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By Mark Dampier, Head of Research, Hargreaves Lansdown

This exciting new fund brings together the best ideas from some of the finest minds in the investment industry. We believe that it could form a first class core holding.

We have always advocated that the route to superior returns is choosing the best fund manager in each investment area. We believe our strengths lie in finding fund managers who have the ability to outperform. In our view this approach is more certain than trying to guess which sector or economy will perform best.

The newly launched Skandia Global Best Ideas Fund employs a similar philosophy with a novel twist. They have chosen ten of the best fund managers then asked each one to select the ten best ideas in their investment universe.

The fund will initially allocate 50% of the money to five UK managers and the following percentages to five further fund managers - Europe 14%, US 17%, Japan 6%, Far East 6%, emerging markets 7%. Most are already rated in our own Wealth 150. Others were not accessible until now. All ten managers have an interesting mandate to simply choose their ten best ideas. This would be an impossible dream in one of their own unit trusts because it would breach rules on how much a fund manager can hold in any one company.

The fund managers

Stephen Whittaker runs New Star UK Growth and took over the fund in July 2002. Since then he has propelled the fund into the top quartile.

Ashley Willing runs the Gartmore UK Focus Fund which I hold personally and is also in two of our own multi-manager funds. This is a concentrated portfolio of Gartmore's best ideas and it is also top quartile since its launch.

Richard Plackett manages two Merrill Lynch funds. Richard Plackett's performance record has made him one of the front runners to assume the mantle of the UK's top special situations manager from Fidelity's Anthony Bolton, who has announced he will be retiring.

Roger Whiteoak of Framlington specializes in smaller companies and has one of the most consistent stock picking records in the sector. Seldom has this fund been outside the top quartile during the five years he has been in charge.

Mark Tyndall is Chief Executive of Artemis and manager of Artemis Capital. Artemis has developed a model called SmartGARP which helps them sieve for the best stocks in the market place.

Crispin Odey runs his own investment company but direct access to him is now denied to most members of the public. His status is enhanced by his gift of capitalizing on unique interpretations of the economic outlook.

Tom Walker of Martin Currie manages their North American Fund. Finding good quality American fund managers is difficult. Tom Walker is a talent that shines in this sector.

Private investors now have no access to Nathan Gibbs at Schroders. His Japanese funds are effectively closed for new investment. Nathan Gibbs has been synonymous with excellent performance in the Japan Alpha Plus Fund.

Angus Tulloch will select the ten stocks in the emerging markets sector. He is legendary in emerging markets. His immense experience and steady hand have brought outstanding returns in this higher risk sector.

Hugh Young at Aberdeen will be selecting the Asian element. With twenty years experience and one of the most consistent records in Asia. Aberdeen's Asian funds have always been amongst the best performers in the industry.

Outlook for the fund

Bringing together the leading lights of the investment industry in one fund is also likely to generate healthy competition. Each manager will be striving to deliver the best performance. None will want to be beaten by their peers and this should urge on the performance of the fund as a whole.

The fund managers chosen will also be constantly monitored by Skandia Investment Management's research team, who can change the line-up with the aim of maximising performance.

However, like all investments, this fund should be held for the long term. Even a fund run by such luminaries as these will suffer at times and go down in value as well as up.

Please remember that the past is not a guide to the future. This fund only invests in each manager's 10 best ideas, not their entire portfolios, so the performance will not track any of the funds named above. There may be periods when the Global Best Ideas Fund is more conservatively positioned than traditional unit trusts and other times when it adopts a more aggressive stance. Therefore, over the short term the performance may fluctuate more markedly than other funds.

In conclusion, the Skandia Global Best Ideas Fund has the potential to invest in the greatest ideas from some of the very best fund managers in the industry.

This fund could form a really useful core holding which could be added to over the years. Therefore it would make both an excellent ISA and SIPP investment as well as a fund outside the usual tax shelters.

The Skandia Global Best Ideas Fund is available through Hargreaves Lansdown with an initial saving of 5% until 31 July. Investors can apply online with a debit card or download application forms or transfer forms from our website.

The Fund of the Month is written by Hargreaves Lansdown. An independent broker offering unit trust, stockbroking and other pension and investment services.

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