Independent and credible ratings to aid fund selection
With thousands of funds to select from, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. Ratings can quickly help narrowing down the list and help financial advisers, investors and fund selectors compare funds. At FE Fundinfo, we look at funds from all angles and highlight key features such as fund performance, manager, track history and index tracking consistency, so financial advisers can choose funds based on one or multiple criteria important to them or their end client.
Based on quantitative and independent ISO accredited data, we offer multiple ratings such as Crown Ratings and Alpha Managers, giving the fund selector multiple tools that can aid the decision making. Crown Fund Ratings are based on a fund’s historical performance and are designed to help investors distinguish funds that have superior performance in terms of stock picking, consistency and risk control, whilst Alpha Manager Ratings look at the top UK fund managers and the performance throughout their career.
To help advisers easily access a large range of information in one place, we have recently introduced a new fund dashboard, making it easier for Financial advisers to absorb key fund information at a glance. A joint venture with Square Mile, the Fund Dashboard has been developed based on a broad industry consultation.
Taking inspiration from food-labelling, the Fund Dashboard aims to provide a comprehensive view of key fund characteristics to support informed fund selection based on five key elements:
- Opinion: A combination of a qualitative and quantitative assessment of a fund’s ability to meet its objectives through Square Mile’s Fund Ratings and FE fundinfo’s Crown Fund Ratings respectively.
- Performance: A representation of a fund’s absolute annualised return during the time frame stipulated in its objective and its performance versus its objective.
- Risk: An assessment of the risk of the fund and the asset class in which it invests as well as its Synthetic Risk and Reward Indicator (SRRI) profile and the fund’s maximum drawdown within the period stipulated in its objective.
- Cost: An overview of the fund’s ongoing charges, its transaction costs and the total cost of ownership.
- ESG credentials: An assessment of ESG credentials at a company and fund level based on Square Mile’s ESG Integration Assessments.
It is important to remember that a fund’s rating alone doesn’t guaranty investment success and should be used as one of many key resources available when researching funds. However, it is a good shortlisting tool and through FE Analytics you can also use The Fund Filter to filter funds based on different parameters, including the FE Fundinfo Crown Ratings, which can help simplify the fund evaluation process.
To learn more about The Fund Dashboard or FE Analytics, please get in touch.