This is in no small part down to its placement in IMA Specialist, which provides a very poor sector benchmark. As such, it rarely comes up against the likes of Trojan, CF Miton Special Situations, CF Ruffer Total Return, or the Jupiter Merlin portfolios in fund comparison tables.
However, its performance since launch puts it firmly in their bracket. According to FE Analytics data, the fund has returned 54.3 per cent since December 2008, almost double the returns of the IMA Active, Balanced and Cautious Managed sector averages. It has also been significantly less volatile than all but IMA Cautious Managed, and has a lower FE Risk Score than all three sectors [33].
Performance of fund vs sectors since launch
Source: FE Analytics
The fund has an annualised volatility of 8.12 per cent since launch, compared with 13.53 per cent from the Active Managed sector, 11.64 per cent from the Balanced Managed sector and 7.61 per cent from the Cautious Managed sector.
While the fund has effectively protected investors against the downside, losing only a small amount during the market tumble this year, it also outperformed all three sectors during the market rebound in the second halves of 2009 and 2010.
It stands up well against the best-performing funds in the three sectors as well. According to our data, only seven funds across the three sectors have outperformed Baillie Gifford Diversified Growth, though all of them have been significantly more volatile.
Top-10 best-performing multi-asset funds since December 2008
| Name |
Return (%) |
Volatility (%) |
FE Risk Score |
| Unicorn Mastertrust |
70.8 |
16.7 |
61 |
| Premier Enterprise |
63.7 |
17.2 |
61 |
| CF Miton Select Assets |
63.2 |
11.7 |
45 |
| MFM CFS Balanced Opportunities |
60.4 |
18.5 |
94 |
| Henderson Cirilium Dynamic |
59.5 |
12.2 |
56 |
| Henderson Managed Distribution |
59.5 |
13.8 |
54 |
| Henderson Global Strategic Capital |
58 |
17.1 |
72 |
| Baillie Giff Diversified Growth |
54.3 |
8.1 |
33 |
| Investec Managed Growth |
52.7 |
16.9 |
79 |
| Trojan |
50.8 |
7.7 |
28 |
Source: FE Analytics
With returns of 70.76 per cent, the Unicorn Mastertrust has the best record over the period; however it has an annualised volatility of 16.73 per cent, and an FE Risk Score of 61. Baillie Gifford Diversified Growth also has a higher Alpha since its launch.
Sebastian Lyon’s Trojan fund has provided Brooks and Edwardson with the sternest opposition. Though Lyon has slightly underperformed, Trojan has been less volatile and has a lower FE Risk Score.
Baillie Gifford Diversified Growth aims to beat the UK base rate plus three per cent over rolling five-year periods. It is officially an unfettered fund of funds, though it invests predominantly in vehicles under the management of Baillie Gifford. That said, ETFS Physical Gold, the Winton Futures fund and 3I Infrastructure are among the vehicle's top-10 holdings.
Tim Cockerill, head of research at Rowan Dartington, says he has been impressed by the performance of the fund since launch, although he thinks the next three years may be more telling than the last three.
"I’m surprised it’s tucked away in the Specialist sector because its performance has been very good indeed," he said. "They have a healthy weighting to a whole host of areas, including emerging market debt, infrastructure, gold and so on."
"However, though I don’t want to take anything away from the managers, it must be said that they were relatively lucky with the timing of the launch. Since they began when the market was on the way down, they started off with around 80 per cent in cash, which gave them a big boost early on."
"It will be interesting to see what their three-year record is like in a year’s time, when this early outperformance has been wiped off the slate."
Performance of fund vs sectors over 2-yrs
Source: FE Analytics
According to FE Analytics data, the fund has returned 19.06 per cent over a two-year period, almost tripling the returns of all three Managed sector averages. The fund has an annual management charge (AMC) of 1.5 per cent and is available to retail investors.