ii ACE 40 Annual Review

The ACE 40 provides investors with a set of high-quality choices. We select the list from the available universe of sustainable funds. We aim to cover a broad variety of markets and investment types.

The ACE 40 Annual Review (which is published in October each year) has officially been completed. Following a comprehensive review of sustainable fund options conducted by Morningstar's Management Selection Group, we have made the following changes: 

Global Equities

• Removal of CT Responsible Global Equity Fund from Core category

• Addition of Janus Henderson Global Sustainable Equity Fund as a Core option

UK Equities

• Removal of Liontrust UK Ethical Fund from Adventurous category

• Removal of CT Responsible UK Income Fund from Core category

European Equities

• Removal of Liontrust Sustainable Future Europe Growth Fund from Core category

• Removal of Vanguard ESG Developed Europe Index Fund from Low Cost category

• Addition of iShares MSCI Europe SRI ETF as a Low Cost option  

Mixed Asset

• Removal of CT Sustainable Universal MAP Cautious Fund from Low Cost category

• Removal of CT Sustainable Universal MAP Balanced Fund from Low Cost category

• Removal of CT Sustainable Universal MAP Growth Fund from Low Cost category

We conduct regular performance monitoring of our ACE 40, against general stock market and industry sector trends and we check for investment strategy-specific events. 

But we also perform an annual review of the whole list. This makes sure our selections are best in class and have the potential to deliver consistently against their targets. 

We explore the entire available sustainable universe and consider a wide range of quantitative and qualitative factors. These include performance, risk and risk-adjusted metrics. We also consider value for money, the manager’s experience and the fund manager’s resource. We put a strong focus on managers’ sustainability philosophy, process and implementation.

Sustainable funds remain a limited universe, despite increasing levels of investor demand over the past couple of years. A lot of funds have launched recently, so they are relatively small in terms of assets, and have short track records. 

There is still a lack of sustainable choices in some fund sectors such as equity income. Many sustainable funds tend to have high weightings to healthcare and technology, so-called growth sectors. But they have low weightings to the energy and industrials sectors, which are good sectors for dividends.

We aim to select a range of investments that capture a diverse group of investment styles and approaches. The investment styles and approaches include core vs adventurous, value vs growth, and large cap vs smaller companies. Our ACE 40 contains funds, investment trusts and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). 

Our robust criteria and assessment process are designed to help us make the best possible decisions. We have no conflicts of interest and focus on the best outcome for our customers at all times.

Learn more about our rated product methodology here.