Which fund has turned £3,600 into £45,000?

The Junior ISA – a tax-efficient savings wrapper for children – will celebrate its tenth birthday next week. 

Designed to help parents, grandparents, guardians, and family friends save money for children, it was a more flexible replacement for the Child Trust Fund and gave those investing the money a far better selection of funds and trusts from which to choose.

And anyone taking the plunge at that time and investing in the tax-efficient wrapper, could have been handsomely rewarded.

Here, we take a look at the top ten performing Elite Rated funds and trusts over the past decade.

Baillie Gifford is top of the class

No fewer than four of the top ten Elite Rated funds and trusts over the past decade are run by Baillie Gifford.

The best performer by far has been Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, run by Tom Slater, James Anderson and Lawrence Burns. The trust has turned an initial investment of £3,600 (the maximum that was allowed in a Junior ISA at the time) into a pot of money worth a staggering £45,097.46* – thanks to early investments in companies such as Tesla.

The second best-performing fund is Baillie Gifford American. Run by a team of four co-managers who focus on the small number of companies that create exceptional returns, it has turned the same initial investment into a pot of money worth £36,284.16*. 

The third best performer is Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon, the Japanese smaller companies investment trust run by Praveen Kumar. An investment of £3,600 a decade ago would be worth £26,043.75* today.

Best and worst performing sectors

The good news for investors is that even if you didn’t have the foresight to invest in one of the best-performing funds, you are still likely to have made money. 

23 of the 57 sectors as defined by the Investment Association have, on average, more than doubled your money*. And every single sector, from bonds to equities to property – has seen investments increase in value.

Top 10 Elite Rated funds and trusts over the past decade

Find out more about the Junior ISA here.

*Source: FE fundinfo, total returns in sterling, 1 November 2011 to 19 October 2021, all figures are net of fees.