Courtiers wins another award

Courtiers wins "Best Fund over 10 Years" Award for its Total Return Growth Fund performance, in the LSEG Lipper Fund Awards 2026.

Leo talks to Jake about the latest of 16 awards presented to Courtiers in the London Stock Exchange (LSEG) Lipper Fund Awards. This time (and not for the first time), the Courtiers Total Return Growth Fund wins Best Fund over 10 years (Mixed Asset GBP flexible)

Issued by Courtiers Asset Management Limited, CAM0426064. Courtiers Asset Management Limited is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority – Register No: 616322. Address: 18 Hart Street, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 2AU. Tel: 01491 578368. 

Important information

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns. The value of investments, and the income from them, can go down as well as up and is not guaranteed and you may not get back the amount originally invested. Any forecast, projection or target where provided is indicate only and is not guaranteed in any way. Certain types of funds might carry a greater investment risk than other investment funds. Further details of the risks are associated with investing in Courtiers funds can be found in the Key Investor Information Document or Prospectus, copies of which are available on request or at www.courtiers.co.uk.

Disclaimer

This communication is for information purposes only and should not be relied upon in making an investment decision. The views expressed by individuals and the business are based on market conditions at the date of issue and are subject to change without notice. The mention of any stocks or shares should not be taken as recommendation to deal and does not take into account the individual investor’s investment objective or risk profile. Where an investment or security is denominated in a different currency to the investor’s currency of reference, changes in rates of exchange may have an adverse effect on the value, price or income of or from that investment to the investor. Any third party sites, or pages which are linked to the document, have not b...

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

I'm with Court's Asset Management Director Jake Reynolds and today we have some news to announce. Jake, what is it?

SPEAKER_00 0:14

So we've won another award. We've won uh the best fund over 10 years for the Growth Fund, judged by LSEG by the Lippa Fund Awards. It's our 16th over the lifetime of the fund. And also in that period, we've been shortlisted for fund manager of the year. 16 years. 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

If it was anything else, I'd ask you, are you getting bored now? 10 years award. That's not your only 10-year award, is it?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

So we're talking about consistent performance, but awards have been the award itself is on consistent returns. So they don't look just go 10-year, who did that? Because someone might have just taken one massive bet, got paid off. So they look at you have to be consistent in non-overlapping periods. So you've got to be good repetitively. And not only is that proof of the award, but also the fact that this is the fifth time we've won 10-year returns. We've also won five and three years, the fifth time we've run 10-year on multiple funds, but you've got to be the best fund in that sector in your peer group to do that. So it's a real honor to get this award. We're really pleased.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Well, well done, Jay. To you and the whole team.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Well, yeah, we have to thank everyone, not just the investment team, but also everyone that you know, the investment fund accounting. You know, every one of these funds is a company, and you know, it has its own board and it has its own bank accounts, it's its own custodian, its own depository, which is like a uh the people that will overlook us, our compliance teams you've got to say thanks to. It's a huge operation. And then to our advisors as well. And then uh on the wealth management side, and ultimately the most important thing is the clients, because without the clients, we don't manage any money, we can't win any awards. And it's as Sam Walton said, the founder of Walmart, customer is the only boss, they have the power to sack everyone here just by shopping somewhere else. So we, you know, we're not they're not shopping at courtiers. Oh, well, I guess they are really. I mean, you invest in your shopping. Um, but thank you for investing with us because you know that gives us the opportunity to manage your money responsibly and win these awards.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Well done, Jay. Very grounded. Um, so to be clear, this is an LSEG, which is London Stock Exchange Group Lippa Fund Award. Uh, now this outfit describes itself as reflecting a truly independent and uncompromised assessment of performance in over 19 countries worldwide. Right now, we're talking about the United Kingdom specifically. The legacy of LSEG is underpinned by LSEG Lipper's acclaimed fund data and proprietary quantitative methodology. Can you explain to us what that means in simple terms?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Yeah, well, the way that they do it is purely quantitative, there is no conflict of interest, they're purely independent. So it's someone just looking at the whole market and going, these guys are doing it right. So that's it's really hard to get them right. And it's numbers, yeah, exactly. This is no with the fund manager of the year, you get shortlisted on your numbers, but if to win it, you have to write um a nice story, and obviously that maybe I've I've fallen short of writing. I wrote the story um in in 2023, and I we never quite nailed it. But we to get on that shortlist was such an honour because you know you quantitatively you're there, and you and you know, in those years we were getting lots of lippra awards as well, so we knew whether we were like the top one, but didn't quite nail the narrative on uh on to to impress the judges. But I mean it fit like I say it's it's great to just be on that shortlist five times and win these lippra awards 16 times.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Well, I know we'd let the world do the narrative 10 years. What have we been through?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Wow, it is so like I think this really proves what we talk about, the long-term power of equities, because the growth fund is the only completely unconstrained fund. Mixed asset. This the group that we're in is mixed asset flexible, it means you can do everything, yeah. Um, it's priced in pounds. Um, so against other uh UK platforms. So what does that mean? You we we it's the only fund that can hold up to 100% equities. Everything else is i in the multi-asset space, is the balance fund and the caution fund is scaled down. So this is our unbridled opinion, and we scale that down in the other funds. So this shows that we are doing our equity right. And you know, we talk about those at the seminars: the 10% return, um, getting a real return of six to seven percent, doubling your money in real terms, and this is exactly what the fund has done over the last 10 years. So to Friday close from the period that this beginning this period began, this fund has done 9.89% per annum after. On average. On average. So that adds up to 164% return. Inflation has been about 3.4, so uh you're up like 90% in real terms. So your money has 90% more power just by sitting and and and being a client. So I think it's it's great that you can compound at a a really significant real rate of return using equities, and you can access that via the Growth Fund and we'll deliver it at considerably less risk than just buying one market. This fund has outperformed uh the FTSE 100 with a lot less volatility.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

