Experts' shortlist

You’ll only be shown funds that have passed specific checks and tests. All funds are reviewed regularly, to ensure they meet the high standards of the shortlist.

For example, a fund must give our experts reason to believe it has the potential to deliver consistent performance in the future.

Keep in mind, investments fall and rise in value, and you could get back less than has been paid in.

Jump ahead to see the full shortlist criteria

There are many different approaches when it comes to sustainable investing:

• ESG – Where the manager considers environmental, social and governance factors as part of their investment process.
• Ethical – Where the manager avoids investing in certain areas such as tobacco.
• Impact – Where the manager will focus on a particular area such as climate change.
• Stewardship – Where the manager will use capital to influence the behaviour of companies in a positive way.

What does this mean in practice?

So, if a fund was looking to incorporate ESG factors when making investments, they might assess the organisation’s environmental factors, such as the business’ energy consumption, their policy on climate change, or their waste production. 

They may consider social factors, like the company’s community engagement, how well the business protects human rights, or employee relations.

And they’d look at the company’s governance – the way the business is run – such as the quality of management, diversity of the board, or conflicts of interest.

According to our research some funds are doing well at integrating ESG factors and our ratings take this into consideration. In addition to the basic requirements, these funds also meet the criteria below. Within the shortlist, you can filter to show just the funds categorised as best-in-class.

Run by professional fund managers, these funds try to beat the performance of a particular sector benchmark , with specially chosen investments. For instance, investing in an active UK equity fund may give you exposure to investments the fund manager believes have the ability to outperform a benchmark, like the FTSE® 100.

We think you’ll find the shortlist useful if:

• You are looking for specific funds to match your investment styles and interest
• You’d like our help to narrow down the thousands of funds available

If this isn’t what you’re after, we have some other options. If you’re planning a pension and want a simple way to invest, our Universal Retirement Fund could suit you, as the risk level of your investments will reduce closer to retirement. You can choose your own risk level with our ready-made funds, or pick from our full investment fund range.