With 88 funds achieving the accolade, Skandia has more than twice as many top-rated funds as its closest rival Aviva, which has 34. The study only included onshore portfolios.The sheer size of the Investment Solutions range is the principal reason why Skandia has so many sector-leading portfolios in its stable. With over 1,000 funds, it is by far the largest of all the pension ranges listed on FE Analytics. By contrast, Standard Life has 372, AXA Wealth has 385 and Aviva has 424.
The figure of 88 means that Skandia has 36 per cent of all of the five-crown rated funds in the IMA unit trust and OEIC universe.
"We’re obviously delighted to have the top-rated range," said Graham Bentley, head of proposition at Skandia. "We’re all about pensions set for purpose – not only in terms of flexibility and reacting to new regulation, but also giving people the biggest range of funds to choose from."
"We have a very good relationship with the vast majority of the fund groups. This means that when there is a fund launch, we have plenty of notice to make sure that it’s in our range straight away."
"If you’re in an existing ‘no restriction’ pension and want to switch out of a fund, all of those on our list are available," he added.
The Investment Solutions range offers investors exposure to the usual suspects in the fund management industry, such as the likes of Invesco Perpetual High Income, First State Asia Pacific and the Jupiter Merlin range; however, it also has some of the more obscure top-rated funds on its books.
CF JM Finn Global Opportunities, Unicorn UK Income and Fidelity UK Smaller Companies are among the five-crown rated funds on the list. All of these three have less than £100m assets under management (AUM).
FE Alpha Manager Anthony Eaton’s £74m CF JM Finn Global Opportunities fund has returned 123.15 per cent since it was launched in January 2004, compared with 59.77 per cent from its IMA Global sector average and benchmark – albeit with more volatility. It has also beaten its benchmark over a five-year period and is a top-decile performer in its sector over three years, with returns of 65 per cent.
Performance of fund since launch vs sector
Source: FE Analytics
Unicorn UK Income tops its IMA UK Equity Income sector over three- and five-year periods, while Fidelity UK Smaller Companies is the second-best performing portfolio in the entire unit trust and OEIC universe over three years, with returns of 143.4 per cent.
"We’re adding funds all the time," continued Bentley. "We currently have around 50 in the pipeline, most notably some new offerings from Dimensional, and Invesco Perpetual’s risk-targeted range."
When asked whether the firm was planning on adding Dr Mark Mobius’ new Templeton Africa fund to its range, Bentley said: "The majority of IFAs we deal with don’t tend to be great buyers of the exotic funds, but as always, if there is a demand for it we will look to add it."