That's important as well, the volatility, the most how smooth the ride is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Exactly. Because you know, we we looked at you know, we looked at those markets in in December and we said from 1972, that pretty much all markets end up in the same place, 10% return. Um but uh ultimately their journey is completely different, and if you just invested in one, you wouldn't get there, and that's why this wall for consistent returns is so important, because if you just invest in one, you wouldn't get consistent returns because you would have periods where you were down a lot, because a lot has happened over those years and the and the fund has seen through them.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Um Jay, just on that point, the funds go down, significant global events spook the markets, they go down. You and I were talking earlier. You call this drawdown when the markets dip because of what's going on in the world. You mentioned that since was it the early 70s? Yeah, these significant events affecting market markets have become more frequent, but the drawdown has become a lower, they're not getting as spooked.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah, I think since 2008. Well, you had two big ones, 2000 and 2008, they're two big ones um after the ones in the 70s. Um, and uh, but nowadays you're getting more frequent 10% drawdowns, which is interesting, um, but not as bad. But we the just can I just go through what these funds have to be through for 10 years? Yes, please. So, you know, you've had the European debt crisis, you've had China hard landing, uh, US debt downgrade, Brexit, COVID, you Russia, Ukraine, whatever you want to call what's going on now, third Gulf War, whatever you're gonna call it, and and a multitude of other scares, like tariffs, uh US slowdown in 20 um 2023, uh 2024, and then 2023 we had SVB, um, you know, the US regional bank blow up. So that fund is this fund has seen through all of that and delivered that return despite uh the risk.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

So if the drawdowns are gradually lower over time, does that make your job easier in the investment team?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

