The top five UK investment platforms removed 26 funds from their best-buy lists over the past year, Trustnet research can reveal.
Between them, interactive investor, Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, Fidelity and Barclays analysts consistently stepped back where conviction had weakened, particularly following changes to fund managers, disruption to investment teams or prolonged underperformance.
In other cases, removals reflected list maintenance rather than negative views on the funds themselves.
Manager and succession risk
Manager departures were the single biggest reason for removals, reinforcing how dependent these lists remain on named individuals.
Interactive investor removed M&G Emerging Markets Bond after placing the fund under review on 25 July 2025 following the retirement of long-standing lead manager Claudia Calich.
Although Charles de Quinsonas was promoted from deputy manager, ii analysts said they had “always viewed Calich as a key decision-maker” and concluded that the fund was “no longer one of our highest conviction ideas”.
A similar logic underpinned the removal of the Henderson Smaller Companies trust, which was put under review on 24 March 2025 after veteran manager Neil Hermon announced his retirement, effective at the end of September.
While successor Indriatti van Hien had been deputy manager since 2016, interactive investor said the trust “no longer represents a high conviction Super 60 idea”.
Elsewhere, Janus Henderson European Selected Opportunities was removed after the departure of co-manager Tom O’Hara, who joined GAM. Analysts at ii said the loss of his experience and the appointment of replacement managers running other strategies “introduces an element of uncertainty in terms of the future implementation of the investment approach”.
Hargreaves Lansdown analysts also made several removals following manager exits. Trojan Ethical Income was dropped after Hugo Ure left Troy Asset Management following 15 years at the firm.
Joseph Hill, senior investment analyst at Hargreaves, said Ure had been “important in establishing the ESG [environmental, sustainability and governance] policies and processes now in place”, and that following his departure “it’s right to remove the fund from the Wealth Shortlist”.
The UK’s largest platform also removed Schroder Income after co-manager Nick Kirrage left Schroders in June 2025. Hill said conviction in the fund had been based on Kirrage’s “skill set, capabilities and experience of consistently applying this approach”, adding that his departure meant the research team “no longer have sufficient conviction in the fund’s future performance potential”.
In emerging markets, Stewart Investors Indian Subcontinent All Cap was removed after lead manager Sashi Reddy and co-manager David Gait left with immediate effect. Hargreaves investment analyst Tom James said the departure of the two senior investors meant the firm no longer had “sufficient conviction in the fund’s future performance potential”.
AJ Bell and Fidelity also removed Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders, while the former also dropped Stewart Investors Worldwide All Cap following portfolio manager departures, citing reduced confidence in the strategies’ stewardship.
Structural disruption
Beyond individual exits, several funds were removed due to wider disruption across investment teams.
Interactive investor and Hargreaves Lansdown both removed abrdn Global Smaller Companies following a series of analyst departures affecting US stock coverage, a core part of the strategy. Interactive investor said the fund “no longer represents a highest conviction idea given the degree of change seen across the team”.
HL echoed that view. Investment analyst Aidan Moyle said, while the investment philosophy remained intact, “overall, we believe these are significant changes in terms of the team and potentially the investment process”.
Hargreaves Lansdown also removed BNY Mellon Real Return and its Responsible version after extensive restructuring at Newton, effective from 21 May 2025.
Lead investment analyst Kate Marshall said: “There’s a significant amount of change taking place within the team”, noting that the new managers “haven’t worked directly together to manage a fund”.
Interactive investor removed the Bankers trust following changes to both personnel and portfolio structure. Manager Alex Crooke delegates regional stock picks to other managers at Janus Henderson, where there was turnover in 2026.
Additionally, changes to the regions covered by the sub-portfolios, greater stock-level concentration and a significant increase in the allocation to the US equity market meant the trust was “untested”, analysts said, adding that this uncertainty meant they could “no longer view this trust as one of our highest conviction ideas”.
Performance and conviction
A smaller number of funds were removed due to sustained underperformance or a gradual erosion of confidence in execution.
Interactive investor dropped Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon after its January 2025 annual review. While acknowledging that the growth style explained part of the poor performance, analysts said this had “clearly been exacerbated by issues in the stock research process and in portfolio construction”, which had lowered conviction. Jupiter Japan Income was also removed following the annual review.
Hargreaves Lansdown removed Amati UK Listed Smaller Companies after four consecutive years of underperformance. Hill said, despite a strong long-term track record, the fund had “lagged behind the IA Smaller Companies sector average in each of the past four years”.
Lastly AJ Bell removed Schroder European, citing “reduced conviction in the fund’s manager and investment approach”.
Housekeeping-style removals
Several removals reflected list rationalisation rather than negative assessments.
Interactive investor removed Vanguard U.S. Equity Index to make room for a cheaper exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking the S&P 500, noting that the existing fund tracked a broader index with a lower market-cap bias. It also removed iShares Core MSCI World ETF citing the availability of cheaper alternatives.
AJ Bell removed BlackRock UK Income and BlackRock UK Special Situations “to consolidate our list of UK equity funds”, alongside CT Responsible Sterling Corporate Bond and Fidelity Asia, where it said it wanted to “make room for a more actively managed alternative fund that we have greater confidence in”.
Royal London Corporate Bond was removed due to “the challenges of managing such a large quantity of assets within the sterling corporate bond market”.
Barclays removed Jupiter Ecology on 17 March 2025 as part of ongoing monitoring, stating that while it had “no negative view of the fund”, it was “no longer one of our choices for new investment”.