Standard Life Media Release

Standard Life 2016 Best Investment Fund

€100,000 invested with Standard Life’s Euro Smaller Companies Fund worth over €300,000, after 8 years*

The difference between €100k invested in the best and worst European fund is €192, 250, or a family home**

Standard Life is delighted to be recognised for its superior performance across its full range of funds (e.g. equities, property, bonds etc.) over the past eight years and to win the recent 2016 Best Investment Fund Provider. MoneyMate examined 99 funds and 13 sectors to choose the winner. The award is based on a fund provider's risk adjusted return (how well the fund has performed relative to others and the amount of investment risk taken) beating competitors such as Davy’s, Zurich, New Ireland, Aviva and Friends First.

What’s the € difference between the best and worst funds? A family home?

• Standard Life was the top performing fund manager in the European equity fund sector with its Euro Smaller Companies fund where €100,000 invested over eight year period judged was worth €308,680.

• One hundred thousand invested in the worst performing fund in the same sector was worth €116,432, a difference of €192,000, or the price of a family home. See table.

”Choosing the right fund manager can potentially make a huge difference to your life, it’s a decision that really matters,” said Jennifer Richards, head of SLI Ireland. “€192,000, would buy you a good three bed family home outside Dublin or a home with a sea view in County Waterford**. Standard Life is well known as a superior fund manager within the industry but most people don’t know how good our track record is,” she said. See table.

Standard Life was also the top performing fund manager in the ‘well-owned’ Cautiously Managed fund sector. Both of the above sectors were included and judged in the awards.***

€100k invested in worst performing Cautious Managed Fund worth <€83k after 8 years
One hundred thousand invested in Standard Life’s Cautious Managed fund was worth €182,233 over the eight year period judged. The worst performing fund in this sector over the same period was worth less than the original investment at €82,743, losing over €17,000, in the same period.

See table for annualised, total returns and differences between best and worst performing funds.

Name of Fund	Amount invested 1/1/2008	Annualised return	Total value as at 30/5/16
Standard Life Euro Smaller Co’s	€100,000	14.33%	€308,822
BOI Life Unit Funds European Ex UK S3	€100,000	1.74%	€115,632
Difference between best and worst as at 30 May (€193,190)

Name of Fund	Amount invested 1/1/2008	Annualised return	Total value as at 30/5/16
Standard Life Cautious Mgd fund	€100,000	7.71%	€186,894
Davy Conservative income and growth	€100,000	-2.18%	€83,061
Difference between best and worst as at 30/5/ 2016 (€103,833)

Notes for editors:

* The eight year period measured is from 1 January 2008 to 1 January 2016. More recent performance figures are provided to 30 May 2016, demonstrating the continued outperformance of Standard Life funds. The award recognises sustained fund performance based on a fund provider's risk adjusted performance across their full fund range. It’s calculated by analysing the performance for all funds (sufficiently large and open for new business) in each fund category (gross of charges) by Longboat Analytics' "Fund Focus". The award was announced in April.
**Three bed family homes can be bought in good areas in Kilkenny and Clonmel plus a home with a sea view available in Bonmahon, Co. Waterford for up to €192,000. Source: Daft.ie, 18 May 2015.
*** These two funds were included to demonstrate the difference between the best and worst fund managers in a high performing fund sector e.g. European equity (difference €192k and to demonstrate the difference between best and worst in a well-established fund sector such as the Cautious Managed (over c €3.81bn AUM) Source: Moneymate.
Standard Life recommends investors speak to a financial adviser, have well diversified investments, check out the best long term fund managers - and speak to family and friends about investment plans.
The minimum monthly investment amount for a PRSA (pension) is €25 and for a regular savings account is €125 per month.