francis Seymour, David Shaw Stewart and Guido Bicocchi since its launch in 2007.
Over that time the five crown-rated fund has returned 121.53 per cent, nearly doubling the returns of the IMA Global Emerging Markets sector. The fund has also been the sixth-best performing fund in the sector over five years and the fifth-best over three.
FE Alpha Manager Tim Wood says this degree of success is due to the consistent approach that all four funds incorporate.
"Our investment process is very disciplined and we operate on a collective basis," he said.
"For instance, I am nominally in charge of the Smaller Companies fund, but all of the board members have a say in how the portfolio is run."
"We have our quarterly investment meetings where we discuss our geographic exposure and our diversification techniques, plus asset-allocation discussions for the Balanced and Income funds."
"We have a global list of stocks that we choose from and no manager can deviate from that [screening] model."
"No-one can say: 'I have found this fantastic little US company I want to put in the fund.' It needs to be on the list of stocks before it can be added to the portfolio."
"We look for very strong companies with cash-generative balance sheets, sales growth and a history of delivering against their peers – I suppose it is good old-fashioned investing."
"We have an average turnover of 20 per cent, with an average holding period of about five years. What we don’t do in the funds is benchmark ourselves – we just want to make real returns well over inflation," he added.
All the McInroy & Wood funds require a minimum investment of £10,000 and their total expense ratios (TER) range from 1.55 per cent to 1.69 per cent.
Investors can access their portfolios via fund platforms such as Acentric, Nucleus and Transact.
Richard Troue, investment analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says that McInroy & Wood is off the radar because of its lack of marketing.
However, he says he would not be surprised if the fund house attracts more attention over the coming years.
"It is not a fund house I have much contact with and their funds don’t appear on our platform," he said. "In all honesty I don’t know why and I would be speculating if I gave a reason."
"Their funds have produced very good numbers over the years and their Smaller Companies fund has done well over all time periods."
"I think if retail investors were to see those numbers I’m pretty sure there would be more interest in McInroy & Wood," he added.