On the 19^th May 2015, and following The Adviser Centre Monthly Review Meeting on 28^th April 2015, Standard Life Investments UK Equity Income Unconstrained was added to The Adviser Centre as a Recommended fund.

The fund is managed by Thomas Moore, who joined Standard Life Investments (SLI) in 2002 and is an established member of SLI’s UK Equity team.  Philosophically, the manager believes that a flexible approach to income investing can deliver increased income diversification and improved total return potential.  To achieve this, he employs a multi-cap approach that enables him to look further afield than the mega-caps stocks, thereby expanding the available opportunity set.  SLI’s "Focus on Change" approach, which is designed to understand and challenge consensus expectations, underpins the manager’s process.

Mr Moore has a strong awareness of risk at both the stock and aggregate portfolio level and this goes some way to mitigating the higher risk that might otherwise be associated with an unconstrained, all-cap mandate.  We regard the fund as an interesting diversifying vehicle when blended with larger-cap funds.

Dividend growth and earnings growth are the key characteristics of the fund and hence investors should not expect it to deliver a superior yield compared to peers.  Within The Adviser Centre, we feature the fund in our “Income and Growth” category - please see our IA Sector Overview for the UK Equity Income sector for further details.

We are pleased to add this fund, with its thoughtful and passionate manager, to our Recommended list.