The Balanced fund has consistently outperformed the Income fund on a total return basis, as it has a broader income mandate allowing it to focus more on capital growth.
The McInroy & Wood Income portfolio naturally has a higher yield, currently at 3.1 per cent. It is also less volatile than its counterpart.
Both have an 80/20 split between equities and fixed interest at present. The Income portfolio boasts typical dividend-paying names in its Top 10, including GlaxoSmithKline and National Grid.
The Balanced portfolio has many of the same names, but has more exposure to smaller and mid cap companies. Abbott Laboratories and Ecolab are both Top 10 positions.
The McInroy & Wood funds are only available on a select number of platforms, including Transact and Nucleus. A minimum initial investment of at least £10,000 is required if going direct through the fund house.
Both of Mr Wood’s funds have a TER of 1.55 per cent.
Chris Hutchinson
Unicorn’s Chris Hutchinson is one of the 61 newcomers to the FE Alpha Manager list this year.
His colleague John McClure has turned heads in recent months, thanks to the stellar performance of his Unicorn UK Income fund. Increasing inflows have followed as a result.
However, Unicorn has another rising star in Mr Hutchinson; his five FE Crown-rated Unicorn Outstanding British Companies fund is a top-quartile performer in its IMA UK All Companies sector over one, three and five years, with returns of 25 per cent, 72 per cent and 102 per cent respectively. It has comfortably beaten the FTSE All Share benchmark in the process as well.
However, in spite of its dominance, Unicorn Outstanding British Companies is small, with only £16m assets under management (AUM), and is only available on certain platforms.
The manager runs a concentrated portfolio of roughly 25 stocks with more than 50 per cent of assets invested in the Top 10 companies alone. He targets companies that are world leaders in their respective fields and invests across the market cap spectrum.
In spite of its overweight in small and mid caps, this fund is consistently less volatile than both its sector and index. For three years, it has an annualised volatility of 13.6 per cent, putting it in the top quartile against its sector in terms of risk control.
Among the manager’s Top 10 holdings are Rolls Royce and heating company Bodycote, which sits in the FTSE 250.
Mr Hutchinson has been manager of the fund since January 2007. It requires a minimum investment of £2,500 and has a TER of 1.74 per cent. He also heads up Unicorn UK Smaller Companies, with fellow Alpha Manager McClure.
Mary McBain
There is a shrinking pool of investable top-rated managers in the emerging markets sector as a result of various soft-closures; however, Ruffer’s Mary McBain is a viable alternative.