No, it means it's more I I don't know. I don't know what's what's what's easier. That might be a silly question. They're not gonna drop as much. I I I think it's just uh they'll recover. I think it's probably I think COVID has created a lot of downstream issues, and I think um some stuff is tied into that. So I think that's why there's been a bit more frequent, frequent events, um, and then you've had the in but a lot of inflation shocks. I I was looking just to get this, you know, 9.89 return, inflation's been 3.4, you've done a 6.5% real return on this fund over the last 10 years, and that's really powerful. And if you compound that over 30, 40 years, it's it's it's life-changing sums of money. But inflation has been 3.4. The 10 years preceding that, it was only 2.5%, and that's a big difference. Uh 2.5% per hour. And you really feel that, and that's because we've had these supply shocks, post-COVID supply shock, Russia-Ukraine supply shock, and now this oil supply shock. So inflation has stayed persistently high, and people might be getting ready for a higher inflationary world. I I don't know what's easier. More frequent frequent events, so we have something every year where we're getting on camera going, oh, we're diversified and we're like we're looking at it and we're making any appropriate action, or we do have three years off, not three years off, but three years of calm and then a massive 2008, or I think probably you'd have to ask Gary because I I I started my career in 2008. That's all I knew at the beginning. Yeah, so um it's really hard for me. That would be a good question for him because he's seen it all in terms of uh big drawdowns versus lots of little drawdowns.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Well, good. Um I will part that up and ask Gary now. Almost a year to the day, 21st of April 2023. Not a year to the day, sorry, three years today. 21st of April 2023, we reported bagging six more of these awards. And at the time Gary drew an analogy between Court's value approach and running a marathon, saying you have to pace yourself. Yeah. Now, what I want to ask you is it's running a sprint and running a marathon, but get it, pace yourself. What's the training programme look like?

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yeah. Um you've got to, you know, you've got to look at the long term. That's the training. Train yourself on the long term, put things in perspective. There's this thing called base rates where you look at like how frequent this has happened in the past, and then drawn parables of that, and I think that prepares you to um to make sure that you can keep a lot of the things a lot of what we have done, and the reason we've won a lot of awards is that we've we've built the responsible equity. I think a lot of other farm managers, when they're mixed asset, think that they need to play with their weights, but actually we focus on building it responsibly, and I think and that means that like we can keep the equity risk on responsibly. And I like that thing two years ago when we switched from a bit of SP 500 to the SP equal weight, the SP equal weight outperforms the market cap weighted because it's a more prudent thing to do, and then it out, and so there's less volatility and it outperforms. Um, so you're not just taking big risks and single stocks, and I think it's nice that over the long run it's a bit more boring, but it outperforms, and I think that prudency being prudent pays in investment, and so you've got to just be prudent and and and be realistic and look at the volatility of things and looking how things are interacted and building building the portfolio up and looking at your data and looking at the long-term data. And once you get a grasp of that, you know, you can hopefully make good decisions. But most of those decisions are things happen, as Warren Buffett would say, he'd be buying equities even if World War III broke out, and because they are the best way to get your returns, but you've got to build that basket of responsibly, and that's why we talk so much about diversification.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

And part of that is accommodating different views and ways of doing things in the team, which again Gary says back in 2023 makes it stronger. Yeah, it's also the dynamic line as you split between yourself and the team as these events become more frequent. Yeah, as well.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Does it change the uh on the multi-asset funds? Um, you know, you you you're constantly uh trying to do the right thing for the fund, and everyone will make their case for a certain investment. But I mean what's most important is that people see like that we can only take a certain amount of risk, and therefore what you're really spending is a risk budget, and when you get that in your head, that you would build that portfolio up responsibly. And we would do that in our asset allocation meetings, we'll be met with loads of data and then also look at how funds are performing and look at how um how the funds are performing and then and and what is made doing those movements, but not just us, you know, like that that then gets looked over by compliance, it gets looked over by our depository, it gets looked over by um senior managers, it gets looked over by the board. And we all have these things on top of it. So not only is that friction happening and making the right decisions and meetings, it gets so much bigger than that as well. So we have lots of people looking over.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Well, Jake, congratulations again to you, to the team, to all the teams at Courtes. Thank you to the clients, as Jake, as you rightly say, uh, what matters most. What was the quote again reminders?

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Uh, the customers, your only boss, you have the power to sack everyone in the company by nearly by shopping somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

So we better get back to work. Jake, thanks very much for your time. I'm catching up with Gary next. Yeah, thank you. All right. If you have any questions, please do contact your advisor or get in touch through the website.

unknown 12:40

Thank you.