Absolute Return Fund leaves judges in no doubt

Standard Life Investments, the global fund manager, has announced that its Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund (GARS) has won ‘Best Absolute Return Fund' at the Professional Adviser Awards 2011.

Other funds shortlisted in this category included the Absolute Insight Credit Fund, the L&G Diversified Absolute Return Fund, the Henderson Credit Alpha Fund and the CF Odey UK Absolute Return Fund.

GARS seeks to deliver an absolute return similar to what might be expected from equities in the long-term, but with significantly less risk. This is sought through a dynamic multi-asset, multi-market strategy that manages investments across a range of traditional and nontraditional sources of return. GARS currently has £6.8 billion of assets under management.

The Professional Adviser Awards are designed to recognise and reward the companies that are providing the best products, services and support to financial advisers. They stand out from others in the industry because they are entirely voted for by IFAs.

Tam McVie, Absolute Return Product Specialist, Standard Life Investments, said: "I'd like to thank the readers of Professional Adviser for recognising the success of GARS within the intermediary market. This award sets the seal on a fantastic 2010 for our GARS Fund. It was the biggest selling retail fund in the UK last year, growing from £2bn to nearly £7bn.

"The reason for GARS' popularity is down to its risk-adjusted performance where it has delivered gross annualized returns of 9.47% over the last three years with a volatility level of 7.06%.4 This is in stark contrast to returns from global equities over the same period, with the MSCI World TR GBP Index returning 6.40% with volatility of 20.29%."