What You Need to Know
- Awards were presented in eight categories to 10 funds that performed exceptionally in 2021.
- The Asset Manager of the Year was Hartford Schroders International Stock Fund (SCIEX), which also scored in the Sustainable category
- Large-cap winner Wakefield Large Cap Equity fund, which returned 35% in 2021, outperformed the Russell 1000 Index by about 9%.
Envestnet | PMC and Investment Advisor magazine announced the 2022 winners of its 18th annual Asset Manager of the Year Awards Wednesday night at a ceremony during the Envestnet Advisor Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina.
We presented awards for eight asset categories, as well as for one overall winner; the award winners were selected from thousands of managers on the Envestnet platform.
The overall Asset Manager of the Year was Hartford Schroders International Stock Fund (SCIEX), which also won the top manager award in the Sustainable category, the first in that category to win the top honor.
The fund, led by co-portfolio managers Simon Webber and James Gautry, was up 11.4% in 2021, outpacing its benchmark by 3.6%, largely due to stock selection despite factor and stylistic headwinds, according to Envestnet analysts.
The fund is a large-cap international core equity strategy with a growth tilt and a quality bias that consists of 50 to 70 stocks with dynamic exposure to emerging markets, and has averaged returns of 13% over the past five years.
The category has grown dramatically in number of managers, according to Tim Clift, chief investment strategist of Envestnet | PMC. In fact, one aspect noted by the judges during selection process is Hartford Schroders practices sustainability principles throughout all its funds.