08 Oct 2026
RSMR fund ratings are more than just a badge of quality — they represent trust, due diligence, and a reputation built on rigorous research and expert analysis. Every month we study the universe of funds in the investment marketplace to assess whether they meet our exacting standards and should be given the RSMR seal of approval.
Here are the new rated funds from our September review:
The abrdn Emerging Markets Income Equity fund is an actively managed emerging markets strategy that aims to deliver long-term capital growth alongside an attractive level of income. The fund uses a distinctive ‘Follow the Cash Flow’ approach, combining fundamental research, company engagement and analysis of cash flow generation, capital allocation and dividend sustainability to identify businesses capable of delivering both income and growth. The underlying portfolio is diversified and seeks to generate returns primarily through stock selection rather than country, sector or style positioning
RSMR has rated the fund in recognition of its experienced investment team, disciplined investment process, and strong long-term performance record. The focus on sustainable cash flow and shareholder returns provides a differentiated approach within emerging markets, while the risk-aware portfolio construction helps maintain balanced exposure across the wide opportunity set. Supported by the depth of abrdn’s emerging markets research platform, the fund offers investors a compelling core emerging markets option with the potential to deliver both income and capital growth.
Click here to read the factsheet for the abrdn Emerging Markets Income Equity fund
The FTF Templeton Global Emerging Markets fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through investment in companies in emerging markets or companies which earn a significant amount of their revenues in emerging markets. This is a fundamental, bottom-up fund seeking companies operating in structural growth sectors, with sustainable earnings power whilst being mindful of valuation. The fund focuses on identifying high-quality companies in emerging markets that operate within long-term structural growth themes.
The team seek to exploit market inefficiencies, identifying situations where short-term market sentiment has led to future earnings growth potential being undervalued or mispriced. Fundamental analysis is core to the strategy, and the team look for companies with a structural growth opportunity and sustainable earnings power at a reasonable valuation. The team place a high emphasis on the stewardship of businesses and believe that integrating ESG analysis with traditional financial analysis gives them valuable insights into the quality and risks of a business.
This fund has a multi cap approach and can invest in small cap, although the bias is towards large cap companies. The team focus on stocks which trade at a discount to future intrinsic value. The team operate with collaboration and communication and an affirmed shared investment philosophy/style – there is a clear and consistent approach to investment with a common investment identity. Whilst there is a strong valuation philosophy, they do not use a deep value approach which means growth businesses can be included in the portfolio. The fund leverages the huge research resource at Templeton which includes meetings with around 2,000 companies a year and they use the local insights brought by the analyst team.
A longer-term view is taken on stocks, and the team do not try to anticipate short-term market direction. There is an emphasis on a number of secular growth themes which include how technology is re-shaping the global economy, the under-penetration of consumer goods and services in the emerging world, and the premiumisation of consumer goods as incomes rise. Improving corporate governance continues be a theme as the managers believe that good governance is often rewarded in the share price.
Click here to read the factsheet for the FTF Templeton Global Emerging Markets fund
RSMR has awarded a rating to the Artemis SmartGARP Global Smaller Companies Fund because it combines a well-established and proven investment process with the experience and judgement of a highly regarded investment team. The proprietary SmartGARP framework systematically screens thousands of companies worldwide, identifying those with attractive valuations, strong earnings growth potential and improving market sentiment through a disciplined, data-driven approach.
Importantly, the process is not purely quantitative; portfolio managers apply a critical overlay to validate data, investigate anomalies, assess risks and construct the portfolio, ensuring that stock selection benefits from both systematic analysis and human expertise. This combination helps capture opportunities within the less researched and often less efficiently priced global smaller companies universe, while maintaining diversification across regions, sectors and individual holdings.
RSMR also takes confidence from the depth of the SmartGARP team, which has a long track record of successfully applying the process across a range of equity strategies and has further strengthened its resources to support this strategy. In RSMR's view, the blend of robust quantitative screening, disciplined portfolio construction and experienced manager oversight creates a compelling and repeatable investment proposition for investors seeking global smaller companies exposure.
Click here to read the factsheet for the Artemis SmartGARP Global Smaller Companies fund
Goldman’s Quantitative Investment Strategies (QIS) look to deliver systematic alpha across equity markets leveraging data and technology. The CORE approach seeks to benefit from the anomalies that exist in equity markets by identifying companies that are mispriced or positioned to grow their business beyond market expectation, and companies benefiting from positive themes, trends and sentiment.
The QIS team aim to deliver systematic alpha (outperformance) by leveraging data and technology, and they do this by looking for differentiated sources of return using quantitative data to access a diverse range of traditional and non-traditional sources. Beginning with the raw data they apply advanced analytics and techniques such as machine learning and natural language processing (machine reading) to extract insights on the data. This leads to differentiated sources of return without relying on factors to drive returns.
