Read
more: Did switching to Neil Woodford’s fund pay off?

How we worked out the most popular Isa funds

To find out where Isa investors put their money in 2014 we asked Britain’s
biggest fund shops – Barclays Stockbrokers, Bestinvest, Fidelity Personal
Investing, Interactive Investor and The Share Centre to name their 10
best-sellers since the start of 2014, and to rank them in order of
popularity.

The best-selling fund at each company was given a score of 10, while the 10th
best-selling fund scored one. We then added up the scores at the three fund
shops to arrive at a total, out of a maximum of 30.

Hargreaves Lansdown, Britain’s biggest broker, also provided their top ten
selling funds, but declined to rank them. Each fund was therefore given a
score of five.

As Mr Woodford’s fund was the best-seller at all five fund shops, it scored 55
points.

Our table below shows the ten highest-scoring funds. Read on, below, for the
top-performing funds that savers’ overlooked.

^{Source: FE Trustnet}

Other ‘star fund managers’ and strong performers in the top ten

Second in the rankings behind Mr Woodword’s portfolio came Terry Smith’s
Fundsmith Equity fund.

Mr Smith, an outspoken critic of the fund management industry, set up his own
fund firm four years ago.

Mr Smith promised to rarely sell shares he buys and instead buy and hold for
the long term. His approach has worked: since November 2011 the fund is up
98pc, while the average global fund has returned 38pc.

Another respected investor that proved popular with investors in 2014 is Giles
Hargreave, who manages the Marlborough UK Micro-Cap Growth fund.

The fund, which buys small British businesses, has risen by 285pc over the
past decade, nearly double the 146pc return achieved by the average UK
smaller companies fund.

Other funds that were popular have been some of the top returners over the
past three years, such as AXA Framlington Biotech and Unicorn UK Income.
These funds have returned 236pc and 138pc since 2009.

Tracker funds are becoming more popular

Two tracker funds made the top ten: Fidelity Index UK and Fidelity Index US.

This is part of a growing trend. Tracker funds have been in existence since
the Seventies, but only now are investors awakening to their merits.

Over the past year £4.4bn was invested in these funds, up from £2.6bn a year
earlier, as increasing numbers of investors turn their backs on fund
managers as most fail to consistently beat the stock market.

The total amount of money in trackers has now grown from £17bn a decade ago to
£74bn today and next year these funds are expected to become even more
popular.

The funds that investors overlooked

The majority of the top ten funds are managed by prominent investment houses
that have big brands. But in sticking with the large and familiar, investors
risk missing out on little-known gems that time and again beat the stock
market and peers.

These include Slater Growth, managed by Mark Slater, which was the
best performing UK fund in 2014. Over five years it is also one of the
top performers, returning 223pc, while the average fund us up 60pc.

Other consistent performers that are not on investors’ radar include Aberforth
UK Small Companies and the Chelverton UK Equity Income fund.

Investors should also not overlook investment trusts, which over the long term
tend to produce better performance than their more famous unit trust rivals.
These were not included in the information brokers provided us, but would
have been very unlikely to make the top ten in any case. They are typically
not promoted by brokers – and some do not make them available.

Unlike unit trusts these funds are listed on the London Stock Exchange making
them as convenient to buy as any share. They are especially popular with
income-seeking investors, and many have increased their dividends each year
for over forty years, including City of London and Alliance Trust.

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