Meet the Elite Rated investment millennials

By Staci West on 26 November 2019 in Multi-Asset

Millennials have gained a reputation for job-hopping, with a “job for life” becoming a thing of the past. Indeed, a recent survey found that those aged 25-34 have already had an average of six different roles so far in their professional careers*.

Another Gallup report on millennials found that 21%** of millennials had changed jobs within the past year – three times more than non-millennials in the same study. Arguably this means millennials have already had the same number of roles as those nearing retirement. This prompted me to see if I could find any investment millennials bucking the trend. Spoiler alert: I found five.

‘Find out what you like doing best, and get someone to pay you for doing it.’ — Katharine Whitehorn, journalist

Matthew Page, co-manager of Guinness Global Equity Income

Matthew joined Goldman Sachs on their graduate scheme after leaving Oxford University with an MSc in Physics. He worked in Foreign Exchange and Fixed Income there, before joining Guinness in 2005. He’s co-managed the Guinness Global Equity Income fund alongside Dr. Ian Mortimer (who also has a PhD in physics from Oxford) since 2010. Since launch Matthew and Ian have outperformed their sector by 50%*** and returned a total 159.80%*** for their investors.

James Sym, manager of Schroder European Alpha Income

James began his career at Cazenove Capital in 2007, which was subsequently bought by Schroders. He celebrated 7 years managing this fund earlier this month and, during his tenure, has returned 128.89%^ for investors, outperforming the sector average by 24.3%^. He graduated from St John’s College, Cambridge University, with a degree in Natural Sciences (Mineral Physics) and Management Studies.

Karen See, co-manager of Baillie Gifford Japanese Income Growth

Karen graduated BSc (Hons) in Economics with Japanese from University of Birmingham in 2011. And also went on to study Economics at the University of Cambridge. She’s been a part of the broader Japanese equities team at Baillie Gifford since 2012 before becoming co-manager on the Baillie Gifford Japanese Income Growth fund, alongside Matthew Brett, in January 2017, during which time the fund has returned 33.34% – just under 10% more than the sector average^^.

Will Argent, fund advisor on VT Gravis UK Infrastructure Income

Will has been fund advisor for VT Gravid UK Infrastructure fund since 2017 and has 14 years’ investment experience. Having had previous roles at Ashcourt Rowan, Towry and Tilney Group, where he was an analyst, this is his fourth job. Will graduated from the University of Exeter with a degree in mathematics in 2004. Over Will’s tenure the fund has returned 19.37%^^^.

David Lewis, co-manager on Jupiter Merlin range

David started his career as an assistant investment manager at BestInvest in 2007, before joining Jupiter in 2008. He has been a co-manager on the Jupiter Merlin Growth, Jupiter Merlin Income and Jupiter Merlin Balanced funds for the past five years, working alongside a team headed by John Chatfeild-Roberts. Since he joined the team, the Merlin Growth portfolio, for example, has returned 63.79% compared with a sector average of 40.85%*^.

A job for life is still a possibility

John Chatfeild-Roberts is an example of someone in an older generation, who has proved you can still find a job for life: he has been running the Growth and Income portfolios for more than 20 years.

In fact, 11 other Elite Rated funds have had the same manager at the helm for 20 years or more and a further three managers have their 20th anniversaries next year.

*Source: OnePoll, commissioned by Open Study College, of 2,000 adults
**Source: How Millennials Want to Work and Live, Gallup 2016
***Source: FE Analytics, total returns in sterling, 31 December 2010 to 25 November 2019
^Source: FE Analytics, total returns in sterling, 1 November 2012 to 25 November 2019
^^Source: FE Analytics, total returns in sterling, 2 January 2017 to 25 November 2019
^^^Source: FE Analytics, total returns in sterling, 31 July 2017 to 25 November 2019
*^Source: FE Analytics, total returns in sterling, 1 July 2014 to 25 November 2019