Revealed: the wealth managers with the best investment returns

One of the most important things to look at when you choose a wealth manager is, of course, how much money they make for their clients.

Yet the investment performance of these companies can often seem shrouded in secrecy.

Every year the specialist publication Citywire, using data from the research firm ARC, shines a light on which firms have delivered the best returns for investors over a threeyear period.

The figures cover a turbulent period for stock markets: the S&P 500 index of American shares, the MSCI World index and the MSCI Emerging Markets index all fell by nearly 20pc in 2022.

Lee Goggin, of the platform findawealthmanager.co.uk, said: “The past 18 months have been a challenging time for the industry and some have done a lot better than others.”

For “aggressive” investors who want more than 80c of their portfolio to be invested in shares, Cardale Asset Management has delivered the best returns over the past three years.

About 250 clients hold a collective £145m in the Cardale High Risk portfolio, which made 36pc over the period. Ian Wood, from the company, said: “The top-performing stocks in our High Risk portfolio have been Fortinet, Novo Nordisk, Hermès, TSMC and LVMH.”

Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk’s market value this year exceeded Denmark’s annual economic output thanks to soaring sales of Ozempic.

This helped boost the fund’s performance. However, the fund has a minimum investment of £150,000.

For investors who want 60pc to 80pc of their money in shares, the best portfolio was the AJ Bell Adventurous fund, which made 29pc over the three years. Ryan Hughes, of AJ Bell, said a position in energy stocks had been a “big contributor to returns” as the price of oil surged.

“The AJ Bell Adventurous fund is over £400m in size and benefits from very low charges of just 0.31pc a year,” he added. The minimum investment is £1,000.

Some investors – for example, those approaching retirement – want less risk in their portfolio.

These individuals often choose a “balanced” or “cautious” fund. The top-performing “balanced” portfolio, of 40pc to 60pc shares, was Charles Stanley’s Multi-Manager Income 4 portfolio, which delivered 19pc over the period.

Nigel Humphrey, of Charles Stanley, said the active management of the portfolio’s bond holdings “contributed to robust returns against the backdrop of rising interest rates”.

The top- performing “cautious” fund (with less than 40pc in shares) was the GAM Flexible Global Portfolio, which returned 15pc over three years. Julian Howard, of GAM, said its performance had demonstrated that “a traditional cautious multi-asset strategy still has a firm place in many investors’ line-ups”.