He is one of 45 managers to have been awarded the elite rating every year since its inception back in 2009, and is one of only a handful of fund of funds managers to achieve the accolade. "I’m genuinely delighted," he said. "Being a fund manager is very competitive and everyone can see every day of the week how you’re doing and I’m delighted I’ve been able to hang on in there."
The Jupiter manager (pictured) attributes his consistent success to a pragmatic approach to investing and adds that as a fund of funds manager, he has benefitted from the expertise of the underlying managers in his portfolios.
"The performance has been built on the back of other seriously good investors and without them it wouldn’t have happened," he said.
The manager says his two best investments are James Findlay’s Findlay Park American fund and Angus Tulloch’s First State Asia Pacific Leaders portfolio, due to the managers’ value style.
"Trying to find undervalued assets is a better way of going about investing," he said. "Looking at the downside as well as the upside tends to turn out better."
The $7.7bn Findlay Park American fund is closed to new money, although investors can still gain access through other funds of funds.
Aberdeen’s multi-manager range holds it across its top-10, for example.
While the fund has performed exceptionally well over the long-term – making 342.68 per cent over 10 years – it no longer features as a top-10 holding in any of the Merlin vehicles.
First State Asia Pacific Leaders is still open to new money, but the group recently said it was exploring ways to slow flows into the fund, which usually means a soft-closure is on the horizon.
Chatfeild-Roberts is currently positive about the US economy and thinks that the doom and gloom surrounding the UK is overstated.
"The GDP growth figures are not capturing all the data and not capturing it accurately," he said. It seems like things could be a lot worse."
"The UK economy is doing better than the figures suggest."
The manager says he is "nervously fully invested" across his eight portfolios, including the Jupiter Merlin Growth and Jupiter Merlin Income funds.
Chatfeild-Roberts is the chief investment officer at Jupiter Asset Management and heads up the firm’s Merlin fund of funds team.
The four crown-rated Jupiter Merlin Growth portfolio is top quartile in its IMA Flexible Investment sector over three, five and 10 years, although it lags the sector over the shorter term.
Over five years, the £1,7bn fund has made 41.61 per cent while the sector is up just 21.27 per cent.
Jupiter Merlin Income is also one of the leading funds in the IMA Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares sector, delivering top-quartile returns over one, three, five and 10 years.
Over the last decade, the fund has made 133.69 per cent, while the sector picked up 81.79 per cent.
The five-crown rated fund is currently yielding 3.3 per cent.
Performance of fund vs sector over 10 yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Jupiter Merlin Income was recently highlighted as one of the most consistent multi-asset funds of recent years in an FE Trustnet study.
All five of Chatfeild-Roberts’ UK-listed Merlin portfolios with a 10-year track record have been top-quartile over that period.
The Jupiter Merlin Conservative Portfolio was only launched in September 2012.
Chatfeild-Roberts has consistently outperformed his peers over one, three, five and 10 years. Over the long-term, the manager has made 195.63 per cent compared with 116.81 per cent from his peer group composite.
Performance of manager vs peers over 10-yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Although Chatfeild-Roberts has experienced several boom and bust cycles in his lengthy career, he says the current economic climate represents unchartered waters.
He says the record low interest rates and unprecedented monetary easing programmes are policy measures that investors born as far back as the 1950s would not have experienced before.
He added: "Some of the rules of the game have changed, but the principles of investment stay the same."
He says the best piece of advice he has been given in his investment career is to think for himself and not follow market noise or investment trends – explaining his preference for a value approach to investing.
All five of the Jupiter Merlin portfolios are open to retail investors and carry a total expense ratio (TER) of between 1.8 and 2.57 per cent.
Chatfeild-Roberts also co-manages Jupiter Global Managed, as well as the FSA offshore-recognised Jupiter Merlin International Balanced and Jupiter Merlin International Equities portfolios.