The most popular multi-asset funds have not always delivered for investors this year, according to recent Trustnet research. None of the most bought funds of 2024 have lost investors' money in 2025 but some certainly underperformed.
Meanwhile, some of the strategies that investors neglected last year have proved their worth, as US president Donald Trump’s whipsawing approach to trade has caused significant volatility in global markets.
For this, we used the list of funds that gained (or shed) at least £200m in 2024 from inflows or outflows.
Most bought
The most purchased multi-asset fund of 2024 was the Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity fund, with £1.5bn added by investors.
The strategy invests in a portfolio of at least 80% equities and 20% bonds, by allocating to Vanguard’s own range of index funds. So far this year, it is up 7.4%, a top-quartile return in the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% sector.
Investors have maintained confidence in the fund, which was also the most purchased passive fund on interactive investor in July.
Performance of funds vs sector YTD
Source: FE Analytics
Its stablemate, the Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% Equity fund, has delivered a second-quartile result in the same sector so far this year.
It is hardly the only success story, however. Also in the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% sector, the Orbis Global Balanced fund has surged 16.3%, the best result in the peer group.
FE fundinfo Alpha Manager Alec Cutler follows a contrarian approach to investing, targeting companies trading at steep discounts to their intrinsic value.
As a result, the equity side of the portfolio can be very different to the market, such as avoiding the US mega-cap tech firms in its top 10 allocations.
Performance of fund vs sector YTD
Source: FE Analytics
AJ Bell Moderately Adventurous, AJ Bell Balanced and HL Growth all also made above-average returns in the peer group.
However, investor interest did not guarantee a fund would do well. For example, the Coutts Managed Ambitious portfolio was the second most bought multi-asset fund of last year, with £688m added by investors.
It invests at least 65% of the total portfolio in equities or higher-risk assets through collective investment vehicles. It targets a tracking error of around 4% to avoid underperforming or outperforming the benchmark by too wide a margin.
So far this year, it has lagged the average for the IA Mixed-investment 40-85% sector, as demonstrated by the chart below, sitting in the third quartile overall.
Performance of the fund vs the sector YTD
Source: FE Analytics
MGTS Progeny ProFolio Model 50-70% Shares and Royal Bank of Scotland Personal Portfolio Ambitious also failed to beat the average peer.
In the IA Flexible sector, just one fund made the most bought list – the AJ Bell Adventurous fund. It has paid off for investors this year, with the fund up 9.9% compared to a 5.7% sector average.
Conversely, the IA Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares sector, IFSL YOU Multi-Asset Blend Balanced has made a top-quartile return in 2025 so far, while Coutts Managed Balanced sits in the third quartile of its peer group.
Most sold
Meanwhile, the funds investors shied away from the most last year also proved to be a mixed bag for investors.
In some cases, it worked out. For example, investors pulled more than £200m from three of the Liontrust stable (Liontrust Sustainable Future Managed, Liontrust Sustainable Future Defensive Managed and Liontrust Sustainable Future Cautious Managed). All three have delivered a bottom-quartile performance in their respective sectors so far this year.
Also struggling, the Vanguard LifeStrategy 40% Equity fund and Vanguard LifeStrategy 20% Equity variants experienced outflows last year, in contrast to their riskier counterparts.
Choosing to move out of these strategies seems to have paid off, with the 40% equity strategy underperforming the IA Mixed Investment 20-60% sector, while the 20% strategy trailed the IA Mixed Investment 0-35% sector.
Performance of funds vs the sector YTD
Source: FE Analytics
However, some unloved funds in 2024 are resurging this year. For example, Baillie Gifford Managed was the most sold fund of last year, with net outflows of £1.4bn.
Run by Iain McCombie and Steven Hay, it has delivered a bottom-quartile return over the past five years, trailing the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% sector average by 15 percentage points, with 2022 and 2021 particular low points, with the fund posting poor returns.
However, Hargreaves Lansdown's senior investment analyst Ian Cook recently noted that this was more due to the market rotation to value away from growth, rather than weakness in stock picking. As a result of stronger recent returns, Cook said inflows could improve in the “not too distant future”.
So far this year, the fund is up 6.8%, a second-quartile result compared to the sector average.
Performance of fund vs the sector YTD
Source: FE Analytics
Additionally, some of the more cautious strategies investors sold out of last year have started to rally, as recent volatility has caused investors to pivot to more defensive assets.
For example, £867m was pulled from Alpha Manager Steve Russell’s Ruffer Total Return fund, a defensive portfolio investing in inflation-protecting assets such as gold and defensive assets, including cash and derivatives.
While this was a headwind for the portfolio in recent years when growth assets dominated, it has led to a top-quartile performance of 7.2% in the IA Mixed Investment 20-60% sector this year.