SLI GARS loses largest IA fund crown to Woolnough's Optimal Income

Was once £26bn

The Standard Life Investments Global Absolute Return Strategies (SLI GARS) fund has lost its position as the largest fund in the Investment Association universe, after seeing outflows on the back of a period of poor performance.

The absolute return fund, which was launched in 2008, once held more than £26bn in assets under management, significantly more than any other fund in the universe.  At the start of 2017, it was £25.8bn in size but this had fallen to £21.1bn by 30 November 2017, according to data from Lipper. In August, the company reported net outflows from GARS in the first half of 2017 of £5.6bn, compared to inflows of £300m for the same period the previous year. The fund produced positive returns of 5.5% and 2.8% in 2014 and 2015 but has failed to outperform its sector since July 2016 which mean...