1. Liontrust Special Situations This is a best ideas funds co-managed by Anthony Cross and Julian Fosh. They have a distinctive strategy of targeting businesses from across the market cap spectrum that have high barriers to competition, for example as a result of access to intellectual property. These companies therefore have more resilient earnings profiles and are less sensitive to the broader economic cycle. As a result of UK recovery fever the fund has underperformed the broader market more recently but has delivered stellar returns over the longer term. We rate it 5*.

2. Threadneedle UK Equity Income Equity income funds remain popular with both income seekers and those looking to benefitting from the compounding effect of dividend reinvestment. We rate Richard Colwell and Leigh Harrison highly as managers who generally seek to have a balanced fund and not exhibit the strong sector, style, cyclical or defensive biases that we often see in the UK Equity Income sector. This is a core fund for equity income investors. We rate it 5*.

3. Standard Life Global Absolute Return Strategies. This goliath of a fund is in practice an umbrella for around 30 underlying individual strategies managed by a large and well resourced team. The overall goal of the product is to seek to generate a positive return of 5% above cash over the medium term and irrespective of market conditions. The mandate is well diversified with no single strategy dominating the portfolio and we rate it 5*.

4. Threadneedle European Select Europe has become increasingly popular with investors, in part due to the valuation discounts of European stocks compared to their US peers. This fund is squarely focused on global brands domiciled in core Europe, not the troubled periphery of the eurozone. This fund is rated 5*.

5. Unicorn UK Income. Despite the innocuous name, this is in practice a smaller companies fund with an income twist. Managed by veteran small-cap investor John McLure, this fund is 90% invested in smaller companies and 10% in mid-caps, which makes it very complimentary to typical UK equity income funds which invariably focus predominantly on large cap stocks. We rate it 4*.

6. AXA Framlington UK Select Opportunities. Nigel Thomas has been managing money for over two decades and during that time has built one of the strongest track records in the UK All Companies sector. A pragmatic approach to selecting growth opportunities, combined with an instinct for value sets him apart. We rate the fund 5*.

7. Cazenove UK Smaller Companies Over the long-term, data convincingly shows that smaller companies have outperformed the broader market. Small cap funds are regular favourites with our DIY investors. This fund, managed by Paul Marriage, targets companies where he sees a potential catalyst that will cause their share price to eventually be re-rated. The fund is currently unrated by Bestinvest.

8. Artemis Income. One of the “big beasts” in the highly competitive equity income sector, this fund benefits from an experienced fund manager in Adrian Frost, with a track record that dates back to 1988 and who has long been on list of top rated funds. The focus is on large UK companies, although Frost makes full use of the IMA sector rules and may invest up to 20% of the fund in European equities as well up to 10% in corporate bonds in order diversify portfolio risk and increase the fund’s yield. A core fund for equity income investors, we rate it 5*.

9. Fidelity MoneyBuilder UK Index. This provides low cost passive exposure to the UK equity market by replicating the performance of the FTSE All Share index as closely as possible. We rate it 3*.

10. Aberdeen Asia Pacific & Japan Aberdeen Asian Equities team are well resourced and experienced with a regional presence, which gives us confidence in their strength in depth. The team has grown over the years and has amassed considerable expertise in Asian stocks. Japan has been a structural underweight for some time. Historically this fund has proven to be a less risky way to access what has been a volatile market. Investors should note that there will be an overlap in holdings with Aberdeen’s Global Emerging Markets funds so it may be inadvisable to hold both for diversification purposes. We rate it 5*.