Woodford and Smith took the first and second spots on Tilney Bestinvest’s best buy table in May with their Woodford Equity Income and Fundsmith Equity funds.

Woodford, who is one of the UK’s best known managers with nearly 30 years’ experience, has topped the pile in nine of the last 12 months.

Terry Smith has just six years’ experience as fund manager, but built his reputation through a successful career as a City stockbroker, analyst and chief executive throughout the 80s, 90s and 00s.

Other notable names on the list include Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders, which is overseen by highly experienced manager Angus Tulloch. Tulloch currently shares managing duties with David Gait, another seasoned manager, ahead of a full handover on 1 July.

Also on the list is Legg Mason Japan Equity, run by Hideo Shiozumi, who has the longest track record of any Japanese equity fund manager running a fund available to UK investors. He has more than 40 years’ investment experience including a spell working for hedge fund legend George Soros.

Despite recent figures suggesting investors are showing a preference for more cautious investment sectors, such as absolute return funds and fixed income funds, Tilney Bestinvest clients appeared happy to put their money in riskier asset classes.

“Amongst our clients, the top ten most popular funds during May were all equity funds or multi-asset funds with high equity weighting but with a clear preference for well-established, seasoned investors rather than newer and up-and-coming fund managers,” said Jason Hollands, Tilney Bestinvest managing director.

Top ten best sellers in May:

1. CF Woodford Equity Income
2. Fundsmith Equity
3. Tilney Bestinvest Growth Portfolio
4. Threadneedle UK Equity Income
5. Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders
6. Threadneedle European Select
7. Tilney Bestinvest Aggressive Growth Portfolio
8. Liontrust Special Situations
9. Legg Mason Japan Equity
10. HSBC American Index