ii puts Royal London UK Equity Income under formal review

The move follows news that the fund's lead manager will retire later this year.

interactive investor, the UK’s second-largest DIY investment platform and number one flat-fee provider, has placed Royal London UK Equity Incomefund under formal review.

This is an ii Super 60 rated fund, and the formal review follows news that lead manager Martin Cholwill will retire later this year.

The Super 60 list is monitored continuously for ‘yellow card’ events. Examples include, but are not limited to, fund manager moves, soft closures (where a fund closes to new money) or a major re-rating from external or internal sources. Investments that experience a yellow card event are automatically placed under formal review.

Once a Super 60 investment has been placed under formal review, either for performance reasons or because of a yellow card event, our analysts will conduct a thorough investigation, usually including an interview with the investment manager.

Our goal is to reach a decision one way or another within three months of the date when the investment was placed under formal review. This gives us enough time to discuss our concern with the relevant fund manager and/or allow an opportunity for improvement. We will advise customers immediately via the ii website when any investment has been placed under formal review, and again when a final decision has been made to retain or replace the fund.

Dzmitry Lipski, Head of Fund Research, interactive investor, says: “We have decided to put Royal London UK Equity Income Fund under formal review following the announcement that its lead fund manager Martin Cholwill will retire later this year. Richard Marwood, who has been deputy manager of the fund since 2016, will become co-fund manager until Cholwill retires, and then will become lead manager of the fund.

“In line with our methodology, we will review how this change will impact the fund’s team structure and investment process along with how the succession plan will be implemented and the time frame for that. As Martin was the key decision-maker for the strategy and has managed the fund since 2005, we need to do an additional layer of due diligence to establish whether it will continue to be a suitable core option for our UK Equity Income category. We will communicate with the team at Royal London, review the fund’s portfolio and make a decision when more information is gathered and analysed.”