Finding the right global equity fund for your portfolio

By James Yardley on 23 July 2026 in Global

Global equity funds have increasingly become the foundation of many investment portfolios. At their best, they offer investors access to a carefully selected portfolio of some of the world’s highest-quality companies, all within a single fund. However, while they share the same broad investment universe, global equity funds can differ significantly in how they invest. Understanding those differences is essential when choosing the right fund.

Among our Elite Rated funds we see four broad groupings – generalists, innovation seekers, small and mid-cap focused, and responsible funds.

The generalists

These are funds that are more appropriate for the core of a portfolio. These are traditional, stock-picking, global equity funds, run by skilled managers. Their objective is to deliver consistent long-term returns by investing in resilient businesses across a broad range of sectors and regions.

The GQG Partners Global Equity fund is run by an experienced trio in Rajiv Jain, Brian Kersmanc and Sudarshan Murthy. It takes a long-term view, avoiding all benchmark constraints. It aims to back exceptional businesses with strong financial strength, sustainability of earnings growth and quality of management. The fund tends to focus on larger capitalisation companies, such as Verizon, AT&T and Exxon Mobil*.

CT Global Focus is another concentrated, best-ideas fund, typically investing in fewer than 50 companies. Manager David Dudding invests in high-quality, high-return-on-capital businesses which can compound over the long term, including Nvidia, TMSC and SK Hyrix* and leans towards quality growth companies.

Another option would be Pinnacle Life Cycle Global Equity Select, a core global equity fund which invests in all types of businesses across the company ‘Life Cycle’. It’s the most concentrated of the options here, with  typically between 25-45 holdings. The fund predominantly invests in larger companies, including Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft**.

Innovation seekers

These are a range of funds that aim to seek out structural growth themes in the global economy, and then look for companies that are likely to benefit. Common themes include artificial intelligence, healthcare innovation, digitalisation and the energy transition. As a result, these portfolios often have greater exposure to higher-growth sectors such as technology. These funds can be more volatile than traditional global equity strategies, but they also have the potential to identify tomorrow’s market leaders at an earlier stage in their growth journey.

WS Amati Global Innovation is a good example in this space. A high-conviction, unconstrained global equity strategy that invests in companies benefiting from impactful, real-world innovation. The managers define innovation broadly, investing not only in the companies creating new technologies, but also those enabling their development and those adopting them, to drive value.

The Guinness Global Innovators fund, by contrast, uses nine innovation themes to form the basis of their universe, including advanced healthcare; artificial intelligence and big data; clean energy and sustainability; cloud computing; robotics and automation, to name a few. From there, the managers then pick the highest-quality, fastest-growing and best-value stocks to build a portfolio of roughly 30 equally-weighted companies.

Small and mid-cap specialist

Global smaller companies have fallen out of favour over the past couple of years as investors have worried that higher interest rates and a weaker economic backdrop would disproportionately affect them. While those concerns have been justified in some cases, many smaller businesses have continued to demonstrate strong operational performance, delivering resilient earnings growth and attractive long-term prospects. For investors with a longer time horizon, periods of weaker sentiment can create opportunities to access innovative, high-quality businesses at more attractive valuations.

The newly Elite Radar Artemis SmartGARP Global Smaller Companies is a strong consideration in this space. This fund leverages off the success of the SmartGARP screening process – combining quantitative analysis with human judgement. Evidence suggests it has a strong track record within small-caps, so this new product makes perfect sense and we’re excited to see what this fund can do.

WS Montanaro Global Select is another option. Manager George Cooke scours the globe in search of the best small and mid-cap companies. This high-conviction fund looks for businesses that are profitable, have a long runway of growth and offer sustainable competitive advantages. The fund currently has 43% in the US but its largest holding is a French company, Sartorius Stedim Biotech*, which supplies equipment and consumables for drug development, fermentation, filtration, and cell culture.

Responsible approach

The global equity universe also offers a wide range of responsible investment strategies, although approaches vary considerably. More generalist funds will exclude specific areas, such as tobacco or armaments, or will seek to engage with companies to ensure they are following the right path. Some will even invest across all sectors, but only in the ‘best in class’ companies. Others may focus exclusively on companies whose products or services generate positive environmental or social outcomes.

The CT Responsible Global Equity fund primarily invests in quality growth companies, with a focus on sustainability. The managers will avoid companies with unsustainable business practices, but will invest in companies where there are problems that can be resolved. The fund currently has 70% in the US and 40% in technology, including household names in Microsoft and Apple*.

Conversely, the Ninety One Global Environment fund takes a more unique and narrowed view of the global universe, focusing on those companies that are contributing to the decarbonisation of the world economy. The portfolio has complete conviction, with just 20-40 holdings, and will have limited crossover with peers or its benchmark.

Choosing the right approach

The breadth of the global equity sector is one of its greatest strengths, but it also means investors need to understand exactly what they are buying.

Ultimately, there is no single “best” global equity fund. The right choice depends on the role the fund is intended to play within a portfolio. With a clear understanding of the different approaches available, investors are better placed to select a strategy that aligns with their long-term goals.

*Source: fund factsheet, 31 May 2026
**Source: FE Analytics, fund holdings at 30 June 2026