Best performing ready-made solutions of April – June 2023
Discover which portfolios were top of the pops
By Boring Money
20 July, 2023
Every three months we get performance data from the leading ‘ready-made’ investment portfolios made available to retail investors. We group these into three risk categories and take a look at who has performed the best after all fees and charges over various timeframes.
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How did ready-made solutions perform in Q2 2023?
Fortune has favoured the bold over the last 2 years, and the average ‘high-risk’ portfolio we cover has returned 1.40% across the past 2 years. This doesn't seem like much, but makes for much better reading than the average ‘low risk’ portfolio, which has made a loss of a painful 9.25% over the same period.
The main story in town has been exposure to the US stock market – and exposure to UK bonds. If you’ve gone large on US shares, you have typically done well. And if you’ve favoured UK bonds, you’ve been in a world of pain.
We define high-risk portfolios as those with over 75% in shares, low-risk portfolios are those with under 35% allocated to shares and medium risk is all those in between.
Typically you would expect a high-risk portfolio to make more over the long run – but to have a much more volatile journey - so really these are best for those with at least a 5-year timeline or more. Lower-risk portfolios are generally for those who want a much smoother ride and are prepared to sacrifice some of the potential longer-term rewards.
Scroll down to read a summary of how high, medium and low-risk ready-made solutions have performed and click the links to see the full analysis from our in-house research team.
High risk ready-made solutions
Vanguard and AJ Bell have performed the best in this risk profile over the last 2 years, returning 6.9% and 6.6% respectively after all charges. At the other end of the scale, True Potential and Charles Stanley's portfolios struggled, with respective losses of 2.2% and 6.7% after charges.
Click the link below to read more about how high risk portfolios have performed in the last three months.
Medium risk ready-made solutions
The medium risk portfolios have returned an average of -4.3% over the last 2 years. AJ Bell, Moneybox and HSBC have been the top performers here, whilst Nutmeg and Vanguard's LifeStrategy 40 have struggled. With around 40% in shares, we would expect solutions like Vanguard LifeStrategy 40 and Bestinvest’s Smart Cautious option to perform less strongly than others in this category with higher allocations to shares.
Click the link below to read more about how medium risk portfolios have performed in the last three months.
Low risk ready-made solutions
Amongst the low risk portfolios, Moneybox, AJ Bell and Charles Stanley have performed the best over the past 2 years, although they have posted losses 3.8%, 4.7% and 6.8% respectively. For context, the average low risk portfolio in our coverage returned -9.2%. As interest rates have soared, those holding bonds have had a tough time. Bond prices are at the opposite end of the seesaw to interest rates – if these go up, bond prices fall.
Click the link below to read more about how low risk portfolios have performed in the last three months.
Best performing ready-made solutions in Q2 2023
Provider | Fund / Portfolio | Risk Level | Q2 2023 Net Growth | 1 Year net Growth | 2 Year Net Growth |
Moneybox | Adventurous | High | 3.38% | 7.37% | 3.51% |
HSBC | Adventurous | High | 3.23% | 7.41% | 4.83% |
Charles Stanley | Multi Asset Adventurous | High | 2.41% | 6.94% | -6.68% |
Vanguard | LifeStrategy 100 | High | 2.39% | 10.62% | 6.86% |
Wealthify | Adventurous | High | 2.24% | 6.65% | -0.22% |
Moneybox | Balanced | Medium | 2.23% | 5.39% | 1.24% |
HSBC | Balanced | Medium | 1.62% | 3.80% | -1.97% |
Vanguard | LifeStrategy 80 | High | 1.45% | 7.13% | 1.33% |
Hargreaves Lansdown | Moderately Adventurous Managed | High | 1.41% | N/A | N/A |
Charles Stanley | Multi Asset Growth | Medium | 1.31% | 4.84% | -7.97% |
Nutmeg | 8 | High | 1.23% | 7.24% | -1.46% |
Bestinvest | Smart Maximum Growth | High | 1.11% | 8.41% | N/A |
True Potential | Aggressive | High | 1.09% | 4.93% | -2.15% |
Hargreaves Lansdown | Balanced Managed | Medium | 0.96% | N/A | N/A |
AJ Bell | Adventurous | High | 0.82% | 6.30% | 6.56% |
Vanguard | LifeStrategy 60 | Medium | 0.48% | 3.70% | -3.87% |
Bestinvest | Smart Growth | Medium | 0.42% | 5.28% | N/A |
True Potential | Balanced | Medium | 0.35% | 2.39% | -5.92% |
Wealthify | Confident | Medium | 0.24% | 1.19% | -5.76% |
HSBC | Cautious | Low | 0.03% | -0.17% | -9.43% |
Charles Stanley | Multi Asset Cautious | Low | -0.09% | 1.55% | -6.78% |
Hargreaves Lansdown | Cautious Managed | Low | -0.33% | 0.50% | N/A |
Moneybox | Cautious | Low | -0.37% | -0.53% | -3.77% |
Bestinvest | Smart Cautious | Medium | -0.40% | 3.25% | N/A |
AJ Bell | Balanced | Medium | -0.42% | 2.44% | 1.29% |
Vanguard | LifeStrategy 40 | Medium | -0.48% | 0.39% | -8.65% |
True Potential | Defensive | Low | -0.66% | -1.10% | -6.79% |
Nutmeg | 5 | Medium | -0.85% | 1.11% | -8.11% |
Santander | Multi-index Fund 4 | Medium | -1.05% | 2.39% | -3.40% |
AJ Bell | Cautious | Low | -1.18% | -0.99% | -4.75% |
Vanguard | LifeStrategy 20 | Low | -1.24% | -2.54% | -12.90% |
Nutmeg | 2 | Low | -1.32% | -1.31% | -7.42% |
Wealthify | Cautious | Low | -1.75% | -3.76% | -11.02% |
Santander | Multi-index Fund 2 | Low | -2.75% | -3.42% | -12.65% |
Santander | Multi-index Fund 1 | Low | -3.57% | -6.40% | -16.96% |
This table displays performance over multiple timeframes across the past 2 years for a range of investment funds/portfolios. Performance has been calculated net of investment and platform charges. Risk levels have been classified based on Boring Money’s parameters, which can be found in the ‘key terms’ section. Performance figures have either come directly from platforms or been estimated using the value of fund assets, assuming frequent rebalancing.
Key terms:
Provider
The investment provider offering and managing the ready-made solution.
Fund/Portfolio
The name of the particular fund/portfolio held on the investment provider’s platform. This will typically include a mixture of cash, bonds, and shares at different proportions depending on your chosen risk level. All funds/portfolios included in this article can also be classified as ready-made solutions.
Risk Level
The perceived level of risk associated to a ready-made solution. Boring Money assign each ready-made solution to a risk level, based on its equity allocation. For the purpose of this exercise, there are three risk levels. Investments with an equity exposure of under 35% are considered low risk, investments with an equity exposure between 35% - 75% are considered medium risk, and investments with an equity exposure above 75% are considered high risk.
Q2 2023
'2nd quarter'. The period between 1 April 2023 and 30 June 2023.
Net Growth
The total growth of a ready-made solution minus charges. Charges include both fees paid for managing the investment and fees paid for using the investment provider’s platform.