Goldman Sachs has an extremely strong and well-funded resource in quantitative analysis allowing continued development and enhancement of the process. The systematic approach has delivered strong, consistent performance in Europe and US small caps and is competitively priced versus traditional fundamental active funds. Due to this, RSMR have awarded ratings to both the Goldman Sachs Europe CORE Equity Portfolio and Goldman Sachs US Small Cap CORE Equity Portfolio funds.
Click here to read the factsheet for the Goldman Sachs Europe CORE Equity Portfolio (Offshore) fund
Goldman’s Quantitative Investment Strategies (QIS) look to deliver systematic alpha across equity markets leveraging data and technology. The CORE approach seeks to benefit from the anomalies that exist in equity markets by identifying companies that are mispriced or positioned to grow their business beyond market expectation, and companies benefiting from positive themes, trends and sentiment.
The QIS team aim to deliver systematic alpha (outperformance) by leveraging data and technology, and they do this by looking for differentiated sources of return using quantitative data to access a diverse range of traditional and non-traditional sources. Beginning with the raw data they apply advanced analytics and techniques such as machine learning and natural language processing (machine reading) to extract insights on the data. This leads to differentiated sources of return without relying on factors to drive returns.
Goldman Sachs has an extremely strong and well-funded resource in quantitative analysis allowing continued development and enhancement of the process. The systematic approach has delivered strong, consistent performance in Europe and US small caps and is competitively priced versus traditional fundamental active funds. Due to this, RSMR have awarded ratings to both the Goldman Sachs Europe CORE Equity Portfolio and Goldman Sachs US Small Cap CORE Equity Portfolio funds.
The Invesco Global ex UK Enhanced Index Fund was launched in May 2006 and seeks to outperform the MSCI World ex UK Net Return Index, after fees, over a full market cycle. It targets approximately 1% annualised excess return while retaining benchmark risk characteristics. Investing across developed equity markets outside the UK, it provides a core overseas holding alongside a separate UK allocation.
The systematic investment process combines proprietary value, momentum and quality signals to identify attractively valued companies, persistent price and earnings trends, and financially strong businesses. Companies are ranked daily within regional universes, with factor portfolios combined so each contributes equally to active risk. Regional portfolios are assembled using benchmark market capitalisation weights and optimised within stock, sector, country, liquidity and turnover constraints. Factor exposures are maintained consistently rather than tactically timed.
The fund is managed by Invesco’s experienced Quantitative Strategies team, using the same research platform and philosophy as the UK Enhanced Index Fund. Fundamental and behavioural finance insights inform a structured stock selection framework that concentrates active risk in the three factors. Regional implementation enables comparisons between companies operating in similar markets, while portfolio construction maintains market sensitivity close to the benchmark and low tracking error.
Key strengths include diversified factor exposure, disciplined portfolio construction and competitive pricing and the repeatable process seeks incremental outperformance while limiting unintended benchmark deviations.
Click here to read the factsheet for the Invesco Global ex UK Enhanced Index (UK) fund
The Aegon Global Short Dated Climate Transition fund is a bottom-up constructed fund comprising bonds with a maximum expected maturity of 4 years, overlaid with a climate transition framework targeting 30% decarbonisation by 2030, which leads to a circa 7% carbon reduction per annum.
Aegon launched a climate transition strategy as real-world action is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting in a high conviction and relatively concentrated fund, primarily invested in sterling, euro and dollar credit. However, no currency risk is undertaken as all positions are hedged back to sterling.
The bottom-up approach to portfolio construction leverages on the credit research capability at Aegon and is overlaid with the climate transition framework. The Climate Transition Framework is a forward-looking framework to support the transition across the whole economy and due to this, the portfolio is not seeking to avoid carbon. Instead, the portfolio is investing in companies that are believed to have a robust decarbonisation pathway that is looking ahead and is aligned (or not quite yet aligned) with the Paris pathway. The fund is seeking to support the transition rather than avoid heavy carbon emitting companies.
Due to the existing knowledge RSMR have of the portfolio managers (via the existing rated Aegon fixed income funds), combined with the experience of Aegon within responsible investment, the Aegon Global Short Dated Climate Transition fund is worthy of an RSMR Responsible rating.
Click here to read the factsheet for the Aegon Global Short Dated Climate Transition (Offshore) fund
The CT Universal MAP Income fund was launched in October 2019 and now forms part of the CT Universal MAP range rated by RSMR. The fund is managed by the same team and investment process as the wider CT Universal MAP range, but the MAP Income fund has a much greater focus on income yielding assets. The funds are managed by the highly experienced Multi-Asset Solutions team at Columbia Threadneedle who have successfully run multi asset strategies for a number of years, and who also have access to a significant level of resource and expertise within the wider Columbia Threadneedle group.
The Universal MAP Income fund aims to provide income with the potential for capital growth, over the medium to long term and to a volatility target which is consistent with a ‘balanced’ risk profile. The fund is actively managed to a very flexible asset allocation process, employing both a strategic and tactical asset allocation positioning. It is globally diversified, investing in a combination of fixed income and equities, with the investment managers not constrained by any particular asset allocation in respect of geography, industry or sector.
The CT Universal MAP Income fund has generated some very competitive returns since launch, both from a total return and a yield perspective, and is proving to be an increasingly popular choice for advisers seeking a competitively priced, income generating solution which has the ability to adapt to differing market conditions. We believe the CT Universal MAP Income fund is fully deserving of an RSMR rating and is a welcome addition to the CT Universal MAP fund range rated by RSMR.
Click here to read the factsheet for the CT Universal MAP fund range
The Fidelity Emerging Markets Investment Trust’s objective is to achieve long-term capital growth from an actively managed portfolio made up primarily of securities and financial instruments providing exposure to emerging market companies, both listed and unlisted.
The strategy aims to be long (c 70-120) companies that exhibit high quality, consistent and stable growth at a reasonable price with a bias to high return on equity and low debt to equity businesses. At the same time the managers look to sell short (c 50-80) companies that exhibit the opposite characteristics, i.e. those that are expensive, faced with competitive threats and financial distress, with poor management and earnings quality together. The investment philosophy of the fund is described as quality growth and the investment process is bottom-up with a fundamental approach to stock selection. The approach here mirrors that of the Fidelity Active Strategy (FAST) Emerging Markets fund that was launched by Nick Price in October 2011 which has delivered excellent long-term returns. The portfolio is structured with a long book (c 130% of NAV) together with a short book of c 30% resulting in net equity exposure that typically runs between 95% and 110%.
The Trust benefits from an experienced management team in Nick Price who joined Fidelity in 1998 and is team lead of Fidelity’s Emerging Markets Equity desk and Chris Tennant who joined Fidelity in 2011 and who has previously been the Emerging Markets shorting analyst. They are supported by a team of around 50 dedicated regional analysts as well as significant trading, quant, risk and macro analytical resource.
We have high regard for the core quality focused investment process that Nick and Chris have propagated over many years. The key difference for this vehicle is that they are able to profit from ideas that they find for both the long and short book which should be well suited to the resource intensive bottom-up approach that is a hallmark of Fidelity’s investment philosophy.
Click here to read the factsheet for the Fidelity Emerging Markets Limited fund
The Invesco Global Equity Income Investment Trust aims to provide an attractive level of predictable income and capital appreciation over the long term, predominately through investment in a diversified portfolio of equites worldwide.
The Invesco Global Equity Income Trust is a global equity income strategy, designed to provide an income and the prospect of capital growth over the longer term. It will typically comprise between 40 and 60 holdings and be managed in a style agnostic fashion, but it will have a valuation discipline that underpins the approach. The aim is to invest in quality companies which exhibit superior operating characteristics, below market valuations, and have strong balance sheets. The Company’s dividend policy is to pay an annual dividend of at least 4% which is calculated on the unaudited prior financial (May) year-end NAV. The dividend is paid quarterly (February, May, August and November) in equal amounts.
The portfolio is structured around a core of high-quality, long-term dividend compounders, supplemented by lower yield or non-yielding stocks with strong growth or recovery potential. The team does not maintain rigid style buckets but monitors the balance between income generation, growth potential, and idiosyncratic risk to ensure the portfolio remains aligned with its objectives. A defining feature of the fund is its focus on stock level diversification rather than thematic or factor diversification alone. The team actively seeks to avoid clusters of stocks that perform well together but fail together. Correlation analysis is used to monitor portfolio construction, aiming to ensure that most holdings exhibit low correlation with one another. While some clustering is inevitable, particularly among defensive stocks or interest rate sensitive financials, the portfolio is constructed so that performance is driven primarily by individual stock fundamentals rather than macro themes. This approach is intended to reduce the risk that a single macro event or factor rotation undermines the overall performance.
The Invesco Global Equity Income Trust represents a somewhat differentiated approach to global income investing. By combining income discipline with flexibility, diversification, and a strong focus on risk adjusted returns, the Trust seeks to deliver consistent outcomes across market cycles. The fund has the benefit of a stable and experienced team, a robust and collaborative research process, disciplined portfolio construction, and a willingness to adapt to changing market dynamics without compromising core principles.
Click here to read the factsheet for the Invesco Global Equity Income Trust fund
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