In this Phenomenal UK video, Thomas Barker reviews the Jupiter Merlin Growth Portfolio, an active fund‑of‑funds aimed at delivering capital growth and income over a minimum five‑year horizon. The fund targets at least 75% equity exposure, can hold up to 30% in other securities, and manages roughly £1.7‑1.8 billion across 12 holdings (as of 28 Feb 2026). Barker critiques the fund’s benchmark (IA Flexible Investments) and proposes a more relevant composite benchmark of 75% MSCI ACWI and 25% cash, alongside a passive alternative – Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity. He walks through cumulative returns, showing the fund slightly outperforms the IA index but trails both the custom composite and the Vanguard fund. Risk‑return metrics reveal the fund’s volatility (12.09%) exceeds the composite (11.97%) and the Vanguard fund (10.4%); CAGR is 8.95%, lower than Vanguard’s 9.27% but marginally above the composite. Stress‑testing highlights deeper drawdowns for Jupiter Merlin in 2010‑2022 compared with the composite and Vanguard, with a max drawdown of –22.81% versus –20.54% (composite) and –10% (Vanguard). Sharpe ratios are modest (0.63 vs 0.62 composite, 0.96 Vanguard). The fund’s fee structure is notably high – a 1.57% ongoing charge and a 2.32% retail share class with a £500 minimum – making it the most expensive fund reviewed. Barker concludes the portfolio can be closely replicated with a simple passive mix (75% ACWI, 25% cash) and that it underperforms a low‑cost passive alternative, advising viewers to consider cheaper options.
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Hello all and welcome back to Phenomenal UK for another product review. In today's review, we're going to be taking a look at the Jupiter Merlin Growth Portfolio. So to start with, let's take a look to the fund's objectives, and we can see that is to provide a return through a combination of capital growth and income, net of fees, over the long term of at least 5 years. The fund will typically have exposure of at least 75% to shares of companies, and up to 30% of the fund may be invested in other transferable securities such as exchange exchange-traded commodities, cash, near cash, money markets, and deposits. Just to note on the AUM of this fund, certainly a popular one with 1.8— by 1.7 billion of AUM, so popular indeed. And they've got 12 holdings, and we can see these holdings in their portfolio statements as at the 28th of February 2026. Now I did want to do this as a portfolio review video but as these US equity funds are unlisted securities with that Long Walk Master Fund being a hedge fund, that rules that one out. So we'll just be basing this off of the actual ISIN as a product review. Before we head over to Phenomenal though, we will note the, uh, the comparator benchmark that they're using, which is the IA Flexible Investments. We do have that benchmark on Phenomenal, which I will have up on the Asset Comparer as well, but I believe a more useful benchmark would be— let's look to the fund's objectives as they're having at least 75% in equities. We're going to do 75% in the global stock market, so ACWI 75%, and we'll do cash at 25%. Now as this is also an active fund of funds portfolio, we will also look at a passive fund of funds alternative being the Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity Fund. So with that in mind, let's head over to Phenomenal, and we can see— let's look initially at cumulative returns, where we can see, uh, Jupiter Merlin Growth has certainly outperformed the IA Flexible Investment Index. But I don't think that's that helpful as a benchmark, in truth. Well, we can see the Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity Fund has outperformed the Jupiter Merlin Growth, and that's composite benchmark we made with 75% ACWI, 25% cash has been quite close tracking, I would say, in regards to cumulative returns. But let's scroll down now and let's look to risk versus return, where we can see IA Flexible Investment Index having the lowest volatility and also lowest CAGR of 6.34% vol and 7.96% CAGR. We can see the Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity fund had the highest CAGR at 9.27% and a lesser volatility than both the composite we made and the Jupiter Merlin Growth, with the Vanguard LifeStrategy being volatility of 10.4%. Now it's quite interesting to see that composite we made having very, very similar volatility and CAGR to the Jupiter Merlin Growth portfolio. In regards to the actual amounts, we'll, we'll head over to the statistics tab at the end of this video to get the exact figures. But before we do, let's also look to portfolio stress testing. Let's scroll over to the right. We've got a lot of history here to use for actual returns, which is fantastic to see. So we can see the Jupiter Merlin Growth portfolio— that is the blue bar to be noted, okay? We can see 2022 had a deeper drawdown than the composite, though not as deep as the Vanguard LifeStrategy funds. Also the same for 2020 in regards to having a deeper drawdown than the composite we made, and also deeper than Vanguard LifeStrategy. There was similar story in 2022 and 2018. So overall, if we just do scroll through here, we— from 2013 onwards, we're sort of consistently seeing more deeper drawdowns in the Jupiter Merlin Growth portfolio than the composites. I will note though, we did see, um, very good drawdown protection in 2011, matching that of the IA Flexible Investment Index at a -7% versus 10% for the composite we made and Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity. But let's head over now to the statistics tab. Where we can see Jupiter Merlin Growth has had the highest volatility at 12.09% versus the composite's 11.97%. And as mentioned, we've already noted Vanguard LifeStrategies fund as well. We did also see the deepest max drawdown in the Jupiter Merlin Growth portfolio at 22.81% versus the composite we created at -20.54%. In regards to total return, so 258.53% did beat, uh, just about the composite we created, which gave 252.47%, though that active fund of funds portfolio still gave a lesser total return than the Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity at 274.81% total return. Noticing CAGR as well, so again had a lesser CAGR, 8.95%, than the passive alternative, though slightly higher than the composite we made, um, by 0.13%. Looking at Sharpe, slightly higher Sharpe than the composite we made as well at 0.63 versus 0.62 for the composites, though not as high as the Vanguard Life Strategy, uh, 80% at 0.96. Now with that context in mind, let's note on fees where we've got an eye-watering 1.57% for this fund. I will also note this is the most expensive funds I have reviewed, and they do also have more expensive share classes as well for sort of retail investors with a minimum investment of £500 at 2.32%. So this is an expensive fund, I, I will note, that can be quite closely replicated with ACWI 75% and cash at 25%, and it underperforms a passive fund of funds alternative costing 0.2%. So yeah, so that brings me to the end of this analysis. Quite short and sweet, but I do hope that was helpful and informative. And of course, if there are any funds or portfolios you would like me to review next, please leave them in the comments. But other than that, please do like and subscribe. I shall see you all in the next one. Thanks all.
