Wanted: The best funds. Our recommendations …
As you can see, not only is there a wide range of funds and categories to choose from, it is also not that easy to find the best funds.
What is particularly important for you as an investor is that you select your funds according to your personal risk appetite. For opportunity-oriented investors, actively managed equity funds are suitable as a basic investment or as an addition to a well-diversified fund portfolio. Equity funds that diversify worldwide are interesting as a basic investment, as are those that primarily invest in Europe. As an investor, you spread your capital and risk over numerous stocks from many countries and sectors, and in the case of funds investing worldwide even over different currency areas – currency risk included.
The Low Volatility Equity Portfolio A (ISIN LU0861579265/WKN A141C0) from AllianceBernstein. In the past five years, the world fund has achieved an average annual return of 8.8 percent (as of 06/2021). The primary investment objective of this fund is long-term capital growth. The Low Volatilty invests mainly in companies based in industrialized countries, currently mainly in US stocks (approx. 60% share). In addition to information technology with companies such as Microsoft and NICE Systems (technology share: 25%), the fund management is currently investing primarily in the healthcare (e.g. Roche or Merck & Co.) and financial sectors. Special feature: The AllianceBernstein fund primarily selects stocks that entail a lower risk than the market as a whole.
In the case of the Europe funds, he is convincing Candriam Equities L Europe Innovation C (ISIN LU0344046155/WKN A0Q2N9). The actively managed fund clearly beats its peer group. While the Candriam fund has achieved an average return of 11.6 percent per year over the past five years, comparable funds have only increased by 8.4 percent on average over the year. Capital growth is also high on the agenda for the Candriam fund. The fund management primarily invests in companies with a high level of innovative strength whose main focus of activity is within the European Economic Area (EEA). Investments are made primarily in consumer goods (22%), basic materials (19%) and industrial/capital goods (17%), with almost 60% of the companies having their headquarters in Germany, Great Britain, France or Switzerland. Among the top companies are u. a. German consumer goods manufacturers of the rank of Beiersdorf (Nivea, Tesa) or Henkel (Persil, Pril). Stiftung Warentest also awards Candriam Equities L Europe Innovation C 5 points in the “Finanztest” rating.
Our recommendation: Both funds are among the best in their category and are therefore very well suited as a basic investment for long-term asset accumulation. However, if you want to buy one of the funds, you should avoid the high front-end loads (5 percent for Low Volatility, 3.5 percent for Candriam Equities